Chicco Twala on inspiration to create music for Mzansi Magic’s Queen Modjadji

In 1996, when Chicco Twala released his album titled Modjadji, he didn’t think that one day, he’d be roped into being part of the creation of a soundtrack for a TV show telling the story of Queen Modjadji.

“It’s just a coincidence that I have a song called Modjadji, but it has nothing to do with that. My original song Modjadji was composed long before I was a musician, by an artist called Daniel Chirindza, it was a traditional Xitsonga song,” Twala told The Citizen.

The seasoned music producer and performer, together with the world-renowned pianist and composer Themba Mkhize are in charge of the music on Mzansi Magic’s TV series, Queen Modjadji.

“I was approached to work on the soundtrack, also remember this is not my first soundtrack, I did a couple of international films.”

“Modjadji was my biggest, where I worked with Themba Mkhize, it was only the two of us.  We obviously had to do a lot of research before starting on the production,” said the experienced music man.

In his version of the traditional song Modjadji, Chicco flipped it into a Disco ditty.

So big was his version that it featured in the soundtrack of the 2016 British film, My Brother’s Grimsby starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Mark Strong.

“They use the song for the closing sequence, the credits,” shared Chicco.

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Music for the series

Queen Modjadji tells the story of the matriarchal dynasty with the divine ability to summon rain. The series also pays homage to the Balobedu people and their way of living.

The Mzansi Magic TV show was created by Duma Ndlovu, who is also the executive producer.

Chicco, who hails from Limpopo in the Ka-Bungeni village, said he didn’t find any difficulty in creating the music for the show.

“Telling the story for me was, especially with music, not that difficult because around my area [Ka-Bungeni village] there are Balobedu people and I know their culture. Also, I was motivated by their story…I think Duma Ndlovu did a wonderful job, I think that also put a lot of ideas on me and Themba Mkhize,” averred Chicco.

“The sound of Queen Modjadji is completely new work, we had to start from scratch. Myself and Themba Mkhize, I think together we made a very good team.”

“If you’ve watched the TV show, you hear that everything is original, we didn’t have to go out into the libraries and take songs that are existing, that were composed by other filmmakers,” averred the veteran muso.

“We made it a point that we create our own sound. I think most importantly, Queen Modjadji has a very rich history and the Balobedu [people] and the music, you can’t just go to libraries and use music that won’t relate to the Balobedu people. We had to go down to the northern province (Limpopo) so that we understand the culture, the people.”

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