LEGENDARY Tsonga artist Papa Penny is fuming.
This after his new song, Madam Speaker, was rejected by Munghana Lonene FM as the station said it was out of tune.
Speaking about the track, which he described as a romantic love song, he said: “Earlier in 2022, I submitted my single. This was just before I released it.
“When I submitted the song to the SABC, it was already trending on social media. I waited for the radio station to play my song, but it wasn’t played.
“Initially I wasn’t bothered because I understand there are many other submissions and other artists who are waiting just like me. I never experienced issues with the SABC before, so I thought everything was fine.”
But he later received a letter from the SABC, which the SunTeam has seen, in which the broadcaster said his singing was out of tune and the production was not up to standard.
“I’m very angry because I’ve been submitting my music to SABC radio stations since 1994 and they’ve never had a problem. This is not fair and it’s so embarrassing,” he said.
Papa Penny said he met the station’s management with a listening session.
“After listening to the song, they said there was nothing wrong with it and apologised. I asked them to apologise in writing but they refused. Instead, they offered me a meeting for damage control purposes, but I refused. I felt their apology was not sincere,” he said.
SABC spokeswoman Gugu Ntuli confirmed the station management had a series of meetings with Papa Penny about his new album.
“It’s true that his song Madam Speaker has not been playlisted on the station, as it does not meet the station’s production standards for broadcast.
“However, other songs such as Corona and Tribalism, from the same album, have been playlisted. As Penny Penny is a valuable stakeholder and a legend of Xitsonga music, the station did apologise to him.”
Ntuli said the station wanted to profile Papa Penny but he demanded a two-hour interview, which was too long.
