Fred Zindi
It was sometime in 2008 when Doris Moyo came to the Zimbabwe College of Music with her daughter, Thamsanga (Tamy), aged 10 to enroll her as a music student. Tamy showcased her talent to me by singing the national anthem. I commented and told her that she was pitch-perfect. I was the board chairman of the college then.
I told Doris that her daughter was too young to be on the National Certificate in Music (NCM) programme or the degree programme. I then suggested that she be enrolled on what we called the Saturday Pop Workshop or join the individual tuition classes, which were run at the time by Clayton Ndlovu, Jeanette Micklem, Pablo Nakappa and Paul Bourdillon.
That was the last time I heard of Thamsanga until 2016 when three hip-hop guys Tinotenda Tagwirei, ImpiMaph and Joshua Chiundiza who called themselves The Monkey Nuts came to my office to seek advice on how to stop this girl called Tamy Moyo from using “their” composition titled Tsoka Ndibereke. They even played the tune to me from their cellphone and it sounded just like Tamy’s Ndibereke. We tried in vain to contact Tamy so that we could resolve this controversy amicably, but she kept us at bay. I decided to write about this dispute the following week. After the story came out in the press, I received a rather frantic call from an irritated Star FM’s Richard Kohola (RK) who complained: “Do you know that Tamy Moyo is my daughter? She did not steal that song”. That was the end. He did not expound on that statement when I asked him if she had composed it.
However, Ndibereke was the tune that brought Tamy Moyo’s rise to fame. After that, she recorded a six-track album titled The 18th Rollercoaster, which was followed by Celebrate YoLyf.
Last week, Tamy released an ambitious album titled Bvudzi Jena Phase One which according to her is a three-part trilogy and she hopes it will win her a Grammy Award next year.
Grammy Awards based in the United States of America, originally known as Gramophone Awards when the concept was first mooted in 1958, are trophies given to outstanding musicians for their recordings in different categories of music genres.
The annual awards feature prominent musicians every year who have shown outstanding achievement in the music industry mainly through record sales. Grammy is the music equivalent to the Emmy Awards for television or the Oscars for film.
Tamy Moyo, despite her short life in the music industry, hopes to scoop a Grammy soon. In fact, she has achieved a lot in the short space of time that she has been in music.
As a singer, songwriter and guitarist Tamy has used those talents to advance herself in music.
Born on January 5, 1998, Tamy was raised by her mother and grandfather in Harare where she attended primary school at Lusitania and secondary at Westridge High School.
Known for her vocal gymanstics, and her Afro-soul beats, Tamy still manages to bring out the Zimbabwean feel to most of her songs.
She started singing at age 7 while she was in Grade Two at Lusitania Primary School. At age 13 while she was in Form One, she was already sharing the stage with international artistes such as American singer, Joe Thomas when he visited Zimbabwe. She also performed and with local artistes such as Oliver Mtukudzi, Alexio Kawara, Ammara Brown and Stunner. She has also done a collaboration with Zimbabwean top artistes such as Jah Prayzah and many others. Among the female artistes in Zimbabwe, Ammara Brown is her closest competitor. The debate on who is the better of the two still rages on. They have had two stage performances together and opinions are still divided on who is the better artiste.
Tamy also became the child ambassador for Childline Zimbabwe at very young age.
In 2008, Moyo spearheaded the formation of the Uganda African Choir, together with three other colleagues in a charity gig at the Madison Square Garden in New York, entertaining guests on the commemoration of the plight of the African child.
She has also been involved in staging local gigs at venues and events such as the Shoko Festival, Harare International Festival of the Arts, Miss Tourism Zimbabwe and National Arts Merit Awards. She has also toured many countries, which include Europe and the United States. She was recently in Oslo, Norway where she gave an outstanding five-star performance.
She is also the envy of many artistes who keep wondering how she does it. Little do they know that she has full support in her musical career from her parents, Doris and RK. According to her: “My mum has played a big role in my career, including moral, emotional and financial support. She is very hands-on with my work and has sacrificed a lot for me. She understands what I want and where I want to go and believes in me so much.”
Tamy has done popular videos from most of her tunes. In particular, songs such as Kwandinobva (Where I come from), which was produced by DJ Tamuka in 2019, Tekere and Zviroto, which were all released in the same year.
We are still waiting for the videos of Bvudzijena. Tamy has been back to the Zimbabwe College of Music where with the support of her dad, RK they have been rehearsing for the next video with help from some of the NCM students.
Apart from several appearances on the DStv music channel, Trace Africa she recently got a role to act in a movie titled Gonarezhou. Gonarezhou is a movie with a strong anti-poaching message and was directed by Sydney Taivavashe. There are more movies coming her way. Earlier in 2020, she got featured on Africa’s biggest music show, Coke Studio Africa and worked with Lourena Nhate from Mozambique, AbushZeleke from Ethiopia and Zimbabwean producer Young DLC.
Talking of her experience, Tamy said: “I had a great experience at Coke Studio Africa and managed to network and connect with some influential people in the African music industry. Sharing the stage with some of Africa’s biggest acts has also grown my audience and even here at home there is a lot more recognition of my work as an artiste, which I’m grateful for.”
Tamy was recently appointed Zimoco brand ambassador. In June 2021, she was given the Haval Jolion, a new car which is marketed by Zimoco and she was the first to drive it in Zimbabwe.
The music star, who initially dreamt of becoming a lawyer, never thought that she could end up becoming the glamourous musician that she is today. She has become the darling of many music fans throughout the world and it looks like the sky is the limit for her.
It does look like the future is very bright for Tamy, especially when Covid-19 becomes history. There are already stories of boys in music circles competing with each other to get her attention.
One musician (name given) commented: “I wish I could lay my hands on that jewel. Not only is she amazing as a musician, but from her dance moves, she sets my adrenalin jumping. I also think she has a lot of money. If I get a chance to date her, I will end up marrying her and we will be Zimbabwe’s Beyonce and Jazzie B.”
It is said that other musicians like rapper Holy Ten has been trying so hard to get Tamy’s attention to the extent that he wrote a song for her which has been released on his YouTube channel, but Tamy is stuck with her long time boyfriend, music producer, Chiweddar.
Feedback: frezindi@gmail.com