Keys, Mtukudzi Collaborate On HIV Project

Radio VOP can exclusively reveal that Mtukudzi has met Medecins Sans Frontiers officials, who are coordinating and producing the musical recording that is expected to be released in Harare on World Aids Day on 1 December and simultaneously in Miami and Spain.

“Mtukudzi has met officials from Medecins Sans Frontiers who are producing the CD and official correspondence is underway between the two parties regarding the recording,” Mtukudzi’s publicist Shepherd Mutamba told Radio VOP.

Medecins Sans Frontiers operates in Zimbabwe supporting government programmes in the areas of HIV and Aids and TB.

Mutamba said he understood that the recording would also seek support for the continued need to raise more funding for the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare’s programs.

Medecins Sans Frontiers, Mutamba said, had also revealed that Mali’s internationally celebrated afro-pop singer and songwriter Salif Keita and Senegalese singer and percussionist Youssou N’Dour were also expected to record songs on the same CD.

“Medecins Sans Frontiers said they were looking for artists with an international appeal to work on the CD and help raise awareness to avoid more pediatric HIV related deaths and they thought Mtukudzi fitted the bill very well as an international musician.”

While Mtukudzi is already renowned for his outstanding humanitarian work, including his role as a regional UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Eastern and Southern Africa, it is his collaboration with a high profile international musician that will certainly add another feather in his cap.

Keys, whose real name is Alicia Augello Cook, has at only 30 years of age already shot right up to international stardom and is today rated amongst the world’s best selling artists of all time.

Her music is sold worldwide in their millions and she became the best selling new artist and best selling R&B singer of 2001 earning her a whooping five Grammy Awards in 2002.

Songs in a Mirror, her debut album, was an international hit topping the charts and selling 12 million copies.

Like Mtukudzi, Keys is also a philanthropist and co-founder of a non-profit making organization, Keep A Child Alive, which supports HIV and Aids programmes in Africa.