Award winning singer, Roberto, climbing to higher heights with latest album 1712
Published: 25 February 2015 | by Danny Tese
Roberto - photo supplied
Zambia's Multi Award winning R&B musician Roberto is revelling in the success of his latest album '1712.'
The album boasts some of Africa's most popular artists and was named '1712' because it was released on 17 December 2014, which is Roberto's birthday.
Roberto lived in South Africa for sometime and while there, he wrote for and worked with some notable names, including Boom Shaka, Thebe and Buso. Since then, he has not looked back.
Though the Roberto's music is primarily R&B, in an interview with OneVybe he said that he 'loves to add some spice to it' by including rap and some dancehall melodies.
Primarily he considers his music as 'mature, straight to the heart and melody driven R&B.'
Roberto talked about how much music has helped him throughout his childhood. His family was very musical and he always felt that he was meant to do get into music.
Roberto - photo supplied "My music career kind of started years back, when I was 5 if I recall. Singing was an everyday thing at home.
"We would sing over everything, when power goes out in the night, singing made the black out process short, but professionally it all got serious around 1996."
Roberto said that it all started when his brother got him a PC that had 'Cakewalk' and he credits the music software for where he is today.
He said, "Ironically, the PC did not have a sound card, but after watching tutorials, I got the gist of how to make music and that's how I stated making music.
"Two years later I recorded my first song at a professional studio. The producer at the studio just enhanced the samples, added a few effects to it and it sounded so good, the producer asked to buy some of my songs and that's how I made my first pay out of music."
Since then Roberto has founded a recording company, BrathaHood Music, with his brother General Ozzy. He is under Kamikaze Entertainment Management and has a publishing deal with Sheer Music Publishing South Africa.
Roberto - Amarulah On what the highlights have been so far, Roberto laughed and said, "I always
try to avoid this question as it usually brings back those memories you
surely want hidden for good.
His worst moment is quite recent and
he said, "I was performing and this new pair of jeans I got had a
zipper problem and I had to keep zipping it up after I noticed people
kept looking at my zipper area.
"The best moment recently would
be getting to have my song become the biggest ever in my career and
still climbing across Africa and the globe, this surely in my musical
circles, is quite a highlight indeed."
Roberto bemoans the lack
of opportunities for musicians from Africa and he believes that if the
rest of the world were as open minded as the people in Zambia are, then
music from all over the world would get equal airplay.
Wine It - Roberto Despite
these issues, Roberto is having a successful 2015 and is excited to have
an event with singer Sean Kingston in a few weeks time. He said: "The
entire month of February has been quite an interesting one and am happy
that we end of the month in grand style, as we travel to a town called
Solwezi.
"The town is known for huge turnouts, one of the best
places to perform in Zambia. That's for the 27th & 28th, 6th March
am in Kapiri Town, March 20th in Kabwe."
2015 will also see the
release of several videos and hopefully Roberto winning great awards as
well. Roberto's priority is to stay connected to his fans and he told
OneVybe that they have just launched a WhatsApp line for the fans
worldwide.
http://www.zambianmusicawards.com/ With the chats, Roberto wants to engage one on one
with his fans and he said. "Also, they get new music info, news, and
samples directly sent to their phones and it's another way in which I
personally want to keep the many people that love and support my music
access to new material, because they make artists across the world."