In 2009, Mwale was awarded with “Best Upcoming Female Artist” at the Ngoma Awards, the national music awards in Zambia. The same year, she formed a band with her friends named “Nyali”. The group, with Mwale as the lead singer, participated in the Music CrossRoads InterRegional Festival held in Livingstone Zambia in August 2009. Nyali won the competition and took home the prize for the first time ever for Zambia. Later that year, the U.S. embassy in Lusaka initiated a project for the Department of State of the United States of America. Mwale was asked to participate in a song based on one of Barack Obama’s popular speeches.
