Legendary singer and guitarist Giddes Chalamanda has said he was given a treat in United States of America and that he will live to remember the tour.<\/p>\n
The veteran musician said this in an exclusive interview ahead of their first Welcome Back show to be held tomorrow at Sunbird Capital Hotel Marquee in Lilongwe.<\/p>\n
The Welcome Back show will bring on board performances from Giddes as the main headliner, Edgar ndi Davis, Patience Namadingo, who was also part of the USA tour, Tamika and Martha Nolemba.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good trip and there was no problem at all. God was with us throughout the trip. We had fun and Malawians there welcomed us well. I thank Edgar Kachere and Davis Njobvu and all others for making sure that I see America for the first time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Giddes added:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe boarded brand new cars, America, America, life is all good and what I saw there is great and as of now, I can\u2019t say anything. Actually, they want me to go again with my wife Abiti Alafuledi too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Giddes, who at 86 years is still strong, said they were given all the love during the tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were given all the love. I recall the likes of Omega, who brushed me during shows to be light and clear. I am happy that my dream of visiting America came true and if I were still young, I could have said repeat again,\u201d said the old-timer.<\/p>\n
He called on up-and coming artists as well as youths to keep on working hard and utilise their talents \u201cbecause you never know what it will bring you in future and lets strive to do original music.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI just thank God for my song Buffalo Soldier<\/em>, where I sang about my wish to visit America. This is the song that made me visit America,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Giddes also revealed that his latest album Mkazi ndi Mawaya <\/em>is ready and that it was sold in America.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople supported us in America and bought the album and I hope people will do the same here because I have tackled different issues including love,\u201d said the creator of Che Meli <\/em>and Liny <\/em>hits.<\/p>\n Davis said the trip was an eye -opener and that they had fun, adding that they were happy that the dream that Giddes had of visiting America was now a reality.<\/p>\n \u201cWe stayed in different places starting in Washington DC where we also met our fellow artists Maskal and Mandela Mwanza and we also had the presence of Patience Namadingo and Edgar ndi Davis Band, so it was a massive combination before being hosted by the Library of Congress and later Indiana where there are more Malawians,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Davis described the three-week tour in USA as great and that they will never forget it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe also performed at State Theatre and we also had picnics which bring people together and have fun which we actually don\u2019t do in Malawi. By the way, we also had time to go to church just to praise God for the USA tour and it was there where we asked for help after our performance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Davis said the church spearheaded by Pastor Ben Nkhonjera accepted to assist them and promised to donate $1,500 which they will buy different items and donate to Chiradzulu Hospital.<\/p>\n He also revealed that they had problems to access the visa as its conditions are tough but \u201cthey thank God that everything went on well.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn America, music is serious, they work hard and actually almost all the guitars we were using during shows were brand new. Again, we were performing in places with our Malawian flag flying but here people have no flags, we need to love our country because this is the Malawi that God gave us,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n He also said as Malawian artists, they need to be unique and stick to \u201cour own music and not copy\u201d Western sounds.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople loved Giddes\u2019 music because it is Malawian and original and this is what we have to strive to do. We actually have a new album from him Mkazi ndi Mawaya <\/em>which sold like hot cakes in America and we will unveil it here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n On tomorrow\u2019s show, Davis said it will give them a chance to interact with people and also tell them stories.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have Welcome Back shows lined up but this is the first and we hope people will come in large numbers to hear our stories,\u201dDavis said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Legendary singer and guitarist Giddes Chalamanda has said he was given a treat in United States of America and that he will live to remember the tour. The veteran musician said this in an exclusive interview ahead of their first Welcome Back show to be held tomorrow at Sunbird Capital Hotel Marquee in Lilongwe. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29439"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29442,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29439\/revisions\/29442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}