Lulu’s fourth coming

Millions believe God ‘abandoned’ everything musical in one man, Michael Jackson: golden voice, amazing moon dance and great composition.

They are wrong.

It is in Lulu, not Michael Jackson, where God ‘abandoned’ everything musical. Beyond the voice and the dance and the composition, Lulu—something that the King of Pop could barely handle—is also amazing on musical instruments.

“He is amazing on the guitar—quite heavenly,” says James Kuchilala, a music graduate of Chancellor College.

However, it is not the guitar, the voice and the dance that, to a greater extent, has stamped Lulu’s authority on Malawi’s music.

As veteran artist Lucius Banda said “Malawians dance to the message not the beat”, Lulu has, over the years, lived the spirit of composition and tailored his message within a well-defined pattern of themes.

From Mbambande, the debut album, through Kumalembe, to the third coming in Sindilora, Lulu’s music has been a well where you draw nothing, but three themes: death, love and prayer.

This triangular theme has been the heart of Lulu’s music, and he appears—consciously or unconsciously—so entangled to its bait. They are themes that have prisoned him for good, its charges too dense for an appeal.

And asked if he knows about it, Lulu said it all when he began with a laugh—a laugh without a smile.

“I am not so sure because there are songs I do because I am connected to the topic and there are some that I just compose,” he says.

He may not have thought about it, but the pattern of the three themes cutting across his albums continues to be potent. And it is unshakeable in Ndakudziwa, the just released fourth album.

Tales of love

As a young man, still in his green days of too much ‘love’ activity, Lulu’s love songs, from a distance, appears to be an expression of his inner self. The passion and emotional hook he attaches to his love songs, for instance Palibe Vuto, comes out too deep and strong—as if somebody going through a medical hypnosis.

Yet Lulu denies a special connection to his love songs.

“I grew up listening so much of Usher and R Kelly and Michael Jackson. Their flowery love lyrics inspired my curiosity and, since then, I started to test my capability,” he says.

In Ndakudziwa, an album almost coloured with love songs, Lulu shows his maturity of composition especially on how he colorfully negotiate power of forgiveness in Mponyere and passionate conviction to a lover in Mtima Wakana and Nzalera.

The craziness, like Romeo and Juliet, which Lulu potrays in Nzalera and Mtima comes as a continuation of Palibe Vuto in the previous album. All these songs, touching albeit on infatuation, carry a theme that reinforces the old African wisdom that ‘on your way to your love there are no hills’.

“I do not know how it happened, but to be honest, I just composed those songs,” says Lulu.

Conversations with death

Lulu, through his compositions, appears more like the fallen US artist Tupac Shakur. They all appear obsessed with the theme of death. Of course, they differ in approach. While Tupac explored death from his intrinsic fear of it, Lulu, on the contrary, sings about it more about its horror and memories. This comes out clear in songs such as Kumalembe and Undibwezere.

He also tackles death in Ndakudziwa where he invokes the terror of death—its toll on friends and relatives that defined his youth hood.

“It’s a song that comes from my heart. The uncle I talk about in the song used to be a great football player. He played on the midfield with John Maduka. His life continues to unravel images in me even though he died,” he says.

In fact, it is not just death of the uncle that he sings about in the song. He also celebrates the death of a ‘humble rich man, Mr Likonde’.

“He was rich but quite humble. His doors were opened to every story. Such life is worth celebrating, and his death should not shy the world to understand the human he was,” he says.

Time for prayer

Lulu was born, raised and learnt life inside the Church—and that background is yet to leave him alone.

“I was in praise team; I have done church choir and it is here where I learnt my first musical lesson,” he says.

Apart from going all out with praise in songs like Ndidalira, even in other songs, say love songs, looks still invokes prayer. Listen to how he invokes God in Mponyere as a reason why a persona should forgive the other.

But prayer in Ndakudziwa does not just come through invoking God in particular situations. Praise and worship are also a heart of the album. Ndilembeni, which carries a tone of South African gospel touch, is praise song calling heavens to reconsider a child who has strayed.

“I always thank God for what is happening to me. I may not be where I would want to be, but my journey is steady and God is always on my side,” he says.

At 27, and with four albums, Lulu may really have the reasons for praise. He has come a long way, of course, but he is still has so far to go.

“My focus now is to break and establish myself on the international scene,” he says.

And that idea, he adds, rests on two critical issues.

“Apart from concentrating on English compositions so that I connect with many, I think I need to work hard on my videos,” he says.

Well, with his Nzalera video now showing on Zambia’s Muvi TV, perhaps, Ndakudziwa is a call for an international break.