Profile:Millicent Chapanda

Millicent Chapanda (Milli Chapanda)is a British-based Zimbabwean Shona cultural artist, traditional mbira player, percussionist, singer, dancer and storyteller. Her music is nourished by Zimbabwean traditional ceremonials where vibrant spiritual & secular music is a key part of bringing people together in devotion, praise, reflection & celebration.

Millie’s mission is to bring the lived experience of women in Zimbabwe onto the international world music stage through performance, and although her music goes deep into ancient cultural heritage, it’s clear that she is keen to sing out loud for change on gender issues and the barriers affecting women in the diaspora & back in her home-country, and this gives her a real edge onstage. A Millicent Chapanda performance is a celebration Shona-style that calls on dancing ancestral spirits to rise through the trance of mbira’s cascading notes to answer the call of the voice & the insistent pulse of deep ngoma drum & hosho shakers