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Suluman Chimbetu

Arts Reporters —
Club Veritas and Destiny Nightclub at Westlea Shopping Centre are barely 100 metres apart.

For many years, the entertainment joints have taken turns to host popular musicians during weekends and rarely do two singers targeting similar audiences clash at the shopping centre.

But on Saturday the Westlea commercial space provides an exciting scenario when Suluman Chimbetu and Andy Muridzo perform at the nightspots on the same night.

Chimbetu will perform at Destiny Nightclub while Muridzo will be on stage at Club Veritas.

Music followers have dubbed it ‘battle of Westlea’.

While Suluman Chimbetu and Andy Muridzo cannot be classified in one bracket for many reasons, their catchment areas at the moment inevitably overlap.

Both currently have hits on the market and they have equally been tipped as hot favourites to snatch the man-of-the-moment tag from Jah Prayzah.

Muridzo’s album “Ngarizhambe” that made him popular in the last half of 2016 has hits like “Dherira” and “Chidhafu Dhunda” which are still making waves in social spaces while Chimbetu is currently riding high with “Jamboree” that was released towards the end of last year.

Besides respective die-hard followers of either musician that will predictably go to where they belong, most merrymakers from the Westlea environs will have to choose between Chimbetu and Muridzo.

Adventurous ‘night-riders’ with generous wallets will likely attend both shows and make their comparisons, but the majority will have to decide whether to be at Destiny or Veritas.

So, who will have more fans on the night? Will Chimbetu have the advantage of being more experiences than Muridzo?

Could the pricing of the show tickets favour Muridzo who is charging $3 per head against Chimbetu’s $5 entrance fee?

Some people feel the organisers should have communicated to avoid such a scenario while others believe competition is always good for the industry.

Still, others are of the opinion that neutral fans will be insignificant and each musician will just have his share of usual followers.

One Letty Munase said it was disturbing to have two musicians at the venues close by.

“It is good for bar owners to communicate before they host musicians. I saw Andy Muridzo posters earlier meaning the other organisers knew about the event. They should have communicated and spaced the shows”, she said.

A manager at Veritas said they organised their show last year, but were surprised to see another show coming nearby.

“We organised this show after Muridzo’s performance at this place last year. We were surprised to see Suluman advertising his show in a neighbouring bar,” he said.

Efforts to get a comment from Destiny Nightclub officials were fruitless. Sulu’s camp said they were not worried about the clash.

“We had already advertised the show and we cannot cancel the gig. We have no problem with Andy and I believe we will have different fans,” said Sulu’s publicist Joe Nyamungoma.

Muridzo through his manager Gift Petro said they were ready for the show.

“We have always worked well with Sulu. We are taking it as any other show. Even if we share fans, it is part of showbiz,” said Petro.