TikTok fame wins Malawi singer, 92, birthday party with president
Malawian musician Giddes Chalamanda had never
dreamed in his 92 years that he might one day be famous enough to dine with the
president followed by a night in a luxury hotel.
Last month the singer did both, thanks to his
unlikely new stardom on TikTok, a social media platform beloved of youths four
generations removed from him -- and one he can't access because he lacks a
smartphone or even electricity to charge one.
Chalamanda's ode to his daughter, "Linny
Hoo" -- a chirpy reggae tune with drums and synthesizers -- got more than
80 million views on the video-sharing site, owned by China technology giant
ByteDance. His fame launched his career locally, with multiple paid requests to
perform live.
Putting his small, lakeside southern African
country on the digital map last month brought him to the attention of President
Lazarus Chakwera, who threw a party for Chalamanda's 92nd birthday at the State
House in Lilongwe.
"I did not expect that I would be
invited to State House. It was such an honour," Chalamanda told Reuters at
his red-brick home in his village of Chiradzulu, a green area of macademia and
coffee farms 30 km (18 miles) northeast of the commercial capital, Blantyre.
"The President asked me about my opinion
on Malawi's music industry and the arts," the singer added, before
launching into a tune in his banjo.
He received a blanket and a pair of leather
shoes from Chakwera, and they sang one of Chalamanda's songs together:
"Azimayi a Malawi", which means 'Women of Malawi'.
In his state of the nation address on
Thursday, the president at one point said, "Ours is no ordinary nation.
Ours is the home of the fine sounds of Giddes Chalamanda."
Born in 1930 in Chirazulu, Chalamanda started
playing music at the age of 12.
"I did not go far with school. The
British colonial teachers ... thought I looked too old to be in class," he
recalls -- he doesn't recollect how old he actually was then.
He took odd jobs in the tobacco industry,
playing guitar during weekends at bars. In the past decade, he did manage to
perform in Germany and the United States.
But he was overwhelmed by the popularity of
'Linny Hoo'. The song, he said, carries "a message to young people to have
good manners by assisting their elderly parents with household chores like
sweeping the yard and drawing water."
It remains to be seen how many of his
millions of young viewers take that message to heart.
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