“My music Career was such a Joy” Patience Musa

Musician, radio personality and local celebrity Patience Musa shared with us her journey and spoke with us on her music career. The ZiFM presenter has had many memorable moments in music and she spoke with us on the journey that made her the personality she is today.

q. Tell us about your journey in music

I always loved music cause my parents collected a lot of music. My mum would wake me up to Nat King Cole. My dad listened to everything. My dad was a graphics designer, so he would design album covers for a lot of the famous local musicians at the time. So he would often get an album for free and because he was pretty liberal he allowed me to just listen to whatever I want and that’s how I got to fall in love with a lot of local music. Then I would write songs about everything
I Would write songs if someone got spanked. I would write songs if we were playing and if someone was cheating in the game and I would write songs and sing it until the entire house was singing it.
So actually, my sisters got tired of my songs and me singing coz I used to make fun of them with some of the songs. (Hahaha) So they decided to help me get my music career going, my younger sister connected me to somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody WHO KNEW SOMEBODY! Who knew Prince Tendai. Time being my older sister contact James Maridade who was at radio at the time she called him and asked him to hear me out. I had made a jingle for him and when he heard it he was like bring your sister down we going to record that jingle. We went and recorded it. Then we went to Prince Tendai my younger sister’s connection worked. So, Prince Tendai asked me to record a demo tape at the time he had a full studio and he wanted to find out which direction I am going off to. I was 16 at the time. He told me I need to rehearse and introduced me to Noel Zembe who I turn introduced me to guys in music who became life long friends. I used to go to the studio after school between lower 6 and upper 6. I met some artists and we formed a hip hop group. My parents didn’t know at the time. That’s when I got my first gig which was empty. We actually had a manager. Promethius who is now at PowerFm he was part of the band. Herby Dangerous was part of the group too. Through this group, I met Themba Mkanda
So somebody heard me at the studio and said to me that they wanted me to do the backing vocals for Gospel Trumpet. They also wanted me to be in the videos but I wasn’t sure as to if this was what I wanted to be associated with in terms of music. So my deal was with gospel trumpets I do backing vocals back in 1999. I did it in 1999 after my mum heard about it. My mum approved it because it was gospel at the time. Then the other music I did I kept a secret from my mum because it wasn’t gospel. I also thereafter worked with Fungai Malianga, and I met Prudence Katomeni whilst working with Fungai.
Edgar Lagerfeld had a major talent agency located in second street. I sang for him and he signed me up to Nexus. He got me jobs doing jingles it was great. At nexus, I met a lot of the older artists that I know now today. The nexus talent agency we auditioned for a miss Zimbabwe in which we were supposed to sing. Mateo then contacted Prince Tendai for a backing vocalist and he recommended me. The first time I sang for Mateo and he didn’t like me and Mateo chose Michelle Jangano.
But we bumped into each other at the Greencroft shops and he told me that he had found a project perfect for me. He connected me to this German guy called Baba Dee German guy who liked all things shona. So, as Mateo and I began to work together with Willom Tight and we eventually decided to form a band called Mateo and Friends. My mum was oblivious of all this.

Patience Musa

Q. What were the significant turns in your music career?

So, the first significant turn was with the band. As it was doing really well, we were now getting played everywhere and this made me take music seriously. I never wanted to really do music I wanted to do graphic design but the band kept putting pressure on us. At the time we are getting gigs and were being played internationally. We also were part of a project called ‘Impressions of Africa ‘.

The second one was when Mateo and friends split up. I was really pushing for school at the time Willom and Mateo wanted to do their own thing. So, this was the significant turn in music it signified the end of an amazing band.

The third time was when I got into Jazz music. I was asked by a band to fill in for a singer who went MIA. They asked me to sing but I didn’t know all the songs I only knew about three songs. So, we went and began to sang and the crowd loved it. I would come on the stage to sing the songs I knew and as the gig went on the crowd kept calling on the band to sing the songs, I was in.

Patience Musa

Anyway, another turning point was when I went solo and joined a label called Ruff Cutz- BIG MISTAKE! They tried to control my career and tried to make it seem like they owned me. It almost got nasty and I got lawyers and I sat out the duration of the deal.

Patience Musa

I loved being a musician and love how much music has given me.

Patience Musa continued to tell us further on her career from radio to television to becoming an influencer in Zimbabwe.