Netsayi is a singer/songwriter from Zimbabwe who currently lives in London, England. She was born in London when her parents were in exile from Southern Rhodesia. The family returned to Zimbabwe after independence in 1980 when she was 7 years old. She started writing poetry and performing as a soloist singer around this time.
She is the only professional musician in her family, but with a grandmother, and father with great singing voices, an aunt reputed for her story-telling and a sister who sang in various Harare bands, Netsayi would describe her family as informally musical.
Netsayi explains: “As a child growing up in Zimbabwe, we never had a TV, so I spent my time painting or listening to the radio and singing around the house. Hilton Mambo and Comfort Mbofana were my favorite DJ’s and they introduced me to the sounds of folk, blues and soul like Joan Armatrading, Nina Simone, Lou Rawls and Sade and also jazz and gospel greats like Ray Phiri, Hugh Masekela, Rebecca, Tananas, Southern Freeway, Dollar Brand and Anita Baker.”
Growing up in the 80’s in Southern Africa, you couldn’t avoid bubblegum like Chimora and Chico from SA, Zimbabwean pop like Deverangwena Jazz Band and Ilanga, the funk/ soul of Evelyn Champagne King and The Gap Band, roots reggae and kwasa kwasa from Zaire. It was inspiration for free.
Because of the variety in her taste, from an early age Netsayi fantasized about constructing a sound that was made up of all the musical components she most loved: “I loved singing with lots of people and going to the Roman Catholic Church, traditional ceremonies and gatherings because I was always moved by the layers of melodies and polyphonic rhythms created by voices, hosho and ngoma”.
After training and working in film (one film she starrred in was Idrissa Ouedraogo's Kini and Adams) and TV for 10 years, Netsayi left Zimbabwe in 2000 to do an MA in film producing at London’s National Film and Television School. But after a year she decided to drop the course to take music seriously.
Her childhood best friend, Rujeko Dumbutshena, who is a dancer, choreographer and musician herself, put Netsayi in touch with her uncle, Chartwell Dutiro, who was teaching mbira at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Chartwell encouraged Netsayi to learn mbira. “This was the deeper understanding that I needed of things like time signatures, and phrasing and the infinite patterns that exist in both Shona and Western music to discover how to put the nuts and bolts of creating my own musical “innovations” together. In my mind, I could only be inventive once I