Daughters Band to tour Norway
Malawi’s sole all female music group, Daughters Band, will this month tour Norway where they will perform at one of the country’s biggest arts festivals.
The band comprising Cynthia Phiri on bass guitar, Felistas Phiri lead vocalist, Chrissy Kaunde backing vocals, Prisca Mkaliainga Piano and Kester Phiri on drums, departs Malawi for Norway on June 23 through via Ethiopia for the Norwegian Youth Festivals of Art (UKM).
The objective of the UKM is to stimulate young people’s creativity and make their cultural activity visible. It is designed to be flexible and informal and aims at tickling the participants’ curiosity and broaden their cultural horizon.
This is the mother of all youth festivals in all the cities in Norway.
The Daughters Band has been invited to perform at this event in Trondheim.
“Apart from the main performance at the event’s venue, during the first week of tour, the band will also perform at two other shows within the city,” said Music Crossroads Malawi’s director Mathews Mfune.
The group will be joined by three other Malawian girls who are on an exchange programme.
“While there, they will also joined by Phalyce Kumdana, a member of the band who is on the exchange programme in Norway together with Christina Msuseni and Rose Chikalimba. The team will all perform together,” he explained.
During the second week, Daughters Band will attend a professional musical camp where they will be joined by other young female musicians.
Explained Mfune: “Loud Camp is a girls’ only music camp where young female artists gather for a week of professional music training. The idea is to empower these artists to use and utilise arts as a means of effecting positive change in the lives of other females, whether artists or not.
“The whole trip for us is an opportunity for all young female artists in Malawi with the Daughters Band setting the trend and through them we should encourage them to do better just like Mirriam Makeba, Angelique Kidjo and Madonna for example,”
With a goal of being one of the best female bands in the world, the girls are very ready to go and perform in Norway. The band is prepared and it’s ready to perform in Norway.
“We are having a tight schedule like rehearsing from Monday to Friday from 3pm to 7pm and on Saturday’s from 10am to 5pm. Some of the songs that we will perform are Achinyamata, Edzi, Nyama Kulibe, Amunanga, Moyo Wanga and Mwaononga. Our message is much of HIV/Aids, violence against women, environment and advise to our fellow youths,” said band leader Mkaliainga in an interview.
Playing Afro jazz, traditional and rock music, Daughters Band was established in August 2013 and will be making its maiden performance outside Malawi. They are expected back home on July 6.
UKM arrange festivals all over Norway where young artists between the ages of 13 and 20 perform and express their artistic vision in front of an audience.
They gather in the national festival in the city of Trondheim for four days in June, giving a lot of performances and putting their mark on the city’s cultural and social arenas.
