Lawmaker Belekanyama launches choir competition

Malawi: Malawi Congress Party (MCP) Member of Parliament for Msinja South Constituency Francis Belekanyama, on Saturday, September 10, 2022, launched a K3 million choir competition at Mselera Primary School Ground in memory of his father, late Lingson Belekanyama.

Belekanyama stated during the launch that the competition is open to all choirs, regardless of denomination, with the goal of promoting love and unity in his constituency through singing.

"In the spirit of leaving no one behind, we nominated a group of nine committee members who invited choirs to join and pay a registration fee of K5,000 as a way of promoting peace, unity, and love through singing. The finalists will be judged by Lilongwe-based judges, and the winning choirs will be crowned,” he said.

"This is the best way to honour my father, a former member of this constituency because if you read his life, he built his legacy and trust in the people of Msinja South Constituency, and he was so committed to promoting prayer and unity, so I thought this was the right way to do that."

Frank Mbando, the competition's coordinator, revealed that 35 choirs in the constituency have already registered and that the best choirs will be chosen based on the originality of the performance, coordination of lyrics voices, and style.

"We divided the choirs into two zones based on the size of the constituency; the first zone is Dickson, and the second is Kambani zithe. The winning choirs from each zone will compete for the grand prize, but those in positions two and three will receive consolidation prizes, which will be announced soon,” he explained.

Mselera Baptist Choir, Simioni Chigwirizano Choir, Mologeni African International Church Choir, and Thawale CCAP Nursery are among the choirs that have registered to compete.

The competition will last three months, with the winner being announced on December 25, 2022.

Gospel artists such as Evans Meleka, Maggie Mangani, Kalupsa Choir, and Chiunjiza Joint Choir performed at the launch.