‘Wakakosha’ — Review by Clive Mono Mukundu Janet Manyowa

With Wakakosha, award winning songstress Janet Manyowa is back with another one of her timeless performances. 

Due to Janet and her producer Andrew Baird’s obsession with perfection, it is challenging to listen for flaws and identify them in their music. 

The music has the typical Janet Manyowa sound, which is very Zimbabwean but has appeal worldwide. I think it will only be a matter of time before she achieves a significant international breakthrough.

I always say in my speeches that combination is spiritual and that it should be preserved. 

Given this, Janet flew in her South African-based Zimbabwean music producer, Andrew Baird, to work on the project. They’ve been working together for a while, and as a result, they’ve developed a fantastic team. Many of Celebration Choir’s early 2000s hits were produced by Baird. I started working with him during that period when we worked on such hits as “Tofara.”

The single’s high quality can be seen by considering the calibre of the instrumentalists and vocalists who contributed to it. 

The producer himself, Andrew Baird, handled the piano and organ. Ngoni SlickBeatz Chikuse played the drums. He is one of the most in-demand drummers in Zimbabwe, and SlickBeats is renowned for his extraordinary skills. Many people are speculating about the identity of the bass player in the comment section on social media where the lyric video was posted. It was none other than South African bassist Lihle Ndimande, another very skilled musician.

Yours truly played the lead guitar. Every time I collaborate with Baird, we begin by using what I like to refer to as the “prophetic” method. Nearly everything, including the main vocals, is recorded before I’m summoned to the studio. He starts playing the song to me right away after I enter, and I immediately connect my guitar and start improvising. The majority of what appears on the song is the result of this “prophetic” theory, though we may correct one or two minor issues since I won’t be aware of the changes and other arrangements.

She employed a group of six talented singers to provide the angelic background vocals. She collaborated on The Sopranos with Munashe Ndoma and Tsitsi Mushapaidze. Steve Munyoro and Chiedza Chisi handled the alto part, and Joshua Zenenga and John Sithole did a good job on the tenors. After all the music has been recorded, engineering typically destroys the music. However, no such thing can be anticipated with Mark Madzinga and Brendon Sole operating on the desk. The final stage of every music recording process is mastering, which was well handled by Rogan Kelsey. The song was just released two weeks ago on Women’s Day celebrations and fans of gospel music are already taking notice.

Some would say that the song was used to celebrate women on their special day.

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