‘Greedy promoters destroyed Sugar Sugar’

GREEDY promoters benefited immensely from sungura musician Sugar Sugar, derailed his career and dumped him when the chips were down, says a businesswoman-cum-music promoter who claims to have discovered the talented artiste.

Tsitsi“Mai Charehwa” Chitagu (pictured) — who runs the popular Charehwa Bar in Harare’s high-density suburb of Budiriro — said Sugar Sugar’s propensity to “get carried away easily” and his “extremely” poor background also worked against him.

The businesswoman, who is also the owner of a top record label, said despite his glaring weaknesses, she is allowing the Buhera-born musician to get a second bite at the cherry.

“I run a popular bar in Budiriro and Sugar Sugar worked in a butchery that was near the beer outlet. He would sing as he was cutting meat and I noticed that he was an unpolished gem,”revealed Mai Charehwa.

Assuming the role of his manager, she then allowed the musician to use her musical kit for rehearsals.

She also allowed Sugar Sugar to do live shows in her bar for free.

“Performing live gave him an opportunity to market his music and interact with his fans. Live shows also acted as a gauge to determine which songs were popular with the fans and those that were not,” she added.

After helping the musician polish up his songs, the businesswoman also assisted him to get into the studio.

The singer’ s debut album ,“Z vi rimuka ti” (2005), instantly became popular, with the song“Mai ro si” shooting to the top of music charts.

“Juliana” and “Mari Inoparira” also became hits.

According to Mai Charehwa, the success of the debut album created a lot of problems for the then-immature musician.

“Other recording companies and promoters came into the fold. One of the recording companies took his music and sold it in Mozambique. The company made a lot of money, but gave Sugar Sugar nothing,” she alleged.

The promoter further claimed the musician was not serious about his career and failed to handle fame.

“In total, I bought him six sets of musical instruments. He failed to safeguard the instruments, resulting in them being stolen. He also failed to make follow-ups on instruments that would have been sent for repairs,”she added.

Mai Charehwa also attributed Sugar Sugar’s behaviour to his background.

“He comes from an extremely poor background and was at one time a herd boy. When he started getting some money, he started to booze and developed a strong liking for the fairer sex.”

The musician ended up losing his original band members.

“Losing talented band members such as Chipeneti and Chimbangambanga diluted his music. The replacements were not as good as the original members.”

Sugar Sugar’s fortunes subsequently waned, resulting in him relocating to Durban, South Africa, where he briefly worked as a truck driver.

Now, back into the fold, the musician, who is set to launch a new album — “Kudzoka KweSugar” — on December 9, is desperately trying to bring back the old days.

“Sugar Sugar is like my own son. He advertised my bar and made me popular and for that I am grateful. I will do whatever it takes to make him prosper again,”vowed the promoter.

The struggling sungura singer confirmed working closely with the businesswoman during his early days.

“I became successful at one point because of her. I made some mistakes along the way but it is normal to err. In the past, some detractors tried to separate us by peddling falsehoods,” he said.