South Africa's multi-awards winning Maskandi artist Khuzani Mpungose has been featured on Umhlobo Wenene FM song of the year competition for the first time.
He accepted his first nomination for the song of the year in a Eastern Cape based-radio station after he chose not to participate on Ukhozi FM's song of the year.
He was nominated in that competition for his new song Imbongolo where he is featuring Siphesihle Dludla which is in his new album Angidlali Nezingane released on 15 November 2024,and that song is one of the songs that is well-received by Maskandi supporters and music lovers at large,and right now is trending on platforms such as YouTube,Spotify and iTunes.
Umhlobo Wenene FM is one of the third biggest radio station behind Ukhozi FM and Metro FM,and is using Xhosa as the main language to broadcast its programmes.
The Nkandla-born musician has won two competitions for song of the year between 2021 and 2023 with his popular songs Ijele and Umjolo Lowo at Ukhozi FM.
Over the years,Khuzani has won more than 20 different music awards where he was competing with Maskandi artists and artists from other genres such as Hip Hop.
Khuzani's song Umjolo Lowo defeated Paris song sung by his arch rival Mthandeni SK featuring Lwah Ndlunkulu,his song received more than 900 000 votes while Paris obtained less than 800 000 votes.
Umhlobo Wenene FM also nominated Khuzani's main rival in the Maskandi genre to be a part of the song of the year competition with his hit single Gucci featuring Mawhoo.
However,the majority of Umhlobo Wenene FM listeners are not happy with the decision of the station management to include Maskandi genre in the song of the year competition while locking out popular songs such as Sidakiwe Sibali which is sing by Black Major.
Why Khuzani dumped Ukhozi FM song of the year?
Khuzani has been a victim of Ukhozi FM management,other Maskandi artists and fans for years because majority of them felt that his presence was overshadowing other artists due to his huge base of followers across social media platforms such as Facebook,TikTok and Instagram.
He voluntarily opted to stay away from all competitions that are run by Ukhozi FM because he felt his time there is over after being targeted by Sibongi Ngcobo who was a station manager at the KwaZulu-Natal-based radio station.
Last month,he revealed to his supporters through live video on Facebook that former Ukhozi FM station manager told the staff that must stop to play his songs and must not mention his name in that radio station.