Mtukudzi had a number of tours around the world.

He also incorporated elements of different musical traditions, giving his music a distinctive style, known to fans as Tuku Music. A member of Zimbabwe's KoreKore group, with Nzou Samanyanga as his totem, he sang in the nation's dominant Shona language along with Ndebele and English. With his husky voice, Mtukudzi became the most recognised voice to emerge from Zimbabwe and onto the international scene and he earned a devoted following across Africa and beyond. Mtukudzi was also a contributor to Mahube, Southern Africa's 'supergroup'. Their single Dzandimomotera went gold and Tuku's first album followed, which was also a major success. He allowed them to perform at Club Mutanga (Pungwe) which, at the time, was the only night club available for blacks under Rhodesia's policy of segregation.

They were given the rare opportunity by Paul Tangi Mhova Mkondo, an African nationalist and music promotor, who provided money and resources to the group. He began performing in 1977 when he joined the Wagon Wheels, a band that also featured Thomas Mapfumo and fellow guitarist James Chimombe.

Tuku (as fans called him) released more than 60 albums before he passed away in 2019, and all the while he used his music and platform to advocate for unity, tolerance, and important issues such as AIDS awareness.Mtukudzi grew up in Highfield, a poor neighborhood in Salisbury (modern-day Harare) in Southern Rhodesia. He got into music with the encouragement of his parents and joined his first band in the late ’70s playing alongside Thomas Mapfumo, who was soon to be an equally huge musical figure across Africa. Born in 1952, Mtukudzi grew up in an impoverished neighborhood of the capital, Harare, when Zimbabwe was under white apartheid rule. His biggest hits-such as 1993’s “Neria,” 1997’s “Todii,” and 2002’s “Ndakuvara”-were as generous as they were pointed, combining social commentary with jazzy arrangements and lulling guitar licks modeled on the plinking strains of the traditional mbira (thumb piano). With his gravelly voice and gentle guitar style, legendary Zimbabwean songwriter Oliver Mtukudzi captured the struggles and hope of everyday people in a country riven by periods of economic and political turmoil.

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