My Star 2011 finalist releases 'music of modern times'

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FRANCISTOWN: My Star 2011 finalist Norman Otukile has released his first album and he says though he did not win, My Star competition has helped him to gain fame and recognition. The album whose title track is "Kgalema" has been released after slogging away for 18 months working on it.

The 43 years old said that he has ensured that he gave his fans a quality product, which will be loved by all, and sundry. The album is an Afro-Pop fused with jazz and he said the reason he released this type of music was that it was the music of modern times. "Afro-Pop is the music of this time. People love it and I felt that I should release something that people love. Jazz is all type of music brought together. It shows that I took all my time to know all the genres of music to come up with a quality album.

"In order to release an Afro-Pop Jazz album you have to understand so many genres of music," Otukile said.He said though Kgalema is his first album he has been in the music industry since 1989.  He worked with Duncan Senyatso, Johnny Kobedi, Unity Band, Kgobola, Kups and Buasa Stars as a backing vocalist. He said he never stopped working in the music industry.  He then went to Botswana Prisons (BPS) Band where he learnt to play instruments. "BPS Band is a school of music where you are taught all types of things needed in music, how to tone the voice, playing and a lot of the things that are needed when writing a song," Otukile said.Otukile said that the message of his six-tracked album is self-discipline because nowadays it is all about individuality among people, as they (people) no longer listen to elders. So he was encouraging others to be self-disciplined. His favourite song in the album is the title track Kgalema due to the message it is relaying to its listeners. "People like Ngwanaka and You Said (track 2 and track 5 respectively) though and it is to their taste while my heart goes for Kgalema.

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