TWO YEARS AGO, music entrepreneur Ramadhan Mupenda built a music empire after five artistes agreed to do music under the management of his record label, The Mane Music. However, the record label’s future now looks uncertain after three of its key artistes left the house with female singer Yvonne Mugemana, commonly known by stage name as Queen Cha, being the latest to announce that her music is no longer under the record label’s management effective yesterday, Monday, April 19. “Due to unfortunate circumstances, I regret to inform [the public] that the music management between The Mane Music and I is terminated with effect from April 19,” reads part of the singer’s letter of contract termination with The Mane. Queen Cha follows rapper Jay Polly and former Urban Boys Safi Madiba who parted company with the label in December 2019. The latter, who is the Queen Cha’s cousin, now lives in Canada. The singer’s contract termination was announced just minutes after a similar statement from Aristide Gahunzire, who was mandated to manage all music projects of The Mane, now that his boss, Bad Rama, is living in the United States. Gahunzire, who formerly worked for Kina Music before joining The Mane Music, cited personal reasons behind his decision to leave the record label. “We have been through the ups and downs together, and we managed to overcome them together as a team. It was a pleasure to be on the team for the last year and a half but it is with regret to announce that I am parting ways with The Mane Music effective April 19 due to personal reasons,” Gahunzire wrote in a letter that he shared on his social media. Since The Mane’s CEO, Bad Rama, left for the United States late last year, Gahunzire has single-handedly been handling the record label’s activities mainly audio and video production, as well as promotion of their music, among others. This leaves the remaining members Marina and Calvin Mbanda, in a dilemma since their boss is out of the country while their music’s manager is no longer with them. It should be remembered that Jay Polly and Safi Madiba quit The Mane following feud with their former boss Bad Rama who was heard many times regretting the losses after investing a lot of money in their music. This time, however, the US-based music entrepreneur is yet to react on Queen Cha and Gahunzire’s moves or even make any statement about how he will keep Marina and CalvincMbanda working under his management as he is focused on a concert dubbed ‘Summer Party’ in the United States. But why did Queen Cha quit? A number of showbiz enthusiasts, especially showbiz journalists, are convinced that Queen Cha’s departure from The Mane Music was a matter of time, accusing the record label of overlooking the singer while her former counterpart Marina released song after song. She last appeared in a song about a year ago when she and Marina released Do Me, a collaboration that went on to dominate the local music top charts for months. Since then, she has not released any other song. “You can’t treat a big artiste like Queen Cha like that and expect her to keep silent. She never got the respect she deserves from The Mane and I doubt anyone can survive with that kind of management,” a showbiz journalist told The New Times, on condition of anonymity. This paper has also learned that Calvin Mbanda is also on his way out of the record label which, he says, failed to meet the promises pledged to him when he joined. The singer is an upcoming artiste who is pushing for a breakthrough, but his management allegedly lacked a sense of commitment to help him achieve his musical dreams. Should he quit, Bad Rama will remain with Marina, who was also The Mane’s first artiste. But if he decides to manage her from the United States, the singer could also make up her mind to build the future of her music on her own, or even find another management.
