Tapiwa Bandawe

Tapiwa Bandawe is a music producer from Malawi. He is popularly known in the music industry as Tapps. The idea of becoming a producer developed during his teens. While at school, he would contribute in composing songs. His interest in music never seized but rather increased as he was growing up. After finishing high school, he relocated to South Africa where he lived for two years and returned home.

He established a studio called Audio Vision Studio and began producing music for popular Malawian singers. As a producer, he is credited for assisting Tay Grin to launch his hip-hop career by producing his CD titled 'Proudly African'. He has also produced Lucius Banda's song 'Oh My Malawi'. Working with the country's big artists earned him much respect in the music industry. His success saw him clinching a production deal with Warner Music from the UK through its CEO Christian Tattersfield. This saw him working with international artists such as Jamelia, Sway, Liberty X, Alexander O’Neil, Elephant Man and many others.

Back home in Africa, he has worked with Lucky Dube, Brenda Fassie, Jozi (South Africa), 2Face (Nigeria), Nameless (Kenya), K’Millian (Zambia), Lucius Banda, Tay Grin, Mlaka Maliro, Theo Thompson and Phyzix (Malawi) just to name a few. Some of the popular singles he has produced include ‘One Love One Heart’ (a We are the World of African Urban Artists) and ‘Focus Africa’ featuring Tay Grin. 'Focus Africa' was one of the official songs at the 2010 World Cup.