Obert Chari
BY FREEMAN MAKOPA
AWARD-WINNING musician Obert Chari has collaborated with an Australian music outfit, Diversity Music Collective, in a song titled Mugidhi, in which they encourage children to enjoy their freedom responsibly without resorting to drugs.
The ZCC Hakireni frontman, who rose to fame with his chart-topper Mebo, told NewsDay Weekender Life & Style that he hoped the collaboration would help to increase his fan base and export his music to other nations.
Chari said the deal shaped up after he had met Diversity Music Collective founder Jaison Midzi, an Australian of Zimbabwean origin.
“He liked my idea and the message that the song portrays and then we decided that we should do the song Mugidhi, which encourages children to enjoy themselves responsibility as there is nothing bad about it, the danger only comes when they decide to do drugs,” he said.
“Mugidhi is a word that we use in our church ZCC which means all night worship service, so I am trying to urge youths to at least spend time at church or anywhere, but without doing drugs or drinking alcohol.”
The musician said he discovered that collaborations pull together a collection of ideas and help people to understand and learn new things as they share ideas.
“Collaborations are all about sharing ideas and learning new things from others and this means there are high chances of increasing one’s fan base,” he said.
He disclosed that the song will also come as a birthday present to his son, Obert Chari Junior, who was born on October 11.
Diversity Music Collective is made up of people from different cultural backgrounds and includes Carolyn Omenda (band co-founder, singer and dancer originally from Kenya), George Will (band manager, lead guitarist and singer, Maarlee De Jong (rhythm guitarist) and Jeff Seraphin (bass guitarist) originally from the Congo.
