. Mulusa

By JOWIT SALUSEKI? –
AFRICAN Freedom Day celebrations in Lusaka were hypnotised with performances from Copperbelt  -based gospel singer Ausward and his contemporaries of artistes who entertained their fan base at Lusaka’s Woodland Stadium.
The stage was initially warmed up by upcoming artistes in the likes of gospel duo Beatrice and Agnes, Felix and Pastor Maurice backed by his choir band who mesmerised the sizeable crowd with Puteni Umupu song.
Then came the time for Mweshi Mulusa to minister through a track called Shendela mumwela there by sending the patrons into a frenzy.
Award-winning female artiste Suwilanji Bwalya offloaded some of her best songs to raise the tempo which was dampened after the sound system failed for nearly two hours.
The failure of sound system almost irked the patrons who started demanding to be addressed by the organisers before engineers electrified the fault.
Backed by her band just like most other artistes who performed at the concert, Suwilanji the Zambian Music award winner was the darling of the crowd who kept on demanding that she performs some few more songs before retiring from the podium.?Congolese singer, David, also managed to enthrall the attendees notwithstanding the language barrier-Swahili in which the lanky artiste was musically communicating to the attendees.?Others who managed to squeeze in their performances included top male gospel singers Ephraim Mutalange and Kings Mumbi who performed with backing bands with patrons always salivating for more every time the award winning music clooners churned out some of their favourite numbers.
The gig reached its crescendo when Ausward whose real names are Osward Chitete who was the main performer took to the stage later in the day.?Backed by a band, the artiste who cut his music teeth in 1995 after joining his church choir, entertained his fans whilst reflecting on a Chibombo bus accident that claimed his wife and child some two years ago.
Ausward sampled selected songs from all his four studio albums released to date,  which include his 2008 debut album tited Natemwa Yesu (  I  Love Jesus), Nakondwa(2011) and the 2012 project which was an all International gospel album, before he gave out a taster of his latest  Yahweh album.?The 14 track project has songs such as Yawheh, Ayenerah, Katula wandi and Yesu ewunsunsuntila, among others.
Ausward says his current album is on high demand and receiving airplay with requests of where they can buy the CD’s from neighbouring countries such as Botswana, Malawi and South-Africa.
‘Locally my manager  has been engaging Sounds Arcade on how we can offload some more CD’s on the market …am also currently working on another album expected to be released on the market sometime in October this year’’, explains Ausward who lists  International gospel hit makers Doc McKlurkin and Rebbeca Malope as his repertoire of influence.