Tapz plans Germany tour

Award-winning performing artist, music teacher, songwriter and activist, Tapuwanashe Munyayi, better known as Tapz, recently announced his upcoming Germany tour on social media.

The Zimbabwe-born artist made the announcement shortly after an interview with Banu Sound. He talked about his music journey and upcoming tour this year.

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Of the tour, Munyayi says he has not been able to move around the globe since 2020.

“I will be going on a three-month tour in Europe in a few months. The tour is going to be mostly in Stuttgart, Meinheim, Berlin and Leipzig. Doing performances and workshops is also part of my work as a music lecturer and performer. Getting back on tours shows that there is a shift when it comes to live performances, because livestreaming was not 100% beneficial to the artists,” he says.

Munyayi says the tour has been on the cards since 2019 when he was invited.

“Germany is very close to me because l work for a German institution and most of my international audience is based in Germany. I’m going to do performances around Europe, but mostly in Germany. I’m a music lecturer, so most of my workshops will feature musicology lectures, African instrument masterclasses, and rhythmic and body percussion classes from children to young adults. I will be focusing on educating workshop attendees about African cultural meaning from the context of music. I will be teaching how to play certain instruments like drums, mbira and marimba. I will also have a chance to visit artists in residence in Stuttgart at Akademik Solitude who l have been waiting to work with for a very long time,” he says.

Munyayi says from the tour, the public can expect well-choreographed acts. He says he will be doing farewell shows before he leaves.

“During the tour, I will perform songs from my soon-to-be released album. I will be performing songs such as ‘Mind Nobody’, ‘Njiva’ from Savannah Afros and ‘Summer Love’, which is my latest offering,” he said.

Munyayi said fans can also look forward to a few new collocations with German artists. “I have been working with German artists for some time now and l will also be on tour with them. So, the public can look forward to collaborations with artists from that side. I can’t disclose the details, but it’s been in the pipeline for sometime now,” he says.

Munyayi says he believes performing outside Namibia opens doors for him to interact with music lovers across the world. He says Namibians need to be out there and be more focused on exporting their culture and art.

“This is a great platform to tell our own stories. It’s also a way for artists outside Namibia to see us and collaborate. Artists are migrant people physically and emotionally and that inspired this tour […] I’m focusing on making the African continent heard and seen as a continent that is rich in tradition and culture, and also attract Europeans to visit Africa,” he says.

Munyayi plans to release his new album ‘God Given’, which means ‘tapuwanashe’ in his language. He worked on the eight-track album with Chris Wayne and the late Araffath Muhuure. He says the new CD describes his journey through love, betrayal, loss and social commentary.

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