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Leonard Zhakata

Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent
The ZBC Radio Zimbabwe’s Coca Cola Top 50 competition showed that attracting huge crowds to shows and having songs dominating dance floors means nothing without grassroots support as evidenced by Leonard Zhakata’s dominance on the channel’s charts.

For the second year running, Zhakata proved his mettle on the charts with three of his songs Madam Boss ft Sulu and Progress Chipfumo, Zvine Mwaka and Mwoyo Wekutenda hogging the top three slots.

Closely behind was Alick Macheso, another musician with immense grassroots support, occupying the next three spots with tracks Gungwa, Wandirangaridza and Mudemude.

Most of the time, on various social media platforms, the talk has been about Jah Prayzah’s meteoric rise to stardom last year and his entrance into the African music scene with a collaboration with Tanzania’s Diamond Platnumz on Watora Mari. On the other hand, Winky D had been riding on the fame of his hit track Disappear, that took the dance floors by storm last year and he capped it off with the release of another blockbuster Gafa Futi.

The two artistes were also filling up conference centres, halls and stadiums each time they performed around the country’s major cities.

However, come voting time on the radio show, it was the evergreen Zhakata whose latest album, Mutunga Dzose (The big bull) that pushed all aside and came up tops.

Winky D only got a slot on position 11 on the same chart with a song released in 2014, while Jah Prayzah could only make it to number 20.

For winning, Zhakata will pocket a cool $6 000 and the musician said he was both equally humbled and shocked.

“It’s the people who judge music and if the majority feel my songs deserve the top positions, then so be it. I’m humbled, I’m speechless,” Zhakata told a blog.

“I knew I’d done what I thought was my best, but I didn’t expect three songs from the album to clinch prizes as has happened, given the competition in the industry.

“I respect all the musicians who managed to get their songs into the competition as there were a lot of good quality songs offered.”

Zhakata’s success follows the highly-successful album Zvangu Zvaita which scooped the first and second prizes in the same competition.