Dancer and musician Chino Kidd gives Bongo music fresh energy

You probably heard something like "Chino Wanna Man" in most of Bongo Amapiano's hits like ‘Zuma’, ‘Gibela’, ‘Koko’, ‘Soup’, ‘Yesa’, ‘Kibabe’, and ‘Papapu’.

That is none other than Isaya Michael Mtambo’s signature, popularly known as Chino Kidd; the sound was initially heard in the song "Sina Msosi," released sometime last year.

Coming from humble beginnings, the fast-rising artiste has always enjoyed showing off his dancing moves to his fellow students, family members, and whoever would offer to watch.

Born and raised in Ifakara, Morogoro Region, before moving to Dar es Salaam to further pursue his passion.

The new superstar believed he was meant for more while he was barely scraping by.

In the city, Chino Kidd started off as a choreographer for Bongo Flava breakthrough artiste Rich Mavoko before becoming Mario’s official choreographer in 2019.

"Mavoko was the first person to show me love and recognise my dancing talent, but our journey was short-lived after it was somehow interfered with my career plans," says Chino Kidd.

His plans to reach the top picked up again with ‘The Kid You Know’, Marioo, a few years later.

After working as a dancer for some time, Chino Kidd decided to explore his other talents in the music industry. He stepped into the Bongo Flava scene with ‘Sina Msosi’, released in 2022, but when ‘Zuma’ hit Bongo airwaves, music fans started asking who ‘Chino Wanna Man’ is.

Narrating his story, he shares that he first did not expect ‘Chino Wanna Man’ to become as big as it is currently.

"When we were in South Africa on set for ‘Mama Amina’'s video, Marioo asked one of the South African dancers to say Chino Mwanawane, but he pronounced it as ‘Chino wanna man’. That’s where the signature comes from," he explains.

The Gibela’ hitmaker says he enjoys composing dance songs. In addition to that, he says when he writes his songs, he always thinks about dancing.

"When I write a new song, I always dance in my head, creating all the dance moves and styles before I even put out the song. I always want to talk about life and vibe, something people can dance from." He enlightens.

The rising superstar has seven hits with Bongo Street and several other trending songs that he is featured in.

"Although I am a musician now, I still push for more platforms for dancers to be recognised in the Bongo Flava industry just like all other artistes," he says.

He further adds that he’s still proud to be working for another artiste while being given the opportunity to do music at the same time.

Chino says he and Marioo have an understanding and a timetable that guides him to do his dance work while still being able to perform for his music.

"What people don’t know is that I love doing music so much, but I didn’t have the motivation before like I do now," shares Chino Kidd.

Within the same year, Chino Kidd received the award of ‘Best Music Dancer of the Year’ in the Tanzania Music Awards, held in April 2023.

Chino's biggest dream is to open his own school that teaches dance to children and youth who have talents and are going through tough times to expose them.

"One of my biggest dreams is one day to be able to open the academy where I will be able to save the young generations that have talents and want to showcase them to the world, but they don’t have the platform to do so," he insists.