Zimbabwean singer and songwriter Masa Caroleen makes a powerful return to the music scene with her latest single Nditore set to be released on July 11th. Nditore is a beautifully arranged Afro soul ballad that blends emotional vulnerability with spiritual depth.
Nditore, which means “take me” in Shona, is a bilingual meditation on surrender, longing and the kind of love that transcends language. Sung in both English and Shona, the track is tender and personal, offering listeners an honest and unfiltered window into Masa’s inner world. “This song came from a very honest place,” she said in an interview ahead of the release. “It is about a yielding love. A recognition of a lasting love.”
The song began with a quiet moment of exploration. “I had just bought myself a mbira and wondered what would be my first song on it. I played a four note tune in repetition and that became the heart of the song,” she explained. “Blawu, the producer, made it sound better and I still can only play those four notes.” The second verse came years later, shaped by deep personal reflection. “I had done a lot of shedding. The second verse reflected what I had experienced in life and also seen in people I admire, what a true love looks like. Nditore was born from that realisation. It is a grand declaration of love.”
This single marks a new chapter. Since her previous project Pamusoroi, Masa has taken a quiet step back from the spotlight. “Life happened in big, stretching and reshaping ways. I learned to honour the quiet time I was not performing and wrote as much as I could,” she said. “That helped me refine my writing and get more clarity in my spirit. I started thinking more deeply about the things I want to celebrate or cry about.”
The blend of English and Shona was not a stylistic gimmick but a reflection of how the song came to her. “Shona carries emotion in ways English cannot always hold,” she said. “There is a tenderness in the phrase nditore that just does not translate. I did not set out to make the song bilingual. It just flowed that way because that is how I thought and felt at the time.”
Visually, Nditore is set to be just as heartfelt. Masa worked with Takudzwa Kaseke, who is also her guitarist, to create visuals that echo the song’s softness. “We leaned into natural light, earth tones and an innocent pure depiction of what love looks like,” she said. “We also brought in multidisciplinary artists to act out the love story. It has been a beautiful experience.”
The release is supported by The British Council Southern African Arts and the Swiss Embassy in Zimbabwe through the Music Connects Africa programme.
For Masa, the song is a bridge between the divine and the deeply personal. “Love in all its forms is sacred. Whether it is divine or romantic, it is about being seen without masks,” she said. “I do not separate the two much in my writing. Often, what sounds like a love song to a person is really a longing or a celebration of God, and vice versa. That overlap in Nditore is where my sound lives. Somewhere between worship and a whispered confession.”
Nditore will be available on all major streaming platforms from Friday 11 July.
