10 Things You Didn’t Know About Leonard Mapfumo

Leonard Mapfumo is one the most successful urban grooves artist. A songwriter, producer, artist in his own right and responsible for some of the most loved talent in Zimbabwe right now, he has done it all.

We take a look at Leonard Mapfumo’s journey in the music industry and see some of the events that has earned him the Urban Grooves godfather title.

1.Leonard Mapfumo was born in 1983 on the 30th of October. He attended Kudzanai Primary School and Mount Pleasant High School.

2. He started taking music seriously after completing high school in the year 2000.

3. His first taste of success on a National level was when he collaborated with Roki on the hit “Seiko” which went straight to number one.

4. He has released three albums of his own to date. First album was a collaboration with Roki in 2005, then came his first solo project in 2007 called “NaMapfumo” and in 2010 he released his third album “The Journey”.

5 He has had a lot of success behind the scenes as a producer too, Mapfumo has collaborated or worked with alomost every Urban Grooves artist. He is also responsible for discovering talent like Shinsoman and Yaka.

6. His hit single off “Maidei” off his second album topped the charts in the country for 42 weeks, a record yet to be broken.

7. Outside of music, Mapfumo has tried his hand at Television presenting on BosTV.

8. Mapfumo is also an activist, he is involved in a number of HIV/AIDS and anti women discrimination programs alongside Trevor Dongo and Tracy Sibanda.

9. The four time number one hit maker has been vocal about the challenges artists face in the modern radio. “The radio stations have lost the distribution of music role which also has been negated countrywide in the sense that there are a few music selling libraries in town which often result in the artistes relying on live shows which is pretty different from yester era”, he said.

10. Besides touring around Zimbabwe, Mapfumo has traveled to South Africa and the UK perfoming alongside his mates including Trevor Dongo and Maskiri.