BY FREEMAN MAKOPA

Soul artiste Gemma Griffiths, who hogged the limelight after she collaborated with Winky D on his MuGarden track earlier this year, has disclosed that she is finalising the release of her debut album, Pamwe.

Gemma told NewsDay Life & Style yesterday that the offering was a dedication to Zimbabwe.The songbird, who shot to fame after doing cover versions of Winky D’s Musarova Bigman and Jah Prayzah’s Mdhara Vachauya, said she spent the greater part of this year working on the album.

“I have been on the road travelling through Africa for the whole of 2019, making music, writing, recording and creating this album. I’ve found such amazing inspiration on the journey,” she said.

“One of the songs is Gara Pano… Love inspired me to write Gara Pano, (but) I’m motivated daily by the simple things, like when news channels blare out bad news, but you can still find a reason to smile, or my favourite uncle who takes time to ask about my day, or love stories blossoming in unexpected places. This song is for Zimbabwe, my home and my teacher, I owe my all to her.”

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Gemma said working with Winky D gave her experience and the collaboration made an impact on her career.“Working with Winky D was amazing. He is wonderful, such a talented artiste with so much experience in his career, and he is great to work with. Doing MuGarden together has made such an incredible impact on my career,” she said.

Gemma said iconic musicians like the late Oliver Mtukudzi and Miriam Makeba also had a profound effect on her. Apart from music Gemma, said she was currently driving around Africa with a filmmaker Gara Pano director Marc Neilson for an Instagram project titled Driving Pamwe in which they shared stories of Africa as they travelled. Gemma said there were a lot of challenges in the music industry including coming up with themes and capturing messages in song.