By Jimmy Chazama
Veteran gospel musician and producer Lloyd Phiri celebrated his silver jubilee in style at Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe on Easter Monday, with a call for the resurgence of gospel music.
Phiri, who has over five albums to his collection, did not mince words on the day, saying gospel music had lost its purpose and that there was a need to bring it back on track.
“Let us call a spade a spade, gospel music has lost its steam and this is why some people have stopped patronising gospel shows because of the way we are doing it. We need to change the narrative and bring it back to where people get revived,” he said.
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Phiri, who put out an exciting set with The Happiness Voices, rekindling memories, said gospel music should run as gospel music.
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“This is not to sideline secular artists; they are doing well and we need to learn from the way they are serving the masses but let gospel run its own race because our mission is to nourish souls with the word of God,” Phiri said.
He said the huge patronage during his 25 years milestone in the gospel music arena was a testimony that people still loved gospel music but that it needed to be done better for the glorification of God.
“I would like to thank people for turning out in large numbers and this has even motivated me and other gospel musicians to rise up. My assurance is that this is the beginning of more praise and worship concerts,” the ‘Sikuthekera Kwanga’ star said.
The concert was billed to start at 11am but delayed, starting two hours later.
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Budding artists were the first to hit the stage before main acts took over and they included Marvelous Deeds, who served songs such as ‘Back to Sender’, and Kamuzu Barracks Gospel Singers led by Chimwemwe Binauli.
The others were Kondwani Chirwa, Shammah Vocals, Maggie Mangani, Evance Meleka, Great Angels Choir, Madalitso Banda, Wycliffe Chimwendo and Debbie N. Phiri, as headliner, performed for a long time, including journeying with the audience on a praise and worship session, before getting down to other songs that had people singing along. The songs included ‘Sikuthekera Kwanga’ and ‘Sachedwa Safulumira’.
There was a moment when the seasoned gospel musician got massive support of close to K10 million for his ministry from various players.
His mark of gratitude to the players, who included Ayiya Limited and Psalmist Zulu, which offered K5 million and K4 million, respectively. This culminated in Phiri giving them flash disks of his music.
