TIPTOPSTARS

Do not visit Zimbabwe without requesting to meet and why not watch Q. Montana perform.  Else, you would hate yourself for having missed not only a soul-searching voice, but a dexterous guitarist whose melodious songs provide warmth to the heart.  And if you do have a feel of Montana's music, you would leave Zimbabwe with another African success story on you mind. The Harare-based Afro fusion (inclined to Zimbabwean traditional beats) singer is simple talented.

If talent is what you desire to experience in a young artiste, find it in Q. Montana's Neo Vector, his maiden album released in 2005. Sweet Pain (2007) also reveals the young singer as a thrilling artiste. Upon release of his third album, Untamed last year, Montana became one of Zimbabwe's most-sought-for singers, even by performance poets. At the Harare Internationa Festival of Arts (HIFA) recently, Q. Montana held a poetry café audience spellbound in Batsirai Chimaga's His Song.

But how did all this come about? "I discovered my passion for music at childhood," Montana told TIPTOPSTARS. He went on, "By seven, I was already playing the guitar." He persued his dreams until he saw them come true the day he performed in front of Zambia's independence president Kenneth Kuanda. That was in December 2009.  After the show, broadcast live on Zambian television, Kuanda gave the rising Zimbabwean music star a pat on his back. "I felt proud about that,'' said Montana, proudly.

Q. Montana who also does graphic designing nurses ambitions of becoming a renowned international singer. With a "Six piece band", he shall be touring some Southern African countries including South Africa, Botswana and Zambia. He admires his role models. "There are two - Salif Keita of Mali and Oliver Mtukudi of Zimbabwe,"