Namadingo’s Mapulani hits one million views
When South Africa’s Master KG was dropping his Jerusalema single, he had no idea this was the song that would change his life forever.
As of September 2, the hit song reached over 112 million views on YouTube.
The song had 50 million views by last end July.
While Malawians are among those caught up in the Jerusalema wave, award-winning artist, Patience Namadingo is following the footsteps of Master KG.
His hit single, Mapulani has registered one million views on YouTube in five months.
Comparatively, this feat is nothing to that of the South African who has sent the young and old, rich or poor into uncontrollable moments of jazzing.
But for Namadingo this is no small feat. He took time on Tuesday to celebrate the milestone in a post on his Facebook page.
“Stand Up! Fact number 1: Mapulani by Namadingo has become the first Malawian music video and not just music video even just video in general to reach one million views on YouTube in just five months since the day of release. Making it the most watched music video from Malawi in the whole world since the day music started in Malawi,” claimed Namadingo.
He said the development makes him the first solo artist from Malawi to hit one million views with a Malawian made product.
Shot by Essim Shaib M’bwana of Animal Lab Production in Area 47 Lilongwe, Namadingo said he made the video with a minimal budget.
The Lilongwe-based Great Angels Choir also hit that record with their 2015 release, Musalole after three years on Youtube.
From the comments section on YouTube, Mapulani has a fan base in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
In an interview, the artist said he has achieved those numbers because of “the outside world and not necessarily from Malawi.”
“As much as it is from Malawi, you have visible proof on YouTube when you go down the comments and see flags of various countries and you barely find a Malawian flag,” he said.
In a separate interview, the video producer of Mapulani, M’bwana said he was excited that his work has achieved the milestone.
“It feels so great to be part of history. As it has always been, the goal is to produce a video that reaches one million views. Honestly, I did not think it would hit a million views within such a short time,” he said.
Mbwana believes the achievement will spar other artists to aim higher.
“This development means Malawian music is getting a lot of recognition from other countries because of Internet penetration. I hope this motivates the arts industry to aim for something bigger,” he said.
Meanwhile, as Namadingo is set to release another single on November 30, his recent single Adowanna is doing well on Apple music. It is among Apple music African Afro-soul mix, a list of the best R ‘n’ B and Afropop songs from across the continent, according to https://music.apple.com/za/playlist/afro-soul-mix/.
It is currently on number 56 out of 97 ranked songs together with some big names on the African music scene such as Kenyan all-boy band Sauti Sol, Nigeria’s Burna Boy and Wizkid and Mbosso from Tanzania.
