Van Choga gets it!

by Think Local Media:

The year 2020 will be remembered as the year of the “greatest waiting”. People were confined to their homes when factories and offices were closed as governments all over the world enforced restrictive measures to curb the corona virus.

As we stayed at home, it felt much more like a wait for the virus to go away. But in the midst of it all, we wanted a distraction, a way to keep ourselves occupied and entertained. Two artists took Zimbabwe by storm, Van Choga and Jah Master.

12 months or so later, the virus is still here and so is Van Choga (28). Full of enigma, Van Choga got our attention not because of his exceptional talent but because he was different. His trade mark zig zag dancing moves, full of energy, carrying a dirty sack and natural look inducted him into Zimbabwe’s king of “feel good music”. In a world where most things are not going according to plan, Van Choga is our antidote to sadness.

Dr. Jacob Jolij, a neuroscientist at the University of Groningen Netherlands, came up with a mathematical model called the Feel Good Index (FGI) which measures what makes a song have a feel good vibe. In a study of 125 songs produced in the past 50 years and regarded as feel good songs from a survey of over 2 000 adults, Dr Jolij concluded that feel good songs generally share a higher than average tempo and have positive references in lyrics (the higher the FGI the more feel good a song is predicted to be). 

If Van Choga’s music were put under the same mathematical model, we have no doubt that his music will perfectly meet the criteria.  Two of his songs were selected and measured for tempo. The song “Do you remember” scored an average 172 beats per minute whilst “Daggering” was the fastest at 195 beats per minute.  Van Choga’s style of music and choreography suits fast paced beats.

In his musical appearances, Van Choga potrays a mad man personality but it his kookiness that has made him  endearing to the young and old.  Although he affirms that his style is natural, it is his social media outreach which confirms that there is a method to his madness. 

A closer look at his social media pages, Van Choga commands a respectable following of approximately 250 000 from his combined official profiles. His biggest following is on Facebook with a total following of 135 000. Van Choga’s Facebook page was created on 19 September 2019 which translates to an impressive 185 new followers each day.

Van Choga’s 14 day activity map on Facebook

To get an understanding of his social media strategy, we analysed Van Choga’s Facebook page activity for the month of August. We classified Van Choga’s social media activity into four key levels (posting new content, sharing a fan’s post, engaging with fans or promoting a business).

Although a 14-day heat map is not enough to establish a correlation, Van Choga is consistent in his approach. When he posts a new video, he stays online to engage with followers in the comments section. Then he follows up with a fan challenge encouraging his fans to send clips imitating his style. However, Van Choga is yet to fully monetize his large Facebook following. In the whole month of August, Van Choga only promoted a business or cause once.  

On Instagram, Van Choga commands a following of 96 000 whilst on YouTube his channel has been viewed 3,169,161 times since 2016. To understand how good the year 2020 was for Van Choga, we separated his You Tube videos into two periods (content uploads older than 12 months and content uploads less than 12 months old). Van Choga’s You Tube content uploaded in the past 12 months has been viewed 2,877,057 times.

If anything, it appears Van Choga was waiting for his day. Years of being in the shadows of other artist clamouring for his own breakthrough prepared him for this moment. And like a true musician, he grabbed the microphone with both hands and never let it go.

Lately, Van Choga has been trying his luck with other music genres such as Amapiano to grow his fan base. Van Choga does not need to sing a perfect hit, all he needs to do is stay relevant in the industry.

Going forward, Van Choga needs to do more to monetize his brand. Zimbabwean corporates’ affinity for jingle advertising suit well with Van Choga’s type of music. Perhaps, just like the Senegalese TikTok star Khaby Lame, Van Choga can be our Zimbabwean king of Tik Tok.