A Royal Chundu music video collaboration ~ “Zambezi” by local Zambian musician, Eric Choonga, aka EC Bling.
As part of our hopes and purpose to create a platform for local artists and other local producers and suppliers through Royal Chundu, we bring you another talented Zambezi resident, our own lodge security guard and longtime music-maker… Eric Choonga aka EC Bling!
Eric lives in the Malambo village right next to the lodge on the banks of the Zambezi River. He’s been singing since he was a child. In fact his grandmother tells of how the family used to tell him to be quiet when he was younger. He was just always singing. Natural talent and passion like that can never be erased. It lives inside the artist for life.
Eric acknowledges that music is not traditionally seen as a serious, good or even possible career in Zambia, as he says he’s been told many times, so he balances his musical dabbling in songs and songwriting, with work as a security guard at Royal Chundu, to support himself and his family.
We were so inspired by a few old tracks that he sent us, and songs we’ve heard him humming quietly behind the scenes when no one’s looking, that we set up a collaboration with Eric, or rather his musician name and alter ego, EC Bling, to create a music video for a special song he wrote and recorded just for us. The producer on the track is a man who goes by the name of Happy, and the studio used is Passion Records in Livingstone.
The song is called, Zambezi, and in the lyrics are the rhythms of the great river, the scenes played out beside it, on it, because of it…
The shooting of our very first music video with Eric and the videography team at Etched Space (Austen Johnston and Mitch Terry) were some of our most memorable days on the river!
Thank you to Eric for sharing your music with us, for sharing the spirit and rhythms of the Zambezi with the world, and to everyone on our riverbank who helped in the making of this collaborative new music video, with Etched Space ~ including local seamstress Aggie Kalota who created Eric’s shirt in a matter of minutes, guide Misheck who helped prepare the scenes and ferry the crew to and from locations and Eric’s extended family in the Malambo village for being generous and outgoing extras!
We hope you enjoy the song and video ~ a true labour of love, local love!
A Few Behind-the Scenes Photos
