The country’s artists continue to make global inroads with the latest outing being a power-packed act by one-stringed bass player known as Babatoni, Gasper Nali, in Norway last Saturday.
The Mzuzu-based musician, who returned home on Wednesday was the only musician from Malawi to perform at one of the top festivals in Norway – Forde Traditional and World Music Festival (Fordefestivalen) this year.
This is Scandinavia’s largest international event for folk and acoustic world music, held annually in Forde, Norway.
Several artists from Africa and Europe performed at this year’s edition which will run under the theme ‘Peace’.
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A video of Nali posted on the festival’s social media page shows the artist attracted tremendous support from the audience that also them admitting his Babatoni.
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He performed with other two members, one on drum and another on guitar.
“It was exciting to perform at this huge festival. I enjoyed every moment and doing it for Malawi. I hope my performance opens more doors for Malawian artists but we need to tell our own stories,” Nali, who is also expected to perform in United Kingdom in October, said.
Torill Gundersen, one of the communication officials from the festival said Nali was “amazing”.
“People danced from the first note, beautiful sounds from Malawi,” he said.
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This was Nali’s debut performance at the festival but not the first time performing in Europe.
It has also been sometime since the festival featured a Malawian act.
The last time Malawi made an appearance was in 2016 when the festival hosted the country’s talents of Thoko Mdoko, Patrick Chimbewa and Asante Maulidi.
Nali, who last year performed at Lake of Stars Festival, came to the limelight in 2015 when a video of his song ‘Abale Ndikuwuzeni’ went viral on social media.
The video brought the Babatoni player into contact with music producer Mattias Stalnacke and got the track released on Spare Dog Records and since then, he has dropped two albums namely Abale Ndikuwuzeni and Chule Chule Iwe.
Madalitso Band, the duo of Yosefe Kalekeni and Yobu Maligwa is also in Europe on a tour and currently in United Kingdom whereas Alleluya Band is in Italy.
The two acts are expected to return home next month.
