There is no denying the power of social media. Say what you like about these apps that people spend hours on, but some life-changing things happen on these platforms.
Social media has cut the distance between people and allowed connections to be easily made. Most recently, musician Mthandazo Gatya caught a lucky break when he participated in the #OpenVerseChallenge on TikTok.
Gatya added his African twist to John Legend’s new song “Nervous” from his album “Legend”. The duet video had many people double tapping, showing their love for the video, and it even caught the US singer’s attention and he took to the comments section as well.
Legend commented with three fire emojis, showing exactly what he thought of Gatya’s verse. The musician shared on Twitter his gratitude to all who ensured that Legend saw his duet.
“Thank you all for making sure John Legend sees my duet, great news is that he loved it and replied, as to what will happen next, we can leave that to God, thank you from the bottom of my heart,” he wrote on Twitter.
Speaking to IOL Entertainment, the platinum-selling artist shared more about the moment and how he felt about getting a reaction from Legend himself.
“From someone who has been a fan of John Legend all these years to now getting his attention. With possibilities of even having a song with him, it’s definitely a dream come true. I’m over the moon.”
Gatya shared that his team was trying to put in the work that could see him one day collaborating with the artist. Who knows, maybe an actual collaboration could happen between the two artists.
In 2021, Gatya bagged a nomination at the 27th SA Music Awards under the category record of the year for his song “Senzeni”. The song was successful and it was even the radio station TruFm’s song of the year in 2020.
It also featured on the charts at Metro FM, Radio2000 and Umhlobo Wenene.
“People know the song, but I think it’s the face that people didn’t know because sometimes I would see people jamming to the song, but they wouldn’t know it’s my music. So people know my music, not only ‘Senzeni’, they know other songs, it’s just the face, they don’t know the face,” he shared.
Gatya shared that he has been shooting content and working on ensuring that people will now be able to spot the man behind the music that they have grown to love.
This month, he released his EP “Journey To Infinity”.
He shared: “I feel like it’s hard for me to categorise my type of sound. I’m about music that moves the spirit, that revives the spirit. I’m about music that goes to the soul as opposed to music that will trend and then a few months later nobody wants to listen to it.
“On the EP it’s just songs that are carrying a positive message but at the same time keeping you on the dance floor. I have that dance rhythm on the songs, but the message and I also have this African element.
“I went as far as collaborating with Nigerian artist Chukido because I wanted to tap into some parts of Africa. It’s mostly African sounds mixed with Afrohouse and Afropop.”
Gatya’s duet video with Legend is sitting on 1.2 million likes on TikTok, with one of those likes being Legend’s.
The video on Twitter has also caught the attention of superstar DJ Black Coffee, who was even open to the idea of working on a musical arrangement for a dream collaboration.
Gatya’s EP “Journey To Infinity” is available on all streaming platforms.