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Kivo Santana

Showbiz Reporter
TOP United Kingdom-based reggae/dancehall DJ, Kivo Santana is readying to return home for a New Year’s Eve gig that is promising to be explosive in Kwekwe.

Interestingly, the country’s capitals, Harare and Bulawayo rarely have meaningful shutdown gigs leaving areas like Victoria Falls and Kwekwe to thrive judging by the magnitude of events they host at the end of each year.

Though at one point, Bulawayo was the place to be with the Bohlingers Tight Party that was held on December 31 at Queens Sports Grounds with a Kalawa Jazmee stable line-up, that is however no longer the case as the event fizzled out after Oskido decided to pull out and instead personalise the concept by hosting what he now calls the Kalawa Homecoming Party. The new event is however, held about four days before year end.

Now, Victoria Falls with the iFlix Victoria Falls Carnival and Kwekwe with the Fireworks New Year’s Eve party are attracting crowds from different parts of the country.

Performing at the Kwekwe event pencilled for King Solomon Hotel will be Kalawa Jazmee’s DJ Tony Digital, Harare’s Judgement Yard, Kivo Santana, DJ Brian, DJ Flexx and guest artiste Terry M among others.

Speaking from his UK base, Kivo, an established DJ who was partly raised in Kwekwe and has been promoting Zimdancehall in Europe, said they were holding the event to put Kwekwe on the map.

“It’s always good to be home and entertain people from a city you were raised in. So many times, big events are held in big cities and never the small ones so we decided to host this one in Kwekwe, the city of gold where there’s so much talent which also needs to be exposed,” said Kivo.

Kivo, who is not new to showbiz in Kwekwe as he once ran a popular club in Redcliff called Pendo in the 90s before relocating to the UK, said the show venue, King Solomon, had been carefully selected as it is currently the most happening spot in Kwekwe.

“Solomon’s was recently refurbished and reopened under new management. It has a modern and appealing look which has seen it being the ultimate place of leisure for many, something which attracted us,” he said.

A close associate of renowned former BBC 1 presenter, Chris Goldfinger who has been popularising reggae/dancehall in Europe from the 90s, Kivo said he would unpack a lot of new dancehall tunes from across the globe, as well as local one’s which are yet to be released locally.

“I’m very passionate about reggae/dancehall music as it is a genre I believe appeals to a lot of different people from across the globe. I’ve been collecting serious dub-plates from local artistes which haven’t been played anywhere before. I’ll play them for those who’ll attend the New Year’s Eve gig so they must prepare to hear new sounds. It’ll be mad!”

On the supporting acts, Kivo who is expected to arrive in the country on Friday, said people needed to look out for Judgement Yard’s DJ 2Bad and Abisha Palmer who have carved a name for themselves.

“When people mention Judgement Yard, most automatically think of the duo of DJ Flevah and Etherton. But there’s another duo of DJ 2Bad and Abisha who’ve proved their worth and are doing quite well in dancehall circles.”