Zim Arts’ Total Package – Gorgeous, Immaculate, Talented Ammara Brown

Ammara Brown

 

By Kamangeni Phiri   30/11/2022

 

When it comes to Zimbabwean showbiz, songstress Ammara Brown is the total package as she never disappoints.

Whether she is dancing barefooted on stage, shooting a video, rehearsing or gracing a red carpet event, the songstress always looks the part.

Her videos and choreography are world class, her song writing and music arrangement skills top-notch while her overall conduct is always professional.

Ammara is probably the greatest musician of her generation to come out of Zimbabwe, regardless of gender or race.

Children of late international musical stars like reggae greats Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Joseph Hill, Lucky Dube and locally legends Simon Chimbetu, Oliver Mtukudzi, Daiton Somanje and Tedius Matsito, among many others, play the same beat with that of their departed parents. Not Ammara Brown.

The songstress has a unique style that has seen her build her own legacy far divorced from that of her iconic father, the late Andy Brown.

She plays an Afro-Pop fusion type of music while her late father, a genius guitarist and one of Africa’s most talented vocalists, played hybrid music.

“When my father was in the industry he created his own footprint … but that does not give me the right to just own the footprint because I am not him. I was never meant to be him and I was not meant to be the female version of him. I can only be who I am and I knew that at the time so I constantly had to battle with the idea of who he was and who people thought I should be,” Ammara told online Heart and Soul TV host, Ruvimbo Nyikadzino, in her programme, The Shift.

But there are times she occasionally leans on her father’s beat in songs like Kure Kure, as a way of celebrating his life. Kure Kure, a duet she did with contemporary musical icon, Jah Prazah, has that Andy Brown hybrid feel.

Ammara is a fashionista and clothing designer who designs most of her own stage and public events wardrobe. Her high sense of fashion, which is inspired by US-based mega star, Beyonce Knowles, explains why she always looks immaculate and gorgeous whenever she appears either live on stage or in her videos. She is one person who understands the importance of appropriate dressing when on stage and she dresses as she pleases. When on stage, Ammara, a non conformist, is never shy to put on her super fit and sexy figure hugging attires. Her almost scant dressing is often accompanied by sensual and suggestive dances, courting the ire of traditionalists.

“While trying to figure out who I was as a musician, I also was working on breaking down all these barriers that people were constructing about women artistes. Even the way that I dressed, you know all female musicians were wearing these long dresses. I could not dance dressed like that. I need to be able to move because my essence as a musician, as a creative artist, was different,” said Ammara in her interview which she gave in March, 2022.

Ammara Nury Brown is a Zimbabwean female singer (Afro-pop/RnB), songwriter, actress and brand ambassador born in Harare on September, 6, 1988.

The 34-year old diva is the daughter of the late iconic Zimbabwean singer Andy Brown and the late Soraya Khan.

Ammara is the first born child on her mother’s side and the second eldest among Andy Brown’s 10 children. Her parents divorced in 1994 and years later, when she was aged 10, she relocated with her mother to the USA, where they were to stay for four years.

Ammara is a single mother to her son, Khameel, whom she had with a South African based dancer, Darim Da Paixao.

She launched her acting career as a nine year old in 1997 when she featured in a television Olivine cooking oil commercial together with the late icon, Oliver Mtukudzi. The Olivine commercial was Ammara’s first paying professional acting job.

“I did a few seasons in Muzita Rababa. It was great exploring a different personality. I have always looked at art as a lens through which to “innerstand” humans. I, however, somehow developed a fear of cameras as I grew. Fortunately, I was able to conquer it as my career progressed. I got two acting awards later and I am looking forward to more,” she said.

The award winning artiste was also on DSTV television as one of the judges in the second season of the “Old Mutual Amazing Voices”. This is a Pan-African competiton that is televised in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria.

She studied at Alameda High School in the USA between 2002 and 2003.

At age 13, Ammara became a member of the Martin Luther King Choir. She later went on to produce her first demo song which she sent to her father. Andy Brown broke down in tears of joy when he heard his daughter sing for the first time.

The following year, in 2004, Ammara returned to Zimbabwe and enrolled at Westridge High School in Harare where she completed her high school education.

Ammara was born for music. At the age of nine she had already mastered the art of playing the mbira, a traditional musical instrument popular in rural Zimbabwe. The instrument was given to her by his father and late ex-wife, Chiwoniso Maraire, a genius mbira player and talented musician in her own right.

Ammara had also started playing the piano at that age.

“My father had this concept of a vocalist being able to play an instrument. It was something that was very important and I mastered the mbira and piano at an early age. When I got back to Zimbabwe at the age of 14, I joined his band, The Storm, as a backing vocalist. I want to call that the boot camp because Zimbabwean musicians put rigorous hours in their shift. They can work from you know 8 pm till 2 am in the morning. So when other kids were going to the movies and hanging out with their friends I was at work,” she said.

Ammara studied music at the College of Performing Arts (COPA) and attained honors with distinctions.

Inevitably, Ammara is sometimes compared to her late iconic father, Andy Brown, even though she prefers to sing a different beat, a fusion of Afro/Pop music.

In 2008, she together with five other Zimbabweans successfully auditioned for Idols East and Southern Africa and made it to the top 10. She was eventually eliminated, coming out an impressive fifth position. In 2010, she performed at the FIFA soccer World Cup in South Africa alongside Flabba from Skwatta Kamp. She has also performed before Malawian Presidents Bingu WA Mutharika and Joyce Banda.

Ammara has also shared the same stage with acts such as Mi Casa at the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA), Skwata Kamp, P-Squared, Winky D and Tehn Diamond. She has also collaborated with various local and international artists in her illustrious career. Ammara has a compilation album, Ammartia, released in 2017 and many hit singles that include Tawina featuring the late  Hugh Masekela,  Wachu Want, a collabo she did with her kid sister, Chengeto, Akiliz and the mega hit, Mukoko featuring Tytan.

When you are as successful an artiste as Ammara, controversy is bound to follow you.

In June 2014, she came under attack for releasing a single, Crucify Me, whose cover depicted a creature like a woman crucified on a cross and a head of a crow or an eagle on a cross. It attracted criticism from religious zealots who accused the singer of mimicking the crucifixion of Jesus. Ammara argued that the song together with the cover was all about a woman cheating on a man without any religious connotations.

Ammara says she has witnessed her mother being abused and even suffered emotional and sexual abuse at one time in her life. She does not, however, elaborate on the alleged happenings.

In June 2014, Ammara was in a relationship with controversial Urban Grooves singer, Roki, real name Rockford Josphat.

Roki even announced their plans to get married later in the year. It was, however, reported that Ammara turned down Roki’s proposal, and in January 2015, she announced that the two were now just friends. She also made a surprise appearance on stage and twerked for Nigerian singer, D’banji during the 2013 edition of the Lion Lager Beer Festival that he graced.

The girl who calls her fans Ammartians is a free spirit who loves dancing barefooted when on stage.

 

“My higher spirit commands my bare feet, as my craft is sacred,” she once said.

Total package or surprise package? That is a question that only Ammara can answer.