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Biography
Maiko Zulu is the most celebrated and consistent Reggae
artiste in Zambian music history today.
Born Michael Somanje Zulu in Zambia’s tourist capital
Livingstone, he grew up as a farm – boy herding goats and
growing corn and vegetables on his grandfather’s farm in the
Central Province of Zambia. It was there that he learned his
first vocal chords while screaming and running behind 100 to
150 goats.
Moving to the capital city of Lusaka at age six, Maiko often
jumped the walls to watch local musicians perform. Later
while in school, he toggled between being an Amateur Boxer,
a drama actor and a budding songwriter. Music, however, got
the best of him and soon he would be seen in every corner of
the country performing with local music legends such as Ackim Simukonda, PK Chishala and Chris Chali of the Amayenge
Cultural Ensemble. Maiko, also fondly known as St. Michael
has performed on the same stage with the late Brenda Fassie
(Independence Stadium, Lusaka), Lucky Dube (Independence
Stadium, Lusaka), Oliver Muthukudzi (Ndola, Zambia) and Jabu
Khanyile (Durban, South Africa) and Kanda Bongoman among
others. (Reference: Times of Zambia, Zambia Daily Mail)
In 2001, then going by the stage name of St. Michael, he
became the first Zambian artiste to be nominated for the
biggest music awards in Africa, K ora All Africa Music Awards
(Ref. www.koraawards.com). He has won the local Ngoma Awards
for Best Male Performer on two occasions (Ref. National Arts
Council of Zambia) and also has an AZAMI Award (Annual
Zambian Music Industry Awards) in his collection. Maiko was
also nominated for the M-Net Most talked about artiste
awards in Zambia
Internationally, Maiko has performed in South Africa (Durban
2000 AIDS conference), Burkina Faso in West Africa and in
the United Kingdom. Due to his involvement and active work
in promotion of human rights, International Labour
Organization (ILO) honoured him as goodwill Ambassador
Against Child Labour for Zambia.
Maiko has produced 6 albums namely:
1. In The Ghetto (2001) 2. Pressure (2004) 3. Reggae
Unlimited (2005) 4. Mad President (2006) 5. Monk Square
Revolution (2008) 6.Ju$tice For Hire (2009)
Maiko is an aggressive stage performer with direct social
commentary in his hard-hitting lyrics. His 2006 album Mad
President has continued to raise the controversy surrounding
the artiste with Parliament in Zambia debating his music
during live broadcast of parliamentary debates. Ref.
National Assembly Radio. So far, Maiko Zulu is the only
local reggae artiste to have hit the Sounds Top 20 Charts in
Zambia.
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