Tay Grin flies high with collabos

Unity, it is said, is strength. And in music circles, collaborations play a significant role by blending different styles, artists and cultures for a common cause.

Nyau Music star Tay Grin is one of the country’s urban musicians whose career is making the best use of collaborative projects to sell Malawi to the world.

After successfully working with Nigeria’s 2Baba and Malawi’s Theone Sapa on Chipapapa, Tay Grin has bounced back with another hot collabo called Kanda, which features one more Nigerian musician Orezi and Malawi’s Sonye.

The song was officially released Wednesday, but Tay Grin, alongside Sonye, performed Kanda for the first time during Theo Thomson’s White Elephant album launch held on May 5 at Robin’s Park in Blantyre.

“The release date of 15 June happens to be my birthday and this is my present to all my fans in Malawi, Africa and the rest of the world. We keep the 2016 goals alive, Kanda will make the world dance,” says Tay Grin, born Limbani Kalilani.

While revealing that it was great working with Tay Grin and Orezi, Sonye adds: “We’re putting pure Malawian sound on the international scene, bringing manganje and Nyau Music to the world, and Orezi gave it that awesome Naija feel and made the song wholly African, it’s a heavy song with deep rich cultural content.”

Kanda is a manganje song fused with Tay Grin’s Nyau music signature and a Naija feel. It is a song which brings together different cultures and styles as far as creativity is concerned.

MBC Radio 2’s Joy Nathu described Kanda as potential material for international exposure.

“It is such an adventurous and interesting song which brings out the musician in Tay Grin who does not rap but sing on the song. The collabo works well too because Sonye and Orezi have also done a great job,” said Nathu after premiering Kanda on Radio 2 FM’s new show Made On Monday.

He added that the traditional elements of Kanda will help to connect Malawi to the world. n