Who is Dan Nnḓivhiseni Tshanḓa

“Dalom Music is hereby confirming the passing away of music maestro Dan Tshanda today. He suffered a heart failure earlier and Sandton Mediclinic where he was declared dead

Dan Nnḓivhiseni Tshanḓa was born in Matangari Village, Venda in Limpopo . When he was young he played guitar for Elvis Mandidza’s Sibasa Pirates in the 80’s. Raised in Soweto, Dan Tshanda only attended school as far as Standard 4 due to lack of funds in the family.

Dan got a job as a newspaper vendor for an Afrikaans newspaper, where his father worked as a sweeper. He also got the name Peacock because of the way he ran while distributing newspapers.

His desire was to join the likes of Steve Kekana and Soul Brothers but due to his young age and poverty situation he could not fit in, and he gave up on the plan.While working as a taxi driver, he made a demo cassette, which was submitted to a record company, with his own group that he started called Flying Sounds which led to the release of their first album titled ‘MR TONY’ with Gallo Records in 1985.

The album was not a success, but the late Hamilton Nzimande of Gallo Records give them a second chance to record another album called Peacock in 1986 .Mr Nzimande took Dan under his wing and taught him everything about music business.The late Ray Phiri of Stimela gave Dan the stage name Splash 1987 when he took then on tour to Botswana . Splash released classic albums such as ‘Peacock’ (1986), ‘Snake’ (1987) ‘Money’ (1988) ‘Tshokotshoko’ (1989) and many more albums.

Botswana loved their music and after the tour Dan and his group where able to to go back to Botswana because of the support he got from the fans and the government of Botswana. Dan Tshanda’s Splash disco music has been one of the most successful genres since he first burst into the seen.

1999 Dan left Gallo to start his own music company called Dalom Music Distributors, which saw the release of Makhirikhiri, the first album to be released under his own company. His music continued to find success out of South Africa than back at home.He toured Botswana and also donate to the less privileged. His music manage to find its way to places like Zimbabwe ,London, Japan and other parts of Europe danced to Splash.

Even though most radios in South Africa stopped playing his music including media houses who didn’t even give him interviews splash music never stop growing. Its sad that South African youth of today dont know about him and his music.

Vha aḓele nga mulalo Vho -Dan Nnḓivhiseni Tshanḓa.
Catch the local Music from Venda and stream them and downloads some of them if artist provided link for downloads