To everyone’s surprise, Mroza Fakude scooped the prestigious SABC Summer Song of the Year title, with his hit track Van Damme. The musician made history this week as he became the first maskandi artist to win the title. The announcement left fans wondering, how the hell did that happen?
Van Damme’s success is beyond their expectations as they thought that Babes Wodumo’s Wololo or King Monada’s Ska Bhora Moreki would win the title. Subsequently, fans inundated social media with comments about the win, with a lot of them saying they never even heard the song.
So, the question remains – how did the “unknown” song suddenly become SABC Summer Song of the Year? Well, it looks like social media hype doesn’t always guarantee the success of a song.
Besides, the song was selected out of many because people voted for it more than any other. In fact, they actually used their energy and airtime to vote, knowing they stood a chance to win a car.
Again, the country’s biggest radion station, recognised the song as their number one hit. The song was voted by Ukhozi FM listeners who span over 7 million. Arguably, that explains why Mroza Fakude’s track received much votes. When such a huge number of fans pledge support for a song, who will stop it.
Listen to the track here;
In addition, it happens that SA loves traditional music and Van Damme seems to fall under that category. From what radio host Lerato Kganyago said, Van Damme and Moreki were leading the votes in the final hours before voting closed.
The SABC’s 90 percent local content quota in 2016 may have contributed to the success of local music. It also shows how much people still appreciate traditional music.
