Top 5 Tracks - Chiwoniso Mararire

After a long break the Top 5 Series is back and on today's article will be focusing on the late Mbira Queen Chiwoniso Maraire or Sister Chi as she was affectionately known.

Chiwoniso is one of the very few artists who managed to reach legendary status despite having a very short discography. I only know of two albums from her and a few singles released in between. However of the two albums one of them; Rebel Woman is very good and filled with a lot of mbira goodness and the other album; Ancient Voices is one of the finest albums to ever been released in Zim, its as near to perfection as albums get. 

So despite having a short discography nearly all of her tracks are superb.  Whenever she released a track you would know that it was of top quality. So selecting my top 5 was quite a hard task but i had to do it and here are my favorite tracks from Sister Chi.

5. Hurombo (Mugara Ndega)

This is Chiwoniso's cover of Thomas Mapfumo's classic of the same title and she did a superb job. She laced the track with some beautiful mbira and added her own touch to the track, the result is one beautiful track.

4. Rebel Woman

The title track of her second album flows beautifully, love the vocals and mbira on this track. Definitely one of my favorite from Chiwoniso.

3. Tamari

This track instantly takes me back to the movie Everyone's Child which the Ancient Voices Album provided the soundtrack for. Its a super lovely track with some insane guitar solos from Andy Brown. The guitar solos alone made this track one of my favorite.

2. Ancient Voices

On this track Chiwoniso took us back in history, way back to the time before the first Chimirenga when Chaminuka who was a spirit medium warned people that white people were coming from a far land to take the land. He provided hope and leadership for the people when the war began and people would sing him praises. The track has a mystic element to it which I love, i cant cant but sing along whenever this track plays.

1. Nhemausasa

Loveee the energy of this track, it can easily get you into a trance. The rumors that once circulated saying Chiwoniso was a spirit medium can easily be confirmed by this track, it has the energy that can get you into a trance. The production and vocals are superb. The track is taken from a traditional song which was popularized by Thomas Mapfumo on his Hanzvadzi track. This is just a superb jam and outrightly my favorite from Sister Chi.

So ya those are my top tracks from Chiwoniso Maraire. Before we conclude lemme share with you some honorable mentions:

Mai

Wandirasa

Ivai Nesu

Zvichapera

Handimbozorora.

I know a lot of you have heard a lot of tracks from Chiwoniso so feel free to share your top 5 from her in the comments section below.

Proud_Zimbo.