Behind Sha Sha’s ‘divorce’ from DJ Maphorisa

Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter 

WHEN songbird Sha Sha emerged as a force in what was then a bubbling amapiano scene in 2019, few would have imagined that she would ever leave the protective wing of Maphorisa, the man who discovered and catapulted her to fame. 

Prolific producers, Maphorisa and Kabza, supported by the vocal prowess of Sha Sha and Samthing Soweto, were the faces of the amapiano movement, pushing what had been dance genre on the fringes to mainstream popularity in South Africa and beyond. 

While his tag team act with Kabza was Maphorisa’s masterstroke, Zimbabwean singer, Sha Sha, based in South Africa, was the emerging jewel in the Scorpion King’s crown, bringing a tender touch to a genre whose trademark style before her grand entrance had been hard, unadulterated dance beats. 

According to the BET award winning songbird, her discovery by Maphorisa had in itself been fortuitous after a Zimbabwean cab driver linked her to the producer and DJ after she told him during an innocuous conversation that she is an artiste. 

Three years down the line however, it appears that the relationship between Maphorisa and his protégé has gone sour, with Sha Sha leaving his management stable as she seeks to forge ahead with her career, after what seemed like a lengthy hiatus. 

Last week, artiste management company Black Major said Sha Sha had joined its high-powered roster of artistes that include South African stars Sho Madjozi, DJ Lag and Bokani Dyer. The rollout of Sha Sha’s upcoming album, set for release in August, will be handled by the company. 

“Black Major is thrilled to share the news that 2020 BET winner hit-maker Sha Sha will be bringing her chart-topping signature amapiano music to the Black Major family. The exciting new collaboration gets underway with the release of the video for “iPiano” (with Kamo Mphela and Felo Le Tee) on June 24. This will be followed by a slate of amazing new singles, leading up to the release of Sha Sha’s new album I’M ALIVE on August 26 (through Sony Music Entertainment Africa)” a statement by Black Major announcing the signing of Sha Sha read.

In an interview, Black Major’s Sevi Spanoudi said that they had snapped up the singer after the realisation that her style also aligned with their brand. 

 “We go through a series of discussions and find points of alignments in our vision for the artiste,” she added. 

“When it comes to development of artistes, we get approached literally by hundreds of artistes throughout the year and only one or two make it to our roster every year.”

While waxing lyrical about Sha Sha’s abilities, Spanoudi added that they had been linked to Sha Sha by her photographer 1boyWanda. 

“Sha Sha has an amazing voice and is a great songwriter. Her potential is infinite. There is a lot we will do together. We also really like Charmaine (Sha Sha’s real name), the person that she is day to day. I am grateful to 1boyWanda, the extremely talented photographer who has shot all her upcoming album campaign material, for bringing us together.”

While Sha Sha’s new management team did not shed light on her current standing with Maphorisa, under whose Blaqboy Musiq Sha Sha released her latest single iPiano, a close relative of the former Masiye High School (Bulawayo) girl told Sunday Life that all had not been well between the two. 

According to the relative, the singer was allegedly left high and dry after Lawk Communications, the management company that Maphorisa has been working with since 2018, accepted a booking for the Victoria Falls Carnival on her behalf while not giving her a penny from the proceeds of the contract. 

Lawk Communications is spearheaded by Thuli Keupilwe, who started working as a bookings manager for Maphorisa in 2018 before they added Kabza De Small to the roster in 2019. Lawk Communications currently manages the careers and bookings of multiple artistes including Dj Maphorisa, Kabza De Small, Daliwonga, Nas Musiq, Young Stunna, Mlindo The Vocalist, Kelvin Momo, Felo Le Tee, Spumante and others. However, the stable has been accused of unprofessionalism, following the failure to honour gigs in Bulawayo by two of its artistes, Felo Tee and Daliwonga. Fife Street Events, the promoters behind that gig, informed Sunday Life that they had been reimbursed the artiste fees for those failed gigs. They had however, not been compensated for the overhead costs of arranging the gig.     

Last month, Sha Sha issued an apology for her no-show at the carnival, while Lawk Communications, DJ Maphorisa and Kabza have been conspicuous by their silence over the whole matter. Sha Sha was particularly hard hit by the failure to honour the carnival gig, as some of her fellow countrymen took out their wrath on her, accusing her of forgetting her roots by leaving Zimbabweans in a difficult situation. 

The last few months seem to have brought great upheaval for Sha Sha’s life in showbiz, after parting ways with Khaya Defero Media Agency, the Zimbabwean stable that had been managing her since her emergence onto the scene. After the Vic Falls debacle, Khaya Defero confirmed that indeed her bookings were being handled by Lawk Communications. 

“Unfortunately, we can’t comment as this booking was handled by Lawk in South Africa,” her former manager, Fungai Zvirawa said at the time. “From March 5, 2022, Khaya Defero and Sha Sha officially commenced terminating the management engagement. It was a process.” 

On her part, Sha Sha seems to be determined to forge a new start in her life. On social media pages, she has wiped out all the old pictures taken while she was working under the wing of Maphorisa, replaced recently by posts of pictures since she the Tender Love hit-maker began her romance with Black Major. In her apology promising to make up for the carnival fiasco, Sha Sha hinted that the past few months of her life had been tumultuous, leading to a lengthy hiatus off social media, while her releases have also been far and few in between since she bagged a record-breaking BET award. 

“Over the past few months, there have been a lot of changes in my environment. A lot of you might have noticed my silence on social media too. It’s important that I share with you all that, right now, I’m at a moment that marks the end of some things but the wonderful beginnings of others too,” she said.