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Clodine Manyozo Arts Reporter
Discouragements and disappointments can make people backslide on their visions and aspirations.

The son of Kireni Zulu, Phil Zulu, an Afro Jazz artiste, released his first album in 2009 and it did not perform well, only to release his second album 10 years later.

Zulu’s first album, which he did with the Zimbabwe Music Corporation ZMC, was titled “Zvenzeve”.

“My first album did not do well and because of that I thought of quitting as I was disappointed by the response from the audience due to poor marketing strategies,” he said.

Zulu spent 10 years without working on anything of his own until he thought of making his father proud.

“My father was hurt because he had high hopes on me, as children of other musicians like Nyabinde, Chimbetus and Willom Tight were  doing well in this sector, but I was not doing anything,” he said.

“He never said anything, but I could see that he was being bothered, so I decided to get back on my feet and start working on my second album.”

Zulu released his second six-track album with a seventh bonus instrumental track in December 2019 which he titled “Hope, Tariro”.

The album was produced by Jabulani Ndlovu.

“I worked on my second album which I titled ‘Hope, Tariro’ because I had lost hope before, but now I am back, and motivated” Zulu said.

He said he thought of maintaining his father’s legacy.

“I can not wait for my father to die so that I can lift up his legacy, so I took this as the right time,” said Zulu.

He said he had to redo one of his father’s songs as a way of honouring him.

“I re-did one of my father’s tracks which is titled ‘Tommy’ and it is the one that I made an instrumental,” he said. “I re-did this song because I wanted to honour him and I also wanted to use it as an opportunity to capture his fan base.”

Zulu said he never wanted to ride on his father’s fame.

As a way of trying to keep up and not fall like he did before, Zulu is planning on having shows to promote his music and career.

“I am planning on shows taking place on Fridays, this is a way to promote my music and broaden my fan base,” he said.

Zulu said his wish is to get the chance to share the stage with some big artistes.

“I do not have any collaborations at the moment, but I hope to work with other big artistes like Sulumani Chimbetu and Jah Prayzah,” he said.