Tarisai Vushe

Tarisai Vushe
Tarisai Vushe
	Tarisai Vushe
Born	Zimbabwe
Residence	Australia
Nationality	Zimbabwean
Other names	Kunashe
Citizenship	Australian
Occupation	Musician; Song writer;
Years active	2001 to present
Known for	Australian Idol

Tarisai Vushe is a Zimbabwean born award-winning musician based in Australia. She rose to fame in 2001 when she started to feature on musical and television shows in Australia.

Background

Born Tarisai Kunashe Vushe, the singer was travelled from Zimbabwe to Australia in her mid-teens with her mother and was determined to perfect her skills as a performer, whilst studying hard at school to ensure a place at university.^[1]

Music career

To contribute to her already outstanding talents, she studied several styles of dance including hip hop, jazz, African, and belly dancing; and also participated in a talent development project between 2003 and 2004.^[1]

Her music began to penetrate the Austrian scene through channel sevens Big Arvo in 2001. In 2007, she was presented with a lifetime opportunity when she became a household name, starring on channel tens Australian Idol, making a heroic feat of qualifying into the top 5. She won the hearts of many through her heartening ballades such as Whitney Houstons ‘I have nothing’, and ‘River Deep, Mountain High’.^[1]

In her unmistakably blooming music career, Tarisai has worked with some of biggest names in the Australian entertainment industry including David Caplice, John Foreman, David Champion, & Producer Audius Mtawarira. Tarisai also signed a record deal with independent label, Tommirock Records, whilst she was in the process of writing and recording her debut album with ARIA charting producer Tom Williams.^[1]

Her career received a major boost in 2008 when she sang at a New Year's eve concert in Sydney and later sang one of her own songs at a martial arts event there.^[2] That March she went on tour with South African band Malaika and later performed in the Macao gambling center near Hong Kong.^[2] In 2014, Tarisai landed a new role in the Disney Musical “The Lion King”. In this musical group, she landed a total of three roles covering Shenzi and Rafiki and she was also part of the ensemble.^[3] These achievements by Vushe indicate that she is arguably one of the most successful Zimbabweans performing in International talent shows.

Awards

2010 :Afro Australian Music and Movie Awards for the best single of the year (Head Over Heels).
2010: Afro Australian Music and Movie Awards for the Best vocalist.^[1]