Chanté

Let’s be honest, every man enjoys it when the music he enjoys is performed by an attractive woman. When you’re listening to lyrics about love and passion and the excitement of sharing your time with someone special, every man likes to escape into a fantasy world as we listen to the voice of our favourite female singers.

The world of Namibian Music is graced with some stunningly beautiful women, and I’ve been lucky enough to be given the honour of profiling one of the best. Born in Windhoek in the mid 80’s, Chantel Kariposira is defiantly one of Namibia’s rising stars and she certainly has the talent and voice to place her firmly centre stage in the full glare of the lime light.

Right from school Chanté had a flair for musical talent. Having been a member of a hip hop group in school and performing in ‘The World Music Day’ in 2003 in Swakopmund, Chanté slowly honed her craft while she focused on completing her studies in accounting.

But don’t for one moment assume that her love of figure work makes Chanté anything like the proverbial boring accountant. No this young lady is vibrant, exciting and has a voice I’d rate up there with the angels. I guess you could say that officially Chanté’s musical career began in 2008 when she released a single entitled ‘Take Me Back’ a gospel song with Kevin Kamalata, produced by Elvo.

It was not long after the success of this single that people began to take notice of Chanté, and encouraged by the support of her fans, Chanté began to pen her own work and in 2009 she released her debut single, a Euro-House tune called ‘Made Me a Woman’ followed shortly by a hip hop track called ‘Let Me Breath’ recorded in collaboration with Stone G and co-written by Glo, Luvy and Stone G.

The thing about Chanté’s music is its ability to fuse effortlessly into almost any music scene. I could easily see ‘Made Me a Woman’ being popular on the European club scene, and it is that ability to cross the boundaries of contemporary European/African music that I think puts Chanté in a complete class of her own.

It has never been easy to bridge the divide of cultural and ethnic differences in global music, and often African artists find themselves changing their sound to suit international markets which detracts from the joy of finding an authentic African sound in the global music market, so it is quite exciting when you listen to music that has retained its identity and African origin yet potentially rubs shoulders with the artists that dominate the world music scene.

While still building her reputation and establishing herself as a notable artist, Chanté is an exciting prospect on the African Music scene and one that I defiantly plan to watch as her career develops and blossoms. Namibian music is producing some very promising talent and the future looks bright for Namibia, Southern African Music and the likes of Chanté.

To find out more about Chanté check out:

Chanté on Twitter

Chanté on YouTube

Chanté on MySpace

Chanté on Jango Airplay

Our thanks and appreciation to Alica Kaukuetu and Chantel Kariposira