Millicent Chapanda is a proud cultural artist with a vibrant mission to bring the lived experience of women in Zimbabwe onto international world music stages
In performance, although her music goes deep into ancient Shona cultural heritage, it’s clear that Milli is keen to sing out loud on gender issues and the barriers affecting women in the diaspora & back in Zimbabwe, and this gives her fine performances a real cutting edge onstage
A Milli Chapanda show is above all a celebration Shona-style that calls on those dancing ancestral spirits to rise through the trance of mbira’s cascading sounds to the pull of the voice & the insistent pulse of the deep ngoma drum & hosho shakers
“Mbira musician, Millicent Chapanda just exudes presence and confidence, she is a great entertainer and that’s no mean feat. From the get go, or from the very first lengthy Mhururu, Millicent had the packed audience in the palm of her hand. I haven’t heard or seen anything like it since… Never. Since I’d never seen such a joyous performance so riotously embraced by an audience.” – Outsideleft, 2020