“I Was Labelled broke, Alcoholic, Depressed, But Playing My Guitar Helped Me!” – Says Zahara

It’s hard to believe that Zahara started 2015 having last released an album in 2013. 2014 had been an especially hard year for Zahara with the death of her brother apparently pushing her to alcohol in order to numb the pain. The months that followed his death had been hard on the musician with constant media reports of her getting into trouble because of her supposed alcoholism.

These rumours and her heartbreak no doubt affected her music, but she shook off whatever creative block she had to work on her third album. Friends and family surrounded her and offered her support as she quietly went about crafting the album, Country Girl. And then, just like a dreary winter makes way for the warm sunshine of summer, Zahara’s troubles disappeared. Not entirely, but for a season, people were focused on her music and not her personal life.

So, let’s focus on the future and since it’s 2016, as she reflects on her year, she reveals she almost gave into the rumours, and believed that her career was over. In a touching message to her fans on her Facebookpage recently, Zahara wrote of the rumours: “Beginning of the year I was (called) an Alcoholic and I alleviated the pain by playing my guitar. I won’t lie and say it was nice but I can say it helped me got more closer to God and My Guitar.”

“I was labelled broke, alcoholic, depressed, etc. That helped me! Everyone thought ‘It’s over for Zahara’ and I nearly believed too ” she added.

She reveals that it was her music that pulled her through the dark days.

“I listened to Loliwe Album: My Guitar (When Everybody is Gone I’ll have my Guitar) and Destiny (…I know where I am going…). Then I Owned my life,” she wrote.