HARARE - Promising sungura musician Obvious Mtani left the country for Mozambique yesterday to stage a concert in Tete province over the weekend.

This is the Mtani’s second tour of that country.

Last year in July the sungura artiste and his Sungano Express staged three shows in Tete, Chimoio and Maputo.

The tour is being promoted by Alfonso Mathatha of Mozambique who also facilitated Mtani’s Mozambique tour last year.

“We are returning to Mozambique for the second time and we are looking forward to this show”, said an excited Mtani.

“We promise to do our best  for us to build our fan base in that country.

“Last year, we created a lot of excitement during our shows.

“We hope to do much better this time around”.

The 22-year-old artiste left with nine out of 12 band members in order to cut travelling costs.

“We would have wanted to take everyone, but to cut costs we are leaving a few band members behind.  But we are confident that it won’t undermine our performance.”

Mtani believes foreign tours have become very important because music piracy has undermined the livelihoods of musicians in Zimbabwe.

“Piracy has become a serious menace which has left us with no option but to stage more concerts outside the country”.

Mtani’s music has been attacked by some fans as being too similar to sungura kingpin Alick Macheso’s.
The young artiste hopes to cash in on this.

“The advantage I have is that my music resembles that of Macheso and for this reason my fan base is growing with each show I stage there,” he said.

“Fans in Mozambique have fallen in love with Zimbabweans artistes such as Sugar Sugar, Tedious Matsito and Alick Macheso among others.

Mtani recently released his fifth album Saizvozvo Mukwasha which was launched at the City Sports Bar in Harare.

Before his latest album, the young sungura prodigy released Loaded Weapon in 2011, Rufaro Kwamuri of 2010, Toisa Kuvanhu of 2009 and his debut album Marudzi Dananai in 2007. - Vasco Chaya