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Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent
Celebrated isichathamiya gospel group Impumelelo Shining Stars (pictured top) are looking forward to 2018 as they are planning the release of their 10th album with four shows in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

The award winning group from Bulawayo which performed at FnB stadium in South Africa during a New Year cross over night for Prophet Shepherd Bushiri’s EGC church has been singing since 2001.

The group stages most of their shows in South Africa and are a perennial feature on Kwazulu Natal television station KZN Tv.

For the launch of their yet to be named 10th album Impumelelo Shining stars head Oscar Siziba said: “We’ve got an album launch in Bulawayo, Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg sometime in April.  That’s when we start. The album that we haven’t named will have messages for artistes and our fans,” said Siziba.

“The video for the album will be released next year. This is for our marketing so that the audio can sell first before we sell the DVD as we don’t want both of them to compete. Next year we won’t record we shall be pushing the DVD.”

Siziba said they would launch their album through an open air performance like what they did in 2016 when they released Avulekile Amazulu.

“We shall launch our album like what we did two years ago where we closed off a street and sang for people. This time we want to make it bigger than last time as we want to give back to the community and give them the music on the streets. The CDs for all our 10 albums shall be on display and after performing they’ll be on sale,” said Siziba.

Looking back at their nine albums Siziba said Avulekile Amazulu did very well.

“Fair and fine others did well such as Nomalanga from 2006 and Hlaleleni 2004, but Avulekile Amazulu sold copies into the thousands more than the other albums,” said Siziba.

However in all this success Siziba said he was pained by the fact that they were heroes in a foreign land.

“One day when I was wearing Impumelelo Shining Stars regalia which had our insignia, one person stopped me in the city and asked if I was part of the group from South Africa. I said I was but corrected him and said the group was from Zimbabwe, Bulawayo in particular. The person said I was lying he could not believe me. This is because we feature a lot on KZN Tv and we fill up Hillbrow Theatre without a problem.”

Siziba said the only way was for local television and radio stations to play their music more.

“What we as groups want is to be exposed more in Zimbabwe by being played on radio and television stations. This will raise our profile as the group and a lot of fans will know us and come to our shows, buy our CDs,” said Siziba.