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Swedish/Malawian group in homecoming show

 

Coming to Malawi: Mwamwaya (L) and Karlberg
Coming to Malawi: Mwamwaya (L) and Karlberg

East, West, North or South home is best.

After performing at the Lake of Stars festival on five occasions, and several tours in Europe, Japan, America and Australia, the Malawi/Swedish duo The Very Best has finally decided to come home to hold their first own performance in the country at Silver Stadium on May 3.

Esau Mwamwaya, one half of the trailblazing duo, told On the Arts that they found it difficult to perform in Malawi because their record label is based in London hence they preferred to organise concerts in Europe.

“It has been hard for us to find money to perform here also because to travel with the whole band is expensive, but finally we are here. Kwanu sikutalika (home is never far), now we have Mafilika which will back us and all is well,” said Mwamwaya.

He added that they have taken long to hold a show in Malawi because they have been waiting for the right moment as, despite their success in Europe, The Very Best is relatively unknown in Malawi, but their fan-base has been growing steadily over the years.

“We have taken this long because we wanted to make something really special, something worth remembering for our first show in Malawi,” said Mwamwaya, who is the singer in the group while Swedish DJ Johan Karlberg is the producer.

The duo believe in experimenting and practising to come up with something new that has never been heard or seen before as such they decided to call for a number of artists to join them on their first show.

Some of the artists that have been listed for their performance are Lawi, Tay Grin, Theo Thomson and Sonye.

The Very Best are currently studio recording new songs with several Malawian artists, but Mwamwaya noted that the songs will be debuted on the day of the show.

“We are humbled to be joined by these talented artists such as Lawi, who is obviously the freshest and biggest thing in Malawian music at the moment; plus Tay Grin and Theo Thomson who are our personal friends and we asked Sonye to come back into the music scene for a weekend and he accepted which we’re really excited about,” said Mwamwaya.

He noted that they have been recording their upcoming album TVB for the last eight months with some songs recorded in Lilongwe and Mangochi.

Singles of the album, which is almost done, will not debut until September.

“After the show on March 3, we will go to Mangochi and record for two more weeks and then we will take it to London for mixing and mastering,” said the Biwi-based musician.

The group promises the best of their music in their album with collaborations from big artists from the Europe and international artist Baaba Maal plus Lawi and Piksy.

“We are just super excited to finally be doing this show. It’s been a long time since we started touring in America, Europe, Japan and Australia, now it’s time to bring the show home and have a real home coming party,” said the musician.

The Very Best is well known across Europe and, apart from performing at Lake of Stars Festival, the duo performed at Festival Blues Du Fleuve last year.

Because the group is a mixture of Western and African cultures, some of the songs from the duo are sung in Chichewa and some in English.

Their debut album title Warm Heart of Africa, won the World Beat Song award at the 9th Annual Independent Music Awards. Their last album is titled More to Malawi than Madonna’s Kids.

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