PURSUIT FOR ‘BENGUNI’ ROYALTIES

MBABANE – South Africa’s Shelembe Aphiwe Productions says they are still going to pursue royalties for the recently released collaboration between local artists and Shelembe Aphiwe artists from South Africa.

This was revealed by the founder of Shelembe Aphiwe Productions, Nhlanhla Shelembe, during an interview. According to him, they have not yet looked at getting royalties for the song, but they are only monitoring the improvements. “The royalties part, we haven’t really looked at it the moment. We are just currently keeping track of the improvements to the song, then we’ll look at the next step, which is the royalty part.

Determination

‘‘However, we are thankful that our work was astounding; it makes us very happy, and I think other artists will also be encouraged to work together and harder to do something with determination. We as South Africans are happy and hope the Eswatini people are also happy so we can continue to work together in the future,” he said. The collaboration song between local artists and South African (SA) Shelembe Aphiwe artists is titled ‘Africa Unite’ and it debuted on Trace Africa last Friday. The song took number five on Friday’s top 10 playlist. ‘Benguni’ is a collective name that refers to Shelembe Aphiwe artists and the local artists who were featured on the song.

The song was given life by a cultural exchange that was recently hosted by Shelembe Aphiwe in Durban. It was attended by local musicians such as Mshikishi, M Nation, Samu Once Again, Scuveve, and Grinder, to name a few. These musicians are also the ones who were featured in the song. The cultural exchange was made possible by a memorandum of understanding (MOU), which was signed between the Eswatini National Film and Television Association (ENFTA) and Shelembe Aphiwe Productions in 2023.

After making its debut on Trace Africa, Shelembe shared that they were pleased to have made the achievement. “We are greatly pleased with our song reaching the top 5 in Trace Africa and getting attention from parts of the world. We also hope it gets the opportunity to get the number one spot. Putting together a song about Africans coming from different countries and cultures is really inspirational. We hope that there are many things we can accomplish by working together going forward. It made me very happy that our work was able to be seen by the people and the whole world,” he said.

Opportunity

One of the local musicians who are featured on the song, Scuveve, shared his excitement for seeing the song make progress and also highlighted that they would appreciate it if they could get royalties for the song. “It’s a great achievement to be featured in SA and to see yourself on a big screen. I received calls almost every day when the song was played. I feel like it’s a big move for me, and I really appreciate this opportunity. ‘‘About royalties, I think we all need money, and we really need it to keep us going, but I feel like I’ll receive it when the time is right,” he said.Worth mentioning is the fact that the song has yet to be launched in the kingdom. 

This was revealed by Zakhele ‘Ugly Gee’ Mabuza from ENFTA. This was before the release of the music video. “We cannot yet reveal the dates pertaining to when exactly the launch will be done. Shelembe Aphiwe Productions will be visiting the country soon to launch the song here in Eswatini,” he said.

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