Platinum-selling, award-winning South African soul artist and former season 13 SA Idols mentor, Donald Moatshe, has been using social media to interact with fans since the national lockdown.
The musician has been trending on social media for all the good reasons. Moatshe has done a digital rendition of the South African National Anthem.
Last week he trended in the #DonaldMustRise where fans listed all the reasons why he should be celebrated.
The soul artist brought the Red Mic Lockdown experience to his supporters daily for the first 21 days of the national lockdown. Each day saw the musician perform his hits and supporters shared their favourite memories of each song.
Donald says the idea was to do something for his supporters and himself.
“The Red Mic Lockdown comes from my concert better known as the Red Mic Experience. I have a live DVD that I did in 2016 at Carnival City which was a big success. I wanted to help our people, our followers because I knew that people will be going through a lot. I knew that depression would be up during this time and people not knowing what to do with themselves. I decided to let me do something for people and also for myself.
Because as much as it has been helping people be entertained it’s helping me because I have also been keeping busy, preparing for the shows. Because I was treating them as proper shows as I would dress up every day. I would wake up and get a new outfit for the day, get my sound stuff together, my phone, camera-ready, and record my performance. It was fun and keeping the positivity going.”
Donald, who has always been very interactive on social media, says as an entertainer one needs their following.
“As an entertainer, you need your people to rally behind you, you need that support and it has to be ongoing.”
After the national lockdown was extended, Donald started a talent show to find new musicians.
“I decided I will give young up and coming talent an opportunity and a platform to show what they could do. It was a way of giving them some recognition on my timeline because I know I already have a big following. I knew that it would do a lot for a new talent who is hungry for that recognition.”
He enlisted the help of his supporters who acted as judges.
The winner will record a song with Donald and possibly be signed to his own record label.
Even though the country has moved to Level-4 lockdown Donald says he is optimistic that his supporters, colleagues and the country will come out better and stronger.
In the video below Donald explains his innovative ways of entertaining his supporters during the lockdown:
RELATED: Musicians realise the importance of interacting with fans during the lockdown.
