Vocal Motion Six (VMSIX) COURTESY PHOTO

» In 1999, the a cappella vocal group Vocal Motion Six (VMSIX) was formed in Namibia. This five-member ensemble took Namibia by storm with their exceptional blending harmonies. With no fancy technical gimmicks, the group's natural sound attracts listeners worldwide. This past May, they were invited by the Chinese Ministry of Culture to give performances in Beijing and Tianjin. Their renditions of Chinese songs thrilled local audiences. The band members spoke with ChinAfrica in Beijing about their experience and the message they want to pass to their audiences.

How did you integrate Chinese songs into your acappella music?

A cappella gives us room to do many genres of music, including reggae, jazz, classical or pop songs and even rap. The two Chinese songs we sang just fused into our style of music naturally. It took us two to three days to get familiar with the melody, and two weeks to perfect the language. The Chinese songs were self-taught. We listened to the song first and wrote down the pronunciation of every Chinese word in English, and then kept practicing every week. The cultural official from the Chinese Embassy in Namibia also helped us perfect our pronunciation.

The goal of your band is to produce "Music With a Message." What kind of message do you want to deliver?

Our music is about bringing positive messages. We want to inspire people, and bring hope and love to the broken-hearted. In our songs, we talk about peace, unity and the positive things in life. The main aim of our music, at the end of the day, is to be able to put a smile on somebody's face.

Apart from producing music, you have also been active in community initiatives, with a particular focus on the youth. What message do you want to pass on to them?

In an effort to give back to the community, we created a platform entitled "Living Positive." We use our "music with a message" to inspire the youth to make good choices as a preventative tool in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Namibia. In 2007, we joined forces with a young woman who is living with the virus, and traveled to 11 of the 13 regions in Namibia. As she told her story, we sang and spoke to over 85,000 youth in schools, prisons and mines. We decided to focus on the youth, because they were hit the hardest, and they are the future. If we are able to educate them, then there will be a change in our country. When we started [the project], 19 percent of Namibians had HIV. Now the percentage has dropped to 15 percent, because now young people are well informed due to campaigns and activities, including our project.

Your rendition of the Chinese song The Crescent Moon won the third place at the Tempereen Savel - Europe's leading vocal competition, in Finland last June. Why did you choose to sing a Chinese song?  

We do have a number of songs, but we came up with this song because we found its structure unique. We, a band coming from Africa, went to Finland to perform a Chinese song. What we were trying to do is just like basketball players playing soccer. It's out of our comfort zone, but we just want to show our uniqueness. The local audience was very surprised to hear us sing that song. To us, singing Chinese proves the point that music is boundless - if it's good in Namibia, it will be good in China and it will also be good in Finland. 

Tell us something about the Namibia International a Cappella Festival (NIAF) that you will host from August 28-31.

Our first a cappella festival will be headlined by several groups: RAJATON from Finland, Postyr Project from Denmark, No Limit from South Africa and also VMSIX as the host. We also have about four local a cappella groups that will take part in the festival. This will be an annual event, and we hope to build it up. More information about the festival is available on our website, www.niaf.com.na. At our next festival in 2014, we would like to open up and have Chinese vocal bands be part of our festival. We hope somehow we will be able to reach out in China to many bands that might be interested in coming to our festival. CA

Listen to Vocal Motion Six's music at www.vmsix.com

liujian@chinafrica.cn