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Showbiz Correspondent
ALL roads lead to Manor Hotel today as up-and-coming music bands will battle it out for a slot to represent Bulawayo at the national finals of the Chibuku Road to Fame musical competition.

The winning music group will walk away with $500 with second and third place pocketing $300 and $200 respectively.

Seven groups will participate and they include one group — African Tribe (Afro jazz) that almost nicked the national crown at Glamis Stadium last year but were pipped into second place, Kupenya Stars (Sungura) — a one-time national finalist that fell at the last hurdle, three perennial provincial campaigners and two new kids on the block.

The other groups are Afro Queens (Afro pop), Taironga (Afro jazz), Abeluleki Besizwe (Mbaqanga), Mabuya Super Sounds (Rhumba) and Lubhangwe Kings Band (kanindo/tshova tshova).

Kupenya Stars made it to the national finals in 2016 but fell short while Tironga Stars, Abeluleki Besizwe and Mabuya Super Sounds are perennial campaigners at the provincial stages of the competition.

They are hoping the gods will smile on them so that they manage to get over the first hurdle this time around more so for Taironga who came second at the provincial finals and missed out on the sole ticket to represent Bulawayo at the national finals last year.

The national finals are set for September 29 at the giant Glamis Stadium and 10 winners from the 10 provinces of Zimbabwe will converge there to compete for the biggest prize of a recording deal and a whopping $10 000.

Chibuku Road to Fame that is organised by the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe and funded by Delta Beverages through the Chibuku brand seeks to promote the development of music groups through identifying groups with potential to produce recordable material.

The competition is open only to groups that have not recorded before. Groups are accorded the right to play any type of music as long as it is original work.