By Burnett Munthali
Castel Malawi has launched a new beer, Pomme Breeze, an apple flavoured beverage which seeks to take 20 percent market share by the end of the year.
Brand manager for Castel Pheona Nyambo told journalists during the launch of the brand in Lilongwe that the drink aims at competing against imported brands, mostly those which are smuggled, adding that the pricing and quality is competitive to stand the market.
The press briefing preceded a music fiesta to be headlined by South African songbird Nkosazana Daughter and local greats, including Onesimus and Praise Umali.
Nkosazana Nolwazi Kimberly Nzama (born 6 October 2000) professionally known as Nkosazana Daughter, is a South African singer and songwriter.
Nzama gained national recognition after she released her 14-track debut album that featured notable artists such as DJ Maphorisa, Makhadzi, Master KG, Kabza de Small,Tyler ICU, Major League DJz, Young Jonn, and Chronical Deep, and others.
She collaborated with Master KG and Lowsheen on “Sofa Silahlane”, which was released on 12 May 2022.
The track hit number 1 on Apple’s Local iTunes Charts.
In April 2022, the music video of ‘Dali Nguwe’ featuring Master KG reached 3 million views in three weeks.
In June 2023, her debut studio album got released and charted number 34 on Spotify Top albums, and debuted number 3 in South Africa.
She has performed in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, United States and several other countries.
Armstrong Kalua (born April 29, 1990), professionally known as Onesimus Muzik, is a Malawi-born Afropop singer and songwriter.
Onesimus aka African Butter started singing at the age of 13.
His love for singing grew as he performed at different concerts around his community in Malawi.
Apart from singing, Onesimus also has passion for dancing as he first gained expression at the age of 17 when his dance group God’s soldiers won the Sprite competition in 2006.
He discovered his knack for lyrics in 2008 when he joined the rap group Blessed Beyond Measure (also BBM Clique) dropping tracks such as “By MySide” and “Random Thoughts” with the outfit.
The artist was to venture into a solo career soon after, working on an unreleased hip-hop mixtape called “Beyond Limits” for a year in 2009 before he found his true calling, music.
Armstrong started singing secular music in 2010 and finally released two singles: “Beautiful” featuring award-winning Malawian rapper Young Kay and “Without Your Love” which landed him a coveted deal with the record company ‘Nde’feyo Entertainment’.
Almost instantly thereafter he began his tour in Malawi under the stable, in 2011.
He dropped a R&B mixtape titled ‘BRB’ in 2012 and – in the same year – dropped his debut Afro R&B album: “Ndele”.
In this album he showed his diversity as he also sings in his mother-tongue – Chichewa.
By this time he had already worked with several of Malawi’s urban music icons and also did a song called “Musiye Ayende” with Zambia’s musicians Dalisoul and Afunika.
He made appearances on many line-ups at acclaimed music festivals in Malawi sharing stages with the continent’s industry giants: Oliver Mtukudzi, Freshlyground, Salif Keita, Professor, AKA, Naeto C.
