By Fidelis Manyange
AMERICAN singer-songwriter, performance artiste and actress Lady Gaga, born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, is best known for her flamboyant and bizarre stage costumes.
In 2010 she famously wore a dress made entirely of raw beef to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, which became widely known as her ‘meat dress’, which she said was a statement against the US military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy, implying that if people are willing to ‘die for their country’, their identities shouldn’t mat- ter.
In 2013, Lady Gaga stunned the world by appearing nude on stage during her rendition of the track ‘Venus’ at the G-A-Y nightclub in London.
Performing artistes the world over are bending the rules, so to speak, in their bid to lure fans as well as boost their marketability or sales. And this they are doing by adopting a variety of gimmicks including, but not limited to, creating controversial or shocking content, adopting extreme personas or deliberately pushing the boundaries of decency with provocative
themes to generate buzz and media attention.
Others have gone as far as simulating sexual acts on stage, all in the name of attracting more fans, boosting their bank balances and fame.
While most Western countries tend to be liberal when it comes to matters of sexuality, Zimbabwe frowns upon such practices as nudity or lewd dancing. But
this has not stopped some ‘sons and daughters of the soil’ from sacrificing their hunhu/ubuntu on the altar of Mammon — all for the love of the coveted greenback. Netherlands-based Vimbai Zimuto easily comes to mind. Despite making a modest name for herself as a musician, dancer and choreographer, she decided to go
the extra mile by posing naked in pictures which she went on to splash on the internet in 2019!
This is despite the fact that Zimuto plays the mbira and marimba, both traditional Zimbabwean musical instruments that demand respect and demeanour that are in sync with the philosophy of hunhu/ubuntu.
The ‘Hapana Kwaunoenda’ hitmaker defended her nude photoshoots as a form of art. But this explanation has not gone down well with the majority of conservative Zimbabweans who cannot figure out how she can serve as a role model to her two daughters or face her parents. But Zimuto is unfazed.“Nudity is how I came to earth so how can I be obsessed with something natural?”, she says matter-of-factly.
Not to be outdone is Christabell Stembeni Mahlungwa, better known as ‘Kikky Badass’ in showbiz circles. The rapper, singer and songwriter’s explicit pictures enjoy a huge following on her Facebook and Instagram pages.
As if the pair’s individual antics are not enough, in 2018 they went on to shoot an explicit video of the hit song ‘Kurunga’ during Shoko Festival’s Peace in the Hood Concert in Chitungwiza.
That, in later turned out, was just the appetiser to a raunchy video of her track ‘Simudza Gumbo’ released in 2021 and featuring hip-hop chanter Crooger and GT Beats. The video set tongues wagging as local entertainment’s bad girl left very little to the imagination with her explicit lyrics and visuals.
At the peak of her career, Beverly Sibanda, aka ‘Bev’, also made the headlines with her
X-rated dance routines which included inserting an empty beer bottle into her privates. She only
stopped the lewd practice when Delta Beverages threatened to sue her for disrespecting their world famous brand.
Not quite in the same league as Bev was Noleen ‘Zoey’ Sifelani, who set the nightclub scene ablaze with her pole dancing antics, most
of them in a state of semi-undress.
While Bev and Zoey have since dropped out of the limelight, Chitung-
wiza-based dancehall musician Brenda Bechani, aka Lady Bee, is filling the void with her dirty lyrics and controversial videos.
One of her videos, ‘Hamundiziye’, and labelled ‘ex- plicit’ on YouTube, can lift the trophy from Las Vegas strip tease nightclubs any day.
Although, it is mostly the females who have hogged the limelight for all the wrong reasons, their male counterparts have no been found wanting, either.
Talented instrumentalist and singer Jacob Moyana, won a modest following thanks to his dirty lyrics. However, his popularity was shortlived as his music was deemed unplayable in a family set-up not to mention public transport. Moyana argued in vain that only ‘dirty minds’ misinterpreted his lyrics as vulgar. Alas, the flimsy explanation was not enough to save his career.
Elsewhere, we have the late Nigerian controversial Afro-pop musician, born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Rensome, who later became recognised as Fela Anikulapo Kuti worldwide. He discarded his paternal name, Ransome, citing it was a slave name and replaced it with a Yoruba name which means ‘the one who carries death in his bag’.
The musician who preferred to perform and parade himself in public in only his undergarment has his underwear immortalised through
a display at the Kala- kuta Republic Museum in Lagos. Some of the undergarments were recently on display at the Fela Museum in the French capital, Paris.
Legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix smashed and set his guitars on fire on stage at the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967 as well
as at the Astoria Theatre in London. These stunts helped cement Hendrix’s iconic status as a guitar hero and global rock superstar.
The list of bizarre stunts by both local and international renowned artistes is endless.
And there is no end in sight to what artistes are willing to do to boost crowds and record sales.
