Top Zimdancehall female artist Lady Squanda says she has shed her “Bad Girl” image for good.
The release of her latest offering ‘Reality’ confirms her new-found character in which she says she is now a lady in the true sense of the word.
“This single marks my transformation,” the fiery chanter tells EntersportNews.
“Previously I had this image of a carefree girl but I realise that I am now a mother and must now show that I have come of age.”
Nothing is lost though in the track of the 27-year old’s savvy style and witty verbs that have made Lady Squanda a household in the local arts industry.
Lady Squanda said all the steps she had walked in her decade-long career had been deliberately choreographed, and she had never felt like she was losing her senses.
“Breaking into the male-dominated Zimdancehall genre just after completing my O’ level studies needed a woman of steel and I had to project myself as such,” she attests, adding:
“But now I feel I have reached my zenith for I meet a lot older people who tell me that they listen to and enjoy my music and that is why I now have a mind to widen my target audience in my music.”
In graduating to this level, the Chitungwiza-based queen of rhyme would only follow the path charted by fellow Zimdancehall doyen Winky D, born Wallace Chirumiko. He abandoned, initially too wide opposition, his previously popular gangsta lyrics to embrace socially-conscious messages that have now won him fame nationally and internationally.
Lady Squanda, real name Sandra Muchaneta Gezi, is counted in the same ranks as her male contemporaries like Winky D, Soul Jah Love, and Killer T, and she admits music is paying off.
“To the sense that I have been able to invest in some income-generating projects from the proceeds I have earned from musical shows and sales I can say music is profitable as a profession,” she said.
However, she laments the inactivity caused by the coronavirus-induced inactivity as artists were not able to perform in front of live audiences. “In the interim I have had to rely on my other ventures as I have got to take care of my child, my grandmother and other relatives. Online music sales have also been a help.”
