Madalitso Band, the duo of Yobu Maligwa and Yosefe Kalekeni, breathed more mileage into their global feat when they debuted at the 2024 edition of the MTN Bushfire Festival in eSwatini on Friday night.
The duo, from the outskirts of Mtandire in Lilongwe, also engraved their own script of history for MTN Bushfire Festival as the first band to perform at the three-day feast, which attracted over 30,000 people from different countries as well as employed over 1,500 people.
Being the first performance of the 2024 edition, Madalitso Band also kick-started all performances for one of the top festivals in Africa as rated by CNN.
Performing on the amphitheatre stage, where they received standing ovations on entry and after their 45- minute set, Madalitso Band lit the fire with their authentic music, maintaining the festival’s signature of ‘Bring on your fire’.
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Clad in yellow pairs trousers with the band’s T/shirts and vests of Malawi’s colours of black, red and green, Maligwa, armed with a one-stringed bass guitar known as babatoni, and Kalekeni on acoustic guitar, they opened their act with the national anthem before moving on to a gospel song as part of calling upon God to guide them throughout their performance.
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The gospel tune was a follow-up to the prayer that Maligwa, who is also a well-known prayer warrior in Mtandire, offered in the dressing room before Madalitso Band invaded the stage.
The band, which has made great strides from the streets to the global stage, kept the audience, which included few patrons who had travelled from Malawi to the festival and the band’s manager Neil Nayar, on the dance floor with songs off their projects Fungo La Nyemba and Wasalala.
Their power-driven opening act on Friday was enough to win the hearts of many people that did not dilly-dally to watch their second and last act on Saturday evening on a different stage known as Bring your fire.
“We just had to do it for Malawi and being the only band representing our country, we had to do it to our best and we are happy that from the first performance on Friday to the second on Saturday, people enjoyed every moment,” Maligwa said.
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Organisers could also not hide their excitement with Madalitso Band’s performance, with its director applauding them on Friday that the festival guessed it right to give them the 2024 opening act.
“We had no doubt that you will kill it and you deserved the opening performance,” the director said.
Nayar said the two performances at the MTN Bushfire Festival were the first of the global outings in 2024 as they also gear for a Europe tour next month that will take them to the United Kingdom and France, among others.
Last year, Madalitso Band also held several shows in Europe before making a debut in United States of America.
The MTN Bushfire Festival had five stages including the main stage named after the main sponsor MTN where several acts starred including South Africa’s Thandiswa Mazwai, Bongeziwe Mabandla and Musa Keys.
