As the year starts and I am in my birthday month I cannot be overjoyed by the opportunities that present themselves in the new season. I am so glad we came out of the old year and once again we are presented with an opportunity to fill the new blank page ahead of us with so much colour and life. I want mine to be so vibrant it should be strikingly beautiful when you walk into my gallery of 2021.
If the new year is not for try something new then I don't know what it is for. Because for a long time I have been trying too hard to be what I am not and it took the Covid Pandemic to straighten me out. I needed to re-evaluate where I stand in the world.
In that process I bumped into so much music and artistry in from the country and the same question came popping into my head every now and then. Why is that I do not hear so much of this music? Is it a question of marketability or the unavailability of marketing all together?
Fast forward to now, as I write this piece. My mind is fully absorbed with creating content and talking about the country that I have at heart, my sweet old rock of a nation!
She keeps on surprising me, exposing little by little, gems of no other quality found in the world. Talent and ingenuity like no other, masterpieces, more than we have ever seen or heard.
ANANYA
Glamour S.A describes her as "A rising star to watch"
From being asked if she was riding to school on an elephant or if Zim is a state within America, Ananya Kouds has no single grain of shame upon her home country. She is completely in love with it as we all are. Being white and having done her high school in Switzerland and now doing Fashion in New York, she could easily pass for everything else and anybody else but she chooses to be known as such, a proudly Zimbabwean Artist.
With only four songs to her name and a whole lot more to come, I believe she is the future of Zimbabwe's representation within the world music space and if my guess is any good, we should be celebrating big things from her in a short space of time if her quartet of songs is anything to judge her by.
She has a Lorde meets Amy Winehouse with a hint of Madonna kind of vibe which instantly attracts you within her music. Combining hard hitting beats and a soft well toned singing, her music could easily fit your drive to and from work and for that laid back chill out session with your friends (during the lockdown I suppose).
This is the time for us to consume as much of our own content as we can ever do. It is amazing how much more there is to offer than the stuff our very lazy radio dj's in the country constantly regurgitate. Let's get back to that in 2021, let's be proud and loud!
Check out the full interview were we discuss all things life, music and careers here!