GOSPEL artiste Chileshe Bwalya has told off fellow gospel musician Kings Malembe Malembe, saying his public attack on the Radio Christian Voice (RCV) Music Awards was unfair and poorly handled.
Featuring on Kenny T One on One, Chileshe openly addressed Kings’ strongly worded statement in which he accused the RCV Awards of favouritism and questioned their credibility, insisting that artistes themselves failed to fully participate in the awards process.
Chileshe said while she respects Kings as a brother and colleague in the gospel music industry, she felt his approach lacked fairness and understanding of how the awards were organised.
“With all due respect and love that I have for Kings, I feel like he could have handled that better,” Chileshe said.
“RCV did a really good job in ensuring that artistes had all the information they needed to participate.”
She revealed that RCV went as far as personally following up on artists who had not responded, including herself.
“There was a point when they even called me to ask if I had seen the email. They even held a webinar where artistes were invited to join and understand the criteria,” she explained.
According to Chileshe, the problem lay not with RCV but with artistes who did not take time to engage with the process.
“We, as artistes, didn’t really do a good job in participating. So to come out now and express yourself, which I felt was ignorantly done, is very unfair to an establishment as big and as old as RCV,” she said.
However, the matter escalated further after Kings fired back at Chileshe following her comments, cautioning her against speaking on the matter.
“My sister don’t come in this blindly… it’s way bigger than you,” Kings wrote.
“The way my response will be soon, someone will regret sending this sister to radio.”
In December last year, Kings Malembe Malembe accused the awards of validating friendships rather than excellence and even suggested the awards be renamed if they could not uphold fairness and transparency.
In his statement, Kings cited several gospel songs and artistes he felt had been unfairly overlooked, describing the situation as a betrayal of the values RCV has long stood for in the gospel music industry.
By George Musonda
Kalemba January 3, 2025
