Zimdancehall chanter wins US$10,000

RISING Zimdancehall artiste and Lower Six student at Washington Hills High, Keith "Spucky B" Antonio (19), has emerged the ultimate winner of the US$10K grand prize for the Sasai African and Talented Competition which was launched in September.

Sasai is Africa's first global super application, a multi-service technology platform that brings together digital payment solutions, on-demand services, instant messaging and digital media services in a single, easy-to-use mobile application.

The competition also had some weekly prizes of US$100.

In an interview with NewsDay Life n' Style yesterday, the teen chanter said he was surprised after being declared the winner on Christmas Eve having competed with the continent's finest artistes mostly from Ghana and Nigeria.

"How I entered the competition it's quite funny, I saw a flier on Sasai Facebook page, I downloaded the Sasai application and followed the requirements to participate in the competition," he said.

"When the results were announced, I was offline because I had no data, so I received calls from people congratulating me and then I realised that I had won and I almost cried."

The Mt Pleasant-based chanter said he launched his musical journey in 2014 and worked with local producers such as Oskid, Pablo and Nicky. On the stage, he has rubbed shoulders with the likes of Andy Muridzo, Poptain and Baba Harare.

"I have released three albums namely, Anywhere released in 2016, Spucky Ndini Inini (2017) and Tayenda Chi-Bilateral (2018) and I believe that these albums gave me the experience which enabled me to win the grand prize. I participated under the music category," he said.

Antonio said he was putting final touches to his forthcoming album titled Hodzeko.

"This is just the beginning, I see myself rocking regional dancehalls. I am greatly inspired by Winky D. I have always been a fan of his since childhood and some of my fans say I sound like him," he said.