WHILE Livingstone, the famed tourist capital of Zambia could rightly be credited to have produced quite a number of musicians that have gone on to make a huge impact on the industry, it has rough diamonds too.
Dalisoul, Shyman, and Ty 2 are, but just a few of the many names that have come from the tourist capital.
To that list, 28-year old talented up and coming artiste Yoram Mupuma wants to be added.
Born on June 2, 1991 in Livingstone to Mary and Godfrey Mupuma, Yoram whose stage name is Yomi hopes to become the next big thing to come out of Livingstone.
The Weekend Mail caught up with the budding artiste who is married and is father to three children, one boy and two girls, and he shared his aspirations.
“I am the first born in a family of two and apart from music, I am also into sign writing,” he says. Yomi went to Mulwani Primary and went on to complete his secondary school education at Linda Secondary in Livingstone in 2010.
Despite scoring fairly good results at Grade 12, Yomi is yet to go to college since completing his secondary school.
“At the moment, I have my own company called Yomi Signs. We are basically into sign writing, number plates, billboards, date stamps, and also interior designing in houses among others,” he says. “Business is going on well at the moment. So far, so good, I cannot complain. I created the company in 2017.”
Detailing his music career, Yomi says he started music at a very young age - at as early as ten years old.
He says his father who at the time used to play drums for a named band in Lusaka could have played a role.
“I was still in primary and my father used to sing and play drums in a band in Lusaka a long time ago. It was in the era of the likes of 2wice and Nasty D, back in the days. I think that is how I got the talent too,” he says.
Yomi can sing, perform and write songs. “So, I would basically say that music was always in my blood,” he says.
His first song was What I am and it was recorded in 2010 by producers DC and Emma at Sound View studio.
He speaks highly of it. “It is a hit song. It’s a nice song, if you listened to it today, you wouldn’t know it's close to ten years old,” he says.
Like any other artiste, Yomi is also looking to release an album sometime in the future. “Maybe next year, or the other year. We shall see. But at the moment, I am just concentrating more on recording and releasing singles as I build a fanbase too.”
Other songs to his name include Chiyenda So, Nenzoganiza, Baby Nibang’ono, Rumour, Ulendo, Personality, One in a Million, Where Do You Put Me, Kwabula Ubewa and Don’t Cry.
His latest songs are Kukukondelela, Sinzakaibalako,Kankalidwe, and Sum’ting. In his early days as a musician, Yomi never had a genre. He used to do random genres.
But after finding his niche, he has now settled for conscious dancehall music. “I have worked with the likes of Camouflage, Edma, J Love, Chris Bryan, Malulu, Ray Cee, Twaila, Nephew Jae, and Nick from Botswana,” he says.
Given a chance, Yomi says he would relish working with the likes of Roberto, Petersen, Jay Rox and even T Sean.
Much as he is an up and coming artiste himself, he advises fellow upstarts who are still yet to hit platinum to stay focused, push hard and never give up.
“I have seen it myself. If I wasn’t hard working I would have stopped music, but I have refused to stop. I will keep going and keep pushing. The same mentality is what every young up and coming artiste needs to have,” he says.
He knows the road to stardom doesn’t come cheap. “You have to work hard to get what you want. The road to stardom is not easy, I know that too and that is why I have a side business even as I do my music,” he says.
He also calls for unity among Livingstone based artistes. “There is unnecessary beef among local artistes and we don’t even support each other. Otherwise, Livingstone has a lot of young talented musicians with a lot of potential,” he says.
In the next five years, Yomi sees himself as a big artiste.
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