BALLAND ZULU

Lusaka

APRIL 1, 2021 was two days ago. There is a tradition that this is Fools Day – basically a day when you can say the most ridiculous lies and not get punished for that.

On April 1, 1984, during lunch time, Marvin Gaye was shot by his deranged father Marvin Gaye Sr. When news broke, many people thought it was an April Fool’s joke. It took a while for the reality to sink in. Marvin Gaye was slain a day before his birthday when he would have turned 44.

Marvin Gaye, at the time of passing, was undergoing a rebirth of his musical career with the release of his first post Motown album, Midnight Love, released in 1982 which contained the smash hit single Sexual Healing – Gaye’s biggest career hit, spending a record ten weeks at No 1 on the Hot Black Singles chart and becoming the biggest R&B hit of the 1980s according to Billboard stats. The success later translated to the Billboard Hot 100 chart in January 1983 where it peaked at No 3, while the record reached international success, reaching the top spot in New Zealand and Canada and reaching the top ten on the United Kingdom’s OCC singles chart, Australia and Belgium, later selling over two million copies in the US alone, becoming Gaye’s most successful single to date.

Midnight Love was Gaye’s last album as two years later his life was tragically cut short. To some in Zambia, Marvin Gaye maybe a name they have never heard of. It is actually not surprising because we have a culture of taking pride in being CLICK TO READ MORE