Author: Emmanuel Gatera
In 2012, a talented young boy from Kanombe, Kigali, received a phone call offering him a job as a backup singer for the Primus Guma Guma Super Star (PGGSS) stage – the biggest music competition ever held in Rwanda. At the time, music was considered by many to be an industry of school dropouts, gangs and drug addicts, not to mention an inaccessible sector for any visionary mind. As a result, the young boy, whom many knew as Bruce Itahiwacu, struggled to make a living while juggling backing vocals for PGGSS and producing at Black Records. Despite it all, he…
The highly anticipated album of producer Dr. Nganji, the brains behind Green Ferry studio, credited for the rise of the Kinya-trap subgenre, will premiere on April 22 – a statement released by the record label on Thursday, April 18 confirms. Dubbed Kinyarwanda, the album represents the producer’s ability to merge sounds and genres, drawing inspiration from the ancestral melodies passed down through generations. “The album merges tradition with modern elements, preserving Rwanda’s musical authenticity and purity through sampling. Each track on the tape weaves a vibrant tapestry of Rwandan culture, echoing ancestral rhythms and melodic cadences. The aim is to unite…
Rwanda’s music star Bruce Melodie will once again break the record as the first Rwandan artiste to perform at the only Afrobeats event in Scandinavia, ‘One Love Africa Music Festival’, scheduled to take place in Gothenburg, Sweden. This time around, the ‘Katerina’ hitmaker will join some of Africa’s best Afrobeats stars including the likes of Ruger and Skales among others, at the festival that kicks off July 5, and runs until July 7. “We are very excited to present to you the pride of Rwanda, Bruce Melodie performing live at One Love Africa Music Festival 5-6 July in Gothenburg,” organizers…
Held in Nairobi, Kenya, on Sunday, April 14, the awarding ceremony honoured the rich and diverse talents within the East African region. And Rwanda paragoned. At least 5 celebrities from the thousand hills received accolades for both music and film at the just concluded East African Arts Entertainment Awards (EAEA). Rwanda’s The Ben, actress Alliance Isimbi–popularly known as Alliah Cool–, producer Kozze, and Alex Muyoboke are among many who shined at the event as they took home leading awards of the night. The Ben, regarded among the best Rwandan vocalists and artists, was awarded Best Music Video of the Year…
During the commemoration period every year in April, Rwanda and the world remember over amillion Tutsis who died in the carefully planned massacres in the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi, until stopped by the young men and women of Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF). As Rwanda remembers, Sens Magazine’s Gatera Emmanuel interviewed Reverend Canon Antoine Rutayisire, a genocide survivor, a prominent figure in the Anglican Church, an author,and former vice president of the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission on the youth’s need to be educated about Rwanda’s history as a solution to divisionism. The former senior pastor of Remera Anglican Parish,…
For the first time in history, a song produced, composed, and sung by a Rwandan artist has made it to the Billboard charts, thanks to Bruce Melodie and his remix of ‘When She’s Around (Funga Macho)’, which features Jamaican reggae icon Shaggy. The song, produced by Prince Kiiiz, debuted at number 8 on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart, making it the second Afrobeats song on the chart after Tyla’s ‘Water’. The World Digital Song Sales chart is a weekly record chart that ranks how songs were sold on different digital music-selling platforms. It was compiled by Nielsen SoundScan…
US-Rwandan Tumaini Basaninyenzi, locally known as Tuma Basa, the head of Black Music and Culture at YouTube, was spotted in Kigali during Platini’s ‘Baba Experience’ concert held at the Kigali Conference and Exhibition Village on March 30. SENS understands that the celebrity, who is credited for pushing hip hop and more black-produced music to places, has been in Kigali since Friday at the invitation of business mogul and owner of 1:55AM Entertainment, Gael Karomba aka Coach Gael. Speaking to the media during Platini’s concert, Coach Gael said that he met Tuma in Washington DC last week and invited him to…
APR and Patriots, the two basketball champions of Rwanda, are set to play on Wednesday night at Lycee de Kigali gymnasium, in what promises to be a tightly contested duel between the two Rwandan basketball powerhouses. Last season, the Patriots triumphed over APR in two closely fought encounters. The first leg ended with a score of 67-60 in March 2023, while the second leg saw the Patriots claim victory with a scoreline of 87-74 in August of the same year. Both Patriots and APR remain unbeaten so far this season, setting the stage for an intense showdown between the two…
Tanzania’s leading music stars, Diamond Platnumz and Harmonize, were recently spotted together for the first time since their fallout five years ago. The two mega Bongo Flava stars met on Tuesday, March 12, at the invitation of Tanzanian President Samia Suhulu, who organized a special Iftar dinner at the State House in Dar Es Salaam. Late President John Pombe Magufuli and other leaders tried to have the two reconcile but never succeeded. In a video that circulated on social media, Diamond and Harmonize can be seen talking and laughing together. Diamond Platnumz and Harmonize’s reunion came five years after the…
1:55 Entertainment label has announced that Rwandan music star Bruce Melodie, signed under its management line, will appear on America’s renowned morning show ‘Good Morning America’ (GMA) on March 18, alongside reggae icon Shaggy. This comes a few months after the two artists collaborated on the ‘When She is Around’ remix, which led to Melodie’s first successful US music tour, which reached the ‘iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour’ concerts in Miami and Dallas. According to a statement released by the record label on Monday, March 11, Bruce Melodie’s appearance on the talk show is not only a personal triumph but also…