Before their 2023 world tour which has seen them making a debut outing in United States of America, Madalitso Band, the duo of Yobu Maligwa and Yosefe Kalekeni, held some performances in the country which were aimed at putting their name to the limelight.
The gigs included one at Sounds of Malawi Acoustic Session at Jacaranda Cultural Centre (JCC) in Blantyre where they were also taken through a question and answer session to explain how they met and the journey they have travelled to be where they are today.
Maligwa, who plays a one-stringed bass guitar known as Babatoni, leads in most of the songs.
His colleague, Kalekeni, plays the acoustic guitar.
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Madalitso Band’s breakthrough came from their performance at the Sauti za Busara Festival in Tanzania in 2017 where they put up an impressive performance.
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It was from this performance that they started getting bookings for shows in Europe.
In one of their Europe tours, Madalitso Band shared the stage with fellow Malawian act, Faith Mussa, who has also travelled extensively internationally.
“Sometimes when we hear what people say, we just laugh off because they do not know where we are coming from.
“We used to perform in the streets where we were performing for little money until we met Emmanuel Kamwenje, who elevated us through recording our album before meeting Neil Nayar,” Maligwa said.
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Kamwenje is their local manager while Nayar is their international manager.
Kalekeni said they have benefited a lot from their travels.
“It is not just about making money but also creating opportunities for ourselves. We have been patient and today we are seeing the fruits. If we were not into music, we would not have managed to see Europe let alone America,” he said.
He said with their instruments and their music, they have played a key role in selling Malawi to the world.
“We are ambassadors for Malawi in all the travels we make. Wherever we have performed people enjoyed our music and some have ended up visiting Malawi because of our music. It is unfortunate that not many people know us in Malawi but we are well known outside the country,” Kalekeni said.
He urged the government to support “because we are using music to sell Malawi to the world.”
Madalitso Band is like Zimbabwe’s musical group, Mokoomba, which has also travelled extensively holding gigs in Europe and yet it is not that huge in their country.
Mokoomba plays beautiful sounds that speak of the greatness of African music.
Madalitso Band has emerged from the outskirts of Mtandire in Lilongwe and hit the world start stage where they have performed at top music festivals such Womex 2020, Womad 2019 and Roskilde 2018.
To that world, they have been performing local songs from their albums Fungo La Nyemba and Wasalala.
Director for Jacaranda Cultural Centre, Luc Deschamps, described them as good at what they do.
“Their music is unique. This is the music that sells outside because it really represents Malawian music, African music,” he said.
Despite performing with renowned artists on the world stage, Madalitso Band has remained faithful to its identity of authentic music.
Deschamps said other artists in the country need to learn from them.
“They have performed at top festivals in the world which is no mean achievement. You talk of Womex, Womad, these are huge. This band has done a lot for the country through music,” he said.
The Womex organisers gave Madalitso Band an impressive review as posted on https://www.womex.com/virtual/la_curieuse:
“With just an acoustic guitar and foot drum, an outsize, home-made, one-string babatone, two voices in sweet harmony and buckets of charm, Malawi’s dynamic duo have elevated audiences at Womad and Roskilde and a host of venues throughout Europe,” reads the review.
According to the review, after playing in the streets of Lilongwe for 10 years, it was word-of-mouth that eventually secured them an appearance at Zanzibar’s Sauti Za Busara festival in 2017.
“Six months later they were on an aeroplane for the first time in their lives, heading for their first European tour. Since then they have recorded a second album for Bongo Joe Records and, in this lock-down year [2020], remotely collaborated on an album with Ukranian band Tik Tu,” reads the review.
They are now world stage stars.
