Zanele Maseko mourned
WHILE the country is mourning the passing of Afro-pop singer and leader of Mina Nawe, Zanele “Mazet” Maseko, her band members are hard at work to produce an album in her honour.
The remaining band members, Nkosinathi “Carlo” Mpanza and Candid “Manchild” Shaw are putting finishing touches to the album and are also planning a tribute show which will feature most of their songs and new ones. Maseko died on Sunday after a short illness.
The late singer’s husband Owen hailed and honoured Maseko for her powerful vocal abilities and her contribution in the music industry.
Owen said he would remember his wife for her beauty, artistry and style.
“Mazet was a beautiful soul. Her gorgeous smile will always be with us. She was a true believer of liberation of African artists in this tough industry.
“I would love for her life to be celebrated through growing the industry and for opening opportunities for young, talented artists from the townships.
“Mazet loved entertaining and performing. We are certain she would have loved to be remembered in the same fashion.
“She created a lot of music, most known, some not – we will share that with not just supporters of Mina Nawe, but with her fans personally.”
Mpanza and Shaw said they were planning a specially curated tribute show, which will cover 80% of their catalogue and 20% of their unreleased music, “which we created days before her passing”. Mina Nawe will be releasing another album with new songs, totally inspired by Maseko and their journey, which began in 2000.
“Our fondest memories remain the ones we made when creating the music, those memories are engraved in our hearts as the music is to our fans.
“One memory that jumps out is during the writing and recording of Where I Wanna Be.
“Mazet wasn’t sure about the song after recording it. She was sceptical about how people would receive it, considering the fact that it was sonically different from all our songs.
“We insisted on performing the song with every chance we got. In just a few weeks the song was one of the most loved songs in our catalogue.”
They added: “We started receiving sampling requests from record labels, producers and DJs alike, who wanted to remix the song – DJ Mbuso, Black Coffee and Kent and Euphonik were among those who did an amazing job in making the song popular.
“The song became the biggest and most sampled Afro-Pop song in Africa.”
In 2019, Maseko refocused her musical efforts in Mina Nawe’s new album, which she worked on until her last days.
Maseko will be buried on Saturday in Daveyton.