HARARE - Gospel musician Sabastian Magacha and award-winning Zora star Leonard Zhakata have converted the latter’s hit Gomba Remarara into a gospel song called Kwekuturira.
Interestingly, Magacha, who recently returned from a North American tour, did the lead vocals on the remixed song set to be released tomorrow with Zhakata supplying the backing vocals.
The youthful Magacha confirmed the collaboration yesterday.
“Yes, we did a remake of Kwekuturira that will be made available to all the radio stations tomorrow,” he told the Daily News yesterday.
The award-winning gospel star is excited to have finally got the chance to do a duet with his long-time music hero.
“Zhakata has always been my favourite musician. I grew up listening to his music so it has been a real pleasure getting the chance at long last to work with him,” he said.
The Back to Sender hit-maker hopes music fans will appreciate the transformation of the popular secular song into a worship song.
“We changed some of the lyrics of the song but the central lyrics remain the same. I was the leading vocalist while Zhakata came in as a backing vocalist,” said Magacha.
Magacha added that the redone Kwekuturira will be part of his forth-coming album to be released sometime this year.
“The new Kwekuturira is an inspiring worship song. Worship songs help us lift our voices to God. They draw us near to God,” he said.
The worship track, recorded using a live band and respected producer-cum-actor Wonder Pinjisi, is part of Zhakata’s continuing transformation into a gospel musician.
Zhakata is happy with the result of his collaboration with Magacha.
“I am happy with what Magacha did to the song. When I listened to the remix, I felt touched by my own song which he transformed into a worship song,” said Zhakata.
“I added my voice to the song as backing vocalist. With his gift Magacha managed to change the tempo of the song, otherwise the song had always been a gospel song,” he said.
The Mugove singer began his association with gospel musicians last year when he participated in a family gospel show organised by musicians belonging to the United Family International Church (UFIC) at the City Sports Centre.
Zhakata’s latest album called Zvangu Zvaita carries a gospel track called Dhonza Makomborero.