Malawi's Sonye and Tay Grin in SA for ‘Kanda’ video shoot

Released on Wednesday 15 June, the song also features Nigerian musician Orezi and will feature on an upcoming joint release by Sonye and Tay Grin, to be released later this year. ‘Kanda’ is a manganje song, the dance of which is popular in Malawi’s south-eastern region. It is fused with Tay Grin’s signature nyau music style  from the country's central region and boosted by a Naija feel courtesy of Orezi.

The song was first performed at Theo Thomson's White Elephant album launch held on 5 June at Robin's Park in Blantyre and immediately received a good response from the crowd.

Produced by Sonye, the track has been well-received throughout the country and is doing well on local radio stations. For example the song received praise from renowned Malawian radio and club DJ Joy Nathu. “It brings out the musician in Tay Grin, who does not rap but sings on the song - and he sings better than most people think he can, which shows his maturity in music," said the DJ. "The collabo works well too because Sonye and Orezi both did good work on their verses. I think it’s tough to say who sang better than who because all three sang well.

“The production is out of this world," added Nathu about the song. "The manganje beat was done in a youthful, modern way and to find a Nigerian singing so perfectly to it shows how good Malawian beats are!”

The collaboration follows 'Tsika’, another hit by Sonye, which was nominated in the Song Of The Year category at the 2015 Malawi UMP Awards.

The recent video shoot comes after fans of the song took to social media and demanded that the popular pair do a music video of the song, even prompting them to create hashtag #KandaVideo.

This is not the first time Sonye and Grin have worked together. In 2012, the pair combined lyrical forces on a song called ‘All The Way’. Tay Grin (whose real name is Limbani Kalilani) also recently fused his lyrics with another Nigerian star, 2Baba (formerly 2Face), on a song called ‘Chipapapa’, which made it onto Trace Urban's Africa Top 10 chart.