Zani

BIO

Zani Michelle Chiumia is a South African recording artist born to Malawian parents. She was born on 21 November 1988 in Cape Town, South Africa. She is a singer, actress, model, TV presenter, lyricist and recording artist. She grew up and attended high school in Malawi.

The year 2007 marked the beginning of her career as an artist when she joined Malawi’s Star FM as a Radio DJ. Shortly afterwards, she left and joined Power 101 FM. During her time at Power 101 FM, she produced and co-hosted a show called Drive Time. She also worked with Tapps (real name Tapuwa Bandawe). Tapps is one of the country’s leading producers.

In 2010, she enrolled for Contemporary Music Vocals at Damelin College. While at college, she established a band called Burning Strings. This saw her performing contemporary music in genres such as jazz, rock, pop and a few others.

In late 2010, she temporarily jumped the floor and featured in the Africa Magic production movie called ‘A Song for Julie’ also known as The Betrayal. She has also featured in two movies namely: ‘The Dragons’ and ‘Bleeding Heart’.

In 2011, she joined an all-female group called South West Divas (SWD). In that year, she decided to lauch a solo career. This saw her performing with artists like Maraza, Teepee, Proverb, Ifani L-Tore and many others. She hogged the limelight when she performed at the Back to the City hip-hop festival.

In 2012, she took a break and focused on her modeling career. In 2013, she signed to Gwenya Entertainment. The recording stable is a South African and Zimbabwean based artist management entity.

She has to date released one album ‘Nyasaland’ (28 July 2014). The music project featured one of her popular songs called ‘Gwada’. The song featured Okmalumkoolkat and Ras.