Team Shammah Vocals!

For someone who is in mid-twenties and is called Shammah Vocals, nothing could be any better than this if the vision is to still grow and become a global icon. Can a Malawian really become a global icon? Some may ask and my answer has always been in the affirmative.

Real name Shammah Storah is a youngman who was born when I had practiced journalism for three years and now his body of work is so attractive and an inspirational to fellow youths that I can only hope that the best has not yet come for him.

When I first heard the track 'Reverse' back in the days I had a feeling that it was done by one of the numerous Nigerian musicians who now seem to be ruling the continent after South Africans and Congolese slackened a little bit.

Most of the times when I hear a 'nice' tune that I think was done by foreign acts I rarely experience any fast pulsation because the feeling is that these things are better done by them, anyway. So when I realised later that there are in fact some Chichewa words in the track I appreciated that this is perhaps the artist to follow with keen interest.

I am glad that I did because I am yet to be disappointed with Shammah Vocals.

Everything about him seems all rosy. His story of survival and perseverance after he and his four siblings were orphaned and that he still managed a diploma from the University of Malawi is some tale that you rarely hear from the youths of today.

Of course the only negative that has come from him is neither his fault nor entirely related to music. A naked picture showing him playing a guitar while sitting on his bed went viral on social media. On close inspection of the picture you really cannot deduce the 'naked' theories that came out of it. As is expected from those filled with negative vibes, there were many malicious stories that were manufactured by those who love to peddle falsehoods on social media platforms.

Anyway, the reason anyone would really be busy fabricating stories for someone like Shammah Vocals is when they know of his relevance and how hard they would try to derail him from the course.

Look, the young Shammah was only 22 when he got two awards at UMP 2018 edition. He got Best AfroSoul and Best Urban Gospel when many have been around and are yet to show for it.

Apparently the awards came when he has only a 10-track album which proven its success when it was released as a debut in 2015 called No Reverse.  It earned him rave reviews.

And just to show that he has enough maturity to deal with all such social media rubbish, he just announced that he is working on his second album Asamala Yehova.

In this album he says he has worked with different producers like Gresham Mokoena of Ituma Production, Jay Emm of 97records and OBK to maximise on variety in the production. His products have never disappointed and if he decides to involve more hands what it means is that his philosophy for quality is admirable.

Perhaps I should also confess that while I have been observing what Shammah Vocals has been doing in his musical exploits, I never thought I would really be compelled to talk about him over here, until my daughter happened.

Vichi, my daughter in question, will be celebrating her third birthday on August 27th this year but she has a very sharp ear for good music. She is the one who upon getting my phone one day went on YouTube and said she wanted to play My Zoe and when she did she started singing along. I don't know who first introduced her to the track. One secret of good music is when they capture the attention of children. Shammah Vocals is an artist to watch in the next decade!