HAVING been born in the ghetto, multi-award-winner dancehall musician Winky D has become a darling of many who relate to the messages of his music that speak about everyday struggles of ghetto life.

Born Wallace Chirumiko, the singer who fronts the Vigilance Band, has voiced against social injustice, corruption, looting, inflation and unemployment among the youths.

This has earned him several nicknames on the ghetto streets like King of Dancehall, Gafa (Gaffer) and The Big Man.

As he continues with the mission to use his God-given talent to speak against evil in society, Winky D will this Saturday launch his much-awaited album titled Eureka Eureka at Harare International Conference Centre (HICC) which is proving to be his venue of choice.

The Eureka Eureka launch is in partnership with Gateway Stream, a local entertainment company which is a subsidiary of Rainbow Tourism Group.

In the album, Winky D sings about intolerance and advocates for unity and togetherness as confirmed by the singer’s manager Jonathan Banda in an interview with NewsDay Life & Style yesterday.

“As the world has become dependable on each other, there are a lot of intolerance issues even in the family set up, so what is it that can build social cohesion? So as Vigilance Music we felt we should take that leading role to start the conversation against intolerance,” he said.

“For anything to grow, there has to be tolerance and gorging of allegiance, though not all about speaking with one voice, but there is a need for a solution to intolerance with the greater goal being cohesion of humanity.”

He added: “This is not the first time for us doing this, we have done it before, on the anti-drug awareness though we faced condemnation in the initial stages before people started to see the bigger picture and appreciate the initiatives.”

Speaking on the album’s visuals, Banda said they were still on production deliberations, but as they have previously done on their projects, they would do something for their supportive fans.

As they say patience pays after three years of waiting Winky D’s fans finally have something to smile for as they are set to crossover into 2023 dancing to new music.

While many ambitious artistes have struggled and failed to fill-up HICC, the dreadlocked Winky D who has great faith and strong belief in his brand returns to the giant venue three years after the launch of Njema, his last album.

Interestingly, the album Njema was also launched on December 31 at the same venue before a full house and three years later, another potentially explosive launch on New Year’s Eve awaits the Gafa fans.

Before the forthcoming album, Winky D’s fans have been enjoying snippets of new songs as he performed some of the yet to be released songs at his live concerts.

Over the years, Winky D has proved to be a cut above the rest, raising the Zimdancehall flag higher, getting recognition both locally and on the international stage.

The Mafirakureva hitmaker has proved to be a torch bearer of showbiz professionalism demonstrating that he knows the value of his craft which he treats as a business.

His professional stance in the creative industry has not only seen his brand grow, but also earned him respect among many arts promoters and corporates which have continued to engage, and partner him on different projects.

At the launch, the Kambuzuma-bred singer is expected to be joined on stage by fellow dancehall and hip-hop stars namely Killer T, Enzo Ishall, Nuty O and Tocky Vibes while Holy Ten and Saintfloew represent the hip-hop front.

Rocking it on the turntables will be DJs Flevah, Judgment Yard and Fitzroy.

Those who want to attend the Eureka Eureka launch have to part with US$20 and US$40 for thestandard and VIP tickets, respectively.

Follow Winstone on Twitter @widzonato