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Soul Jah Love and Bounty Lisa

Showbiz Reporter
DANCEHALL star, Soul Jah Love, says he is grateful to Zanu-PF national youth league commissar — Innocent Hamandishe — for contributing to his popularity after having berated him at one of the President’s Youth Interface rallies in Mutare earlier this year.

Soul Jah Love, who was in Bulawayo on Monday, performed in front of hundreds of fans who attended his show at Club Connect, showing how popular he is in the city.

This, Soul Jah Love said, was likely because of his latest track — Zvinhu — that was released after Hamandishe openly dressed him down in front of thousands who had attended the rally.

Soul Jah Love, who performed at the rally in June, was described as an irrelevant and undisciplined artiste by the youth commissar after scores of people screamed upon seeing him, disturbing Hamandishe who was trying to prepare guests for the President who was about to take to the podium.

“Apoo heyi heyi, ndo-indiscipline iyoyo . . . Soul Jah Love hachisi chinhu . . . mukadaro haaridzi pano, murikunzwisisa here? (Who is Soul Jah Love? We don’t care who you are, please behave yourself. That’s indiscipline. If you continue behaving that way, he won’t perform here. Do you understand?).

This prompted a creative Soul Jah Love to respond through a song he composed a few moments after the incident. Titled Zvinhu, the song was released a few days later and was an instant hit countrywide. And when the Bulawayo show was held on Monday, scores of people thronged the venue to witness Soul Jah Love performing the track live.

“I enjoyed my performance in Bulawayo because it was a good show with a great response from the crowd. I didn’t expect people to come in numbers,” he said.

Speaking on Zvinhu, the artiste said like all his other songs, he did not think much when he was composing the lyrics, but felt he needed to share his side of the story and apologise for interrupting proceedings at the rally.

“I don’t think about my songs usually. I just react on the things I go through so I was just saying my side of the story because I never did anything wrong at the rally as I was just pleasing fans.

“That’s why I had to sing that song for people to hear me out. To my surprise, they liked it so much and often request me to sing it over and over again and I’m grateful for the support,” said Soul Jah Love.

After the success of songs, Zvinhu and Pamamonya Ipapo, the artiste is now mastering his latest 12-track album that he will be launching on September 30 at Stoddart Complex in Harare.

The album will, however, not be launched in Bulawayo with Soul Jah Love saying fans outside Harare will get to sample the tracks online as they will be uploaded on his social media networking sites.

To other artistes trying to make a name for themselves, Soul Jah Love said: “The sky is the limit. Never break down or look down upon yourselves because we’re all born great and can achieve anything as long as we put our minds to it.”

Turning to his relationship with his girlfriend — Bounty Lisa, whom he has an on and off relationship with, Soul Jah Love said the two were together adding that he was planning to wed her.

“Bounty Lisa and I are still together. A lot is going on between us and we’re actually planning to have a white wedding soon,” he said.