Leslie Moyo who goes by the name Leslie, is a female artist based in Blantyre. Besides being a musician, Leslie is also a presenter at Ufulu radio and also a sales consultant at Nyasa Decoland Ltd.
Leslie started doing music when she was at secondary school and she used to sing in choir at both SCOM and Church. Later on she started joining talent shows and sing with her friends which gave her all the courage to start considering herself as a musician. In 2016 she joined a music band known as "HITLIMIT" where she was being given songs to practice on and that enhanced her experience in which she was able to work on her solo project. In that same year after gaining experience from the band, she recorded her very first song. Leslie became a recording artist in the year 2016.
From 2016 till now, she has recorded over ten songs in which five of them are hers and the rest are features. She came to be known by many people with her song "Romeo Na Juliet" then after gaining little exposure she was approached by many big names in the game including Mortality C, Jazil and the legend himself Phyzix (just to mention few of them) for features.
Talking about Malawi having many talented females but few of them are well known in the game, the "Romeo na Juliet" commented that mostly the main problem here in Malawi is that female musicians are not given proper chances to make it in music and that it takes being brave and courageous for a female artist to push her music forth. Just like mostly of the female musicians commented on this issue, Leslie also said that there are people out there who brings opportunities to female musicians talking of promote their music or giving them a chance to perform at the show just to take advantage on them and this has been a major problem in the industry. She also added that several times she has experienced such behaviour from people who offers her either session money or a chance to perform at the show just to take advantage on her but she decided instead of quitting music so that she can stay away from such things, she then rely on her family's and friends support and that's what matters most to know.
The challenge that Leslie has been facing in her career mostly as an upcoming artist is lack of exposure. Mostly in our country we do not have many platforms where upcoming artists are given a chance to showcase their talent and also mostly our established musicians do not want to work with upcoming artist unless being paid lots of money and this has been a big challenge to most of upcoming artists including Leslie. Even though she is not under any management, Leslie is working closely with Nine Seven Dynasty which is owned by Jay Emm.
As a female musician, Leslie would like to see more females working in the industry including female producers and her mission is to create a platform where upcoming artists can showcase their talent for exposure and train them how to perform at the stage so that they can be prepared for big events. Leslie would also like to see many independent artists being able to invest in their music and in return get something big for them and also that commercial artists being able to collaborate with passionate upcoming artists for exposure mostly at an easy way, "on this note, I would like to appreciate Phyzix for recognizing my talent and working with me on his (new) album" Leslie said this as a way of encouraging the musicians who are well known to learn something from Phyzix.
In this fast rising industry, Leslie sees herself being recognized, performing in big stages with big artists and releasing an album for her fans in the next two years and this year of 2019 she has plans of releasing a music video for her hit song "Romeo Na Juliet" and also that she is gonna be releasing some songs she has worked on.
The following legends are the ones she considers favorites in our local industry, Lawi, Lulu, Patience Namadingo, Malceba and Wambali Mkandawire, even though Blackamoor was the female artist who inspired all way long and now it is Sangie she look up to as an inspiration and someone who is doing good in the industry.
Our reporter asked Leslie to say the words she has for a female artist who is somewhere experiencing the challenge she mentioned above and the following is what Leslie said "One thing she should have in mind is that talent will never go away ,yes it takes time to get there all she needs is to focus and work hard to be an independent artist the rest will follow as long as God is guiding the process... never give up on your talent just choose the right things and you will make it through"
Lastly she appreciated to everyone who has been following her and the ones who are interested in her music from now on, saying that she will not disappoint any of them and that everyone should expect more great songs from her..
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