Whether it’s for her music, powerful live performances or chaotic love-life, Charma Gal has rarely strayed from the public eye in the last 16 years.
After a relatively quiet Covid-19 period, at least by her headline-hogging standards, the Mosakaso muso is poised to take centre stage once again as she prepares to launch her 9th album, ‘Ha Mma Jay’.
Indeed, as the 36-year-old Lerala native explains to Voice Entertainment’s SHARON MATHALA, for the next few years it’s all about the music; the men will have to wait!
“Why are you always interested in my love life? Let’s talk about music. People are too busy for such these days,” laughs the singer born Magdeline Lesolebe.
Looking fit, healthy and extremely content, the news will come as a blow to her legion of male fans.
“Marriage and relationships are the last things on my mind right now. Maybe I will consider marriage when I am an old woman. I told you that I will only get married when I am 60 years old! I am focusing on creating a legacy for my children,” declared the mother-of-three, whose previous taste of marriage infamously ended in divorce from Kabelo Mogwe back in 2016.
Although their relationship fizzled out, the duo remain friends, with Mogwe even featuring on the new album.
“The music business is very tricky in that you need someone who understands the pressures that come with the business. My experience is that most men here are either overly obsessed with you to a point that they want to follow you around everywhere, get jealous when maybe you interact with people and it becomes an issue at home. So I just want to focus on my children and their future now,” reiterates Charma Gal.
This mature attitude to life is evident in her latest LP, an eight-track offering that will be launched on 4 December at Trekker’s nightclub in Gaborone. A countrywide tour will immediately follow the launch as Charma Gal takes her music to the people this festive.
In the album, the artist bravely – and skilfully – branches out from her traditional Mosakaso sound, adding a Dance and Amapiano vibe to the songs ‘Tswaitswai’ and ‘Party Animals’.
The title track, ‘Ha Mma Jay’ carries a message close to the singer’s heart.
“I was focusing on the situation we were in as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The industry has been locked away for some time and I was trying to communicate my thought through song: that it was about time we learn to live with the virus and continue with the music,” she reveals.
It is a revelation that prompts an obvious question: why was such a famously outspoken artist so silent during the entertainment industry’s prolonged closure?
“I believe in consultation. And so with that situation the truth is many of us sympathized with what was being said generally but maybe differed in the way they went about it. I would have thought maybe we could have used music bodies for them to be at the forefront instead of individuals,” she explains simply.
Charma Gal is equally forthright when explaining why, since the outbreak of the pandemic in March last year, it has taken her until now to release new music.
“Because I don’t want to release music that will be shared for free on WhatsApp. I needed to make it that we could also benefit from it through bookings and the time you speak of there were no show as you already know.”
Asked if there will ever come a time where she will switch off her mic and leave music, the BOMU award winning artist comments, “No, I don’t think so. I would rather do Gospel or Jazz music. I think when I am older and when I am unable to dance and perform I will change the genre. I think in the next five years or so I will switch to one of those genres.”
