Fungisai’s dilemma: the burden of gospel image

26 Jun, 2016 - 00:06 0 Views
Fungisai’s dilemma: the burden of gospel image Fungisai Zvakavapano

The Sunday News

Fungisai Zvakavapano

Fungisai Zvakavapano

Bruce Ndlovu
While on her visit to Bulawayo three weeks ago veteran gospel diva Rebecca Malope revealed that although many people who had seen the genesis of her career thought she had started as a pop sensation and changed into a gospel singer, the opposite was true.

According to Rebecca, she had started as a gospel artiste but had been forced to switch genres when her record label felt that she would have more impact as a secular artiste churning out dance friendly pop anthems for the masses.

“It was difficult to go from secular music to gospel because I was gospel before I was secular. I won Road To Fame with a gospel song. We had a gospel album which EMI rejected after which we were forced us to do secular music. They rejected our gospel. We made sure that in every bubblegum album we put a gospel song or two,” she said during.

For Rebecca the decision was excruciating as she had to abandon the message and the aesthetic values of gospel for the then popular disco of apartheid South Africa in her quest for fame. The story of Rebecca’s transformation will be familiar to many a gospel artiste who has been forced to abandon their chosen genre for the perceived easier road to success in the world of secular mainstream music.

For Zimbabwe’s Fungisai Zvakavapano however, the decision to make secular sounding music seems to not have been inspired by a desire to appease an overbearing record label bosses, but a personal choice by an artiste anxious to shift artistic direction.

While Rebecca was a bright eyed damsel in distress caught beneath the glare of the spotlight, Fungisai is a certified superstar who has dominated the gospel music scene in Zimbabwe for over a decade.

Her transformation has not been restricted to her music only, with her outfits, which inspired a spate of internet memes ridiculing her choice of dancehall music inspired gear, also taking those who have followed her career since its infancy by surprise.

Long gone is the fresh faced velvety voiced girl who enchanted a country with her rendition of Makomborero. In her place has stepped an equally talented, outspoken music virtuoso whose voice can ride an Oskid ridim or compliment the lyricism of Killer T better than most self professed dancehall divas. While the success of Vanondibatirana showed that Fungisai had not lost a step artistically, her decision to change has been questioned by the devout who don’t want the sanctity of gospel music contaminated by worldly music genres.

Fungisai has in turn protested that she had never classified herself as a strictly gospel artiste, as people have been the ones eager to put her in the gospel box.

“You will always have challenges if you have your own ideal Fungisai who is not the real me because the two may never match and you will always be disappointed. I’ve not hidden anything about myself from you and it’s up to you to love or hate me for the real person I am: A Christian working as a music artiste,” she wrote on her Facebook page in response to a fan that questioned her revealing attire.

Fungisai’s dilemma has thus been how to break away from the old image of herself as an unblemished gospel artiste, an image she had a large role in constructing. Her problems lead one to question if it’s possible for a gospel artiste to shed their old colours without an acrimonious fall out. Is singing gospel a lifelong contract that an artiste is not supposed to temper with for the rest of their career?

Why is it relatively easier for an artiste like Rebecca to almost erase her secular past while the ghost of Fungisai’s earlier gospel career continues to dog every new move that she now takes? One thus wonders whether one can pursue other artistic avenues not linked to gospel and still remain devout in their private lives. Fungisai has said that her drastic change in sound rather than in message is because of her efforts to minister to youths in a language they understand. This is her case, given today’s music climate, is Zim dancehall.

Another question her dilemma throws up is whether, for gospel artistes, artistry comes before the message or is preaching the word using the aesthetics of popular music a cardinal sin? For gospel lovers, it seems, it’s not enough just to preach the good word but there is a certain type of behaviour whether on or off stage that an artiste in the genre is supposed to adhere to. This prescribed lifestyle and the message that the artiste preaches, go hand in glove.

“Gospel music is an extension of preaching. Its part and parcel of teaching the Bible and your lifestyle should reflect that. You can’t divorce the music from the word of the Bible,” said Pastor Hloniphani Ndlovu of Brethren in Christ Church in Bulawayo.

Ndlovu believes some of the artistes are in the trade for the wrong reasons, as most are unprepared for the lifestyle that being a gospel music superstar demands.

According to Ndlovu gospel artistes therefore know what they are signing up for and should embrace the lifestyle that they are spreading in their music. It’s simply not enough to claim holiness while in the recording booth and then transform into a worldly man or woman once the beat is off.

If one’s voice is a vessel that the maker chose to spread the gospel through, one thus sees why devotees would see a switch of genre as the ultimate form of betrayal.

The likes of Fungisai however, have shown that in the real world this is far from simple.

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