She is back! After three years of not releasing music, she thought she was done. She was no longer interested in the music industry and its politics and questioned whether she made the right decision by being part of it in the first place. But almost every week, Yamikani "Lady Zamar' Banda (35) was reminded by her fans on her social media that she is missed and needs to come back strong. "My fans really convinced me to come back and release music, again. They would ask in my DMs when I was dropping music. I was writing and singing it at home but wasn't ready to go into the studio,' she tells Zimoja.

NO PROVING A POINT

This month, Lady Zamar released her four-track EP titled Royal Flush. "I am royalty, and we all know that' she jokes.The project features producers such as Senior Oat and the Piano Hit Maker. She sings about love,life, and self-acceptance. "Royal Flush deals with four different topics; the recurring pain that one faces in life, and another is some sort of perfect love that slips away because of life. I think we all have experienced that. The other topic is what we are doing now in our society, constantly wanting to speak positivity in our existence and try to affirm ourselves and manifest good things into our lives. Then the last topic is self-love and dealing with who I am,' she says. "The lyrical composition of my previous projects has always been about me focusing on proving that I was an amazing writer. With this new project and every project going forward, I am not trying to prove anything. I have done the work. I have shown that I can make unique songs that no one else has made,' she says. "I have not needed to sample people and I have earned my keep. I don't need to prove a point. Now, I am writing stories that are simple and easy to understand. I no longer care If people will think. I am a greats storyteller.'

ALMOST LEAVING THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

The last project she released was Monarch in 2019.  "It was so long ago. I wasn't sure If I ever wanted to release music again. I think there comes a point in your career where there is so much doubt and questioning about whether you are on the right path. I was questioning why I came into this space,' she says. "Honestly, I'm an introvert, and having my business out all the time was not fun. I wanted to create distance from that person that was always in the media.'Lady Zamar is an academic, and had she not been singing, she would be studying. "I have qualifications in Language and Literature. I majored in Literature and English. I have also studied, not completed three years of Civil Engineering, as well as studied, not completed, Accounting. So, I have a love for academia and there are a lot of things that I could have done besides music,' she says.

BLOCKING CRITICS AND PRACTISING SELF LOVE

In the last couple of years, Lady Zamar has had to practice a lot of self-love. In 2018, the Collide singer accused ex-lover, Sjava of raping her at the Porche-Villa Hotel and Conference Centre in Thohoyandou in 2017.  In an expose on social media, she stated the sex she had with Sjava was non-consensual.  "That morning, we were making out, kissing, and he had invited me into his hotel room. We had never been alone together, while this was happening, suddenly this person starts taking off my clothes and he raped me,' she shared. The case was passed on to the National Prosecuting Authority(NPA) and later withdrawn by the Director of Public Prosecutions in court. She has since been criticised, called names, and bullied on social media. "I block negativity. My mind has been trained to see certain cues from afar. I have people who work on my social media, and they know when to block. I block negativity. I hardly see it anymore,' she says. "My mom would advise me back then not to read the negative comments on social media and it took me time to understand that. Right now, I don't care, you all can keep talking. Clearly, my life is interesting. If people remember their studies, more than they remember my business, then they'd be happier.' Lady Zamar says she is at a self-accepting phase of her life. "There is a lot of accepting I've had to do. A lot of introspection,' she says, adding, "I used to think that other people's actions reflected who I was. I used to believe that whenever someone treated me badly, it must have been something I have done. But I have learned that people's actions are independent of me. They choose how they treat you and whether they will be nice to you and treat you with respect. All you have to do is live your best life,' she says.

WRITING BOOKS

In August this year, Lady Zamar published her first of many to come children's literature, through Penguin Books. The book, Amara is a story about a girl who goes to the Olympics. "I have always wanted to publish; writing has not been a problem. I realised after becoming a musician, there has been a reluctance towards artists who are in the music space. Artists are not taken seriously. I was lucky to work with Brand Cartel who connected me to Penguin Books, who were sceptical at first,' she says.          "I wrote the first manuscript, and they didn't like it. So, I decided to change the story to something that would inspire me at the age of five years old and I recalled loving the Olympics,' she says. "I was always intrigued by athletes. So, I wrote that book as a way to inspire children. So, hopefully, my child will get to read the book.' She is in the process of writing a book for women. "There's a lot to say about women. There's a book on the pipeline about relationships and continuing the series we started off with Penguin."