Chaka Chaka accuses Chicco of withholding royalties for Umqombothi hit

Chaka Chaka says Chicco and Attie had taken advantage of the fact that she was a novice in the music industry.

Legendary South African singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka says musician-cum-producer Sello 'Chicco' Twala has never given her credit for writing parts of the hit song, Umqombothi.

Chaka Chaka told Newzroom Afrika that she had also never been paid for her contributions to the hit record, joining a trail of South African musicians - including Brenda Fassie - who have accused Chicco of playing them dirty on royalties.

Fassie, the wild child of South African pop whose piercing voice was seen as the siren of the dispossessed under apartheid, died in 2004, leaving her family battling Chicco over royalties that the We Miss You Manelo hit singer continues to enjoy to-date.

Chicco and fellow producer Attie Van Wyk are credited as the composers of Umqombothi, one of the songs that catapulted Chaka Chaka to international superstardom.

Umqombothi was in the album Be Proud To Be African, released on February 1, 1990.

Chaka Chaka said the two music writers and producers had taken advantage of the fact that she was a novice in the music industry.

“Umqombothi was written by Chicco, but I added some elements to it. I added that 'Nawu! Nawu! Madoda' and 'Everybody' parts. I have never received a cent from that project," she said.

Interestingly, the Nawu parts come at the climax of the song with Chaka Chaka emitting a shrill cry. It remains arguably the most loved bit about the song by listeners across the continent.

“They didn’t credit me, and back then, I was young and clueless about the music industry. This is the first time I’m speaking out about this,” she added.

Chaka Chaka, nicknamed the Princess of Africa by Ugandans after her successful tour in Kampala in 1990, has always kept the exploitation in.

She comes out as one such character. Even when she was deported by the Ugandan authorities on the eve of New Year 2020, she opted to keep the lid on the scandal.

With Chicco and Attie, there was a reason too. The two probably contributed the most toward Chaka Chaka's music career even if it was Pat Shange who had actually discovered her talent and encouraged her to try music for a career.

“Umqombothi made me who I am today, but I am hurt because I was never credited as the co-composer of the song. I was supposed to be credited as the co-composer of the song as some elements that I contributed to the song,” she said.

But Chicco, a man who claims he owns 75 percent of Brenda Fassie’s music, is not notorious in South African music for no nothing.

“Yvonne earned millions out of live concerts, and the whole of Africa knows that, if not the whole world," he said of the Umqombothi royalty raw.

“Me and Attie, as the writers of the song, didn’t even make half a quarter of the money she made from that song. Performers make almost 90 percent of any hit that a songwriter makes."

Chicco, Chaka Chaka and music 

Sello 'Chicco' Twala learnt from early on in his career that working with talented young musicians, especially girls, was like polishing gold dust. Most of them were innocent and only out for the stardom and just enough to maintain the celebrity lifestyle.

He exploited the innocence and naivety to his bank accounts.

He would get them the songs and help them produce it but he would own the rights to the songs and earn royalties for life.

Chicco also gained immense fandom among the kids as he claimed to promote their talent in songs like We Can Dance and Teacher We Love You before forming a female trio, the Chimora, from the vixens cum backup vocalists in his We Miss You Manelow album.

The Chimora, also called 'The Chicco Girls', were Tiny Mbuli, Makie Motloung and Tshidi Wildeman - and rode almost entirely on Chicco's back while he into their purse.

Chicco has worked with Winnie Khumalo on her Tshinatshina album and literally resurrected the career of Brenda Fassie in the late 90s with a collabo in Soon and Very Soon album.

It was Chicco, too, who wrote and produced the album Black President, which predicted the release of Nelson Mandela and wishing South Africa a better future. he also co-wrote and produced Ngohlala Nginje for Fassie.

But away from Umqombothi and other songs, it was in helping Chaka Chaka produce one of the greatest and most spellbinding mondegreens in music history.

A mondegreen is a word or phrase that results from mishearing or misinterpreting a statement or song lyric.

To pay tribute to the mother of the nation, he composed I'm Winnie Winnie, Mandela for Chaka Chaka’s Thank You Mr DJ album as well as the defiant Motherland on her album of the same name.

But it was the former that stuck out. In the studio, they realised that the song would not pass the apartheid regime censor and Chicco drew Attie an Phil Hollis to his own We Miss You Manelo.

The song was changed to I'm Winning Winning (My Dear Love). But Chaka Chaka was on top of her game and in the studio, she turned the initial confusion she had with the refrain into a great mondegreen art.

The creativity here was from another planet. I'm Winnie Winnie, Mandela is what you hear and also want you want to hear, but it really is I'm Winning Winning (My Dear Love).

Even in Soweto and Joburg, few got it the drift, Everyone sang it as I'm Winnie Winnie, Mandela.

Born Yvonne Moloko Machaka in 1965, Chaka Chaka she grew up in Dobsonville in a family of three girls - her two sisters Doreen and Refiloe.

Her father Habakuk Machaka, who passed away when she was 12 years old, used to sing gospel music, but her mother Sophie Nomakula Machaka, a domestic servant, would not allow Chaka Chaka into music.

In 1985, Chaka Chaka told then DJ Max Mojapelo, whose diary from interviews with several musicians on Radio Lebowa was turned into a book, 'Beyond Memory: Recording the history, moments and memories of South African music,' that Pat Shange discovered her talent and introduced her to Hollis in February 1985.

"Phil [Hollis] took her to the studio and handed her over to Attie van Wyk who would be to Yvonne what Malcolm Watson was to Brenda – a long-term producer," wrote Mojapelo.

However, in the book, South African Popular Music, she told author Lior Phillips that she had auditioned and wowed the team at Dephon Records led by Hollis and Attie.

Chaka Chaka’s first hit was I’m In Love With A DJ.

"It appealed so much to us as deejays and it was almost irresistible in our music compilations," Mojapelo says.

"Her album Thank You Mr DJ went double gold in five weeks. When Dephon’s long-term PRO, Master Sechele handed copies of the album to us it was like the handing over of certificates of appreciation with a picture of a smiling Yvonne looking straight into your eyes."

Now into her twilight, musically, Chaka Chaka has finally mustered the courage to speak out against Chicco's exploitation of a generation of musicians.

But Chicco believes he was only being a shrewd creative. And he really does not give a damn.