Inspired mainly by Yvonne Chachaka and influenced by the likes of James Chimombe and Machenic Manyeruke, Tererai Mugwadi has seen the highs and lows of the music industry.

Tererai, a University of Limpopo alumni, rose to national stardom in the 2000s with her hit song “Waenda” which is found on “Chamhembe Volume 1” compilation album.

She went on to release other hits such as “Sands of Time”, “Heya” and “I would and I will”.

A songbird who is proud of her 17-year career in music after being intimate with sound and lyrics from a tender age of 7, Tererai Mugwadi is still going strong as she reflects on her musical journey.

Home performances were her springboard as she could not hide her amazing vocal ability to family members. The young Tererai applied most of what she was taught during choir sessions at Dominican Convent.

“l joined the choir at grade 3 at the Dominican Convent were l got classically trained until grade 7.

“The grooming got me to actually read music and later started a bit of piano but it was for a while as l then chose to focus on sport since l was an all-rounder good in basketball, tennis took up and swimming where Kirsty Coventry was my senior.

During her high school days, she once formed an acapella group and had some good musical affair with the late Icon Dr Oliver Mtukudzi during a launch of a cultural school at Prince Edward School.

All that was happening in her high school life was a preparation of an opportunity that was to see her blessing the world with her soft, irresistible and charming voice especially when dropping love songs.

The thirst and desire for a local RnB and hip hop culture played a key role in catapulting the young Tererai to have a dream of being part of the new era in those years which was pushing for a local and authentic culture.

“With so much belief and a desire to have an urban culture away from the RnB/Pop culture that dominated local television which acted as a youthful expression influenced by a culture that was not ours, at one point in time most ladies emulated the Spice Girls and by that time it was another generation not Zimbabwean.”

The wave of change came when she was Form 3 when she met Rockford Josphat (Rocki) and Leonard Mapfumo.

“So in high school I saw an advert on television and it was a song Donah by Rocki and Ngonie and l promised myself that one-day l will make it.

“A year later there was an Interact Youth Against AIDS concert and the school asked me to do an opening prayer which I chose to do as a song and there after Rockie and Leonard Mapfumo came to me and said l had a good voice and they wanted me to meet their producer Delani Makhalima”.

The contract with Delani was a disappointment as nothing tangible came out of it as the talented producer decided to relocate to South Africa with a 13-track album that never so the light of the day.

“Zimbabwe was not happening for everyone and he (Delani) made changes in his life and he had to move to South Africa, he said ‘l am taking your works South Africa and l will mix the projects and will come back to and release’.

“l think he got to the other side and it was greener l guess and forgot about us,” said Tererai.

Life had to go on though there was a great void and she had to make a transition with the rest of the then urban groove family as they were sharing a common vision of creating a movement that would make a mark on the land and they went to Take 5 Studio and Chamhembe was born.

Chamembe was actually an amplified vision of what Delani had and, the government through former Information Minister Jonathan Moyo introduced a 100 percent local content.

“l would want to thank Jonathan Moyo for the opportunity but unfortunately we were not ready. Our legacy is the movement was very real and we were a family.

“To be an artist you must be surrounded by an entire chain of people, you need to have management and understand the business, speaking as a female artist at that time everyone who was approaching me for a gig like a promoter they wanted more than my vocals and it meant l needed a management that would stand up for me,” she said.

“Others would want to say l wanted to establish a relationship and that would not bring food on my table.”

Fast forward to today the music landscape has changed but Mugwadi still find pleasure in music and has to be one of the pioneers of the urban groove movement which has changed Zimbabwe’s musical landscape.