The Fête de la Musique also known as the World Music Day is celebrated globally on June 21st since its inception back in 1982 in France.
The day brings together both amateur and professional artistes all with an aim of sharing music and performing to music lovers.
With the global Covid-19 pandemic, the celebration moved to the virtual space with Alliance Francaise in Nairobi holding a live concert on their social media platforms where some the best of Kenyan artistes shared the stage.
The artistes chosen for this year’s concert brought on the stage their different styles of music including Afro-fusion, Ohangla, reggae to some smooth RnB.
Nairobi News profiles some of the renowned artistes who performed on the occasion of World Music Day
Lulu Abdalla
Lulu is a singer, songwriter and guitarist who sings in various languages such as Digo, Luhya, English and Swahili. His style of music is traditional African rhythms fused with salsa, reggae and Latin music. He performed songs such as Lekha, Saleh, Thembassa among others.
“Music is my life. I have been doing music for more than 16 years. I also teach kids in Kibera and Mathare how to sing and play instruments. I love what I do and music is the food to my soul,” said Lulu on what the World Music Day means to him.
Karun
An alumni of the Berklee College of Music, Karun’s style is a combination of neo-soul, contemporary and alternative RnB. She is also a former member of the hip hop group Camp Mullah. She performed songs like Glow Up, Hit Me Up, Roses and Make Believe.
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Tony Nyadundo
The celebrated King of Ohangla, Tony Nyadundo, brought on stage his traditional music style from the Luo community with hits such as Dawa ya Mapenzi, Obama and Ndoa ya Machozi. He launched his career performing for the local fishing communities in the late 1990’s and released his debut album Ayaki in 2002. He has four more albums under his belt.
Gravitti band
The reggae band was formed back in 2004 and has recorded more than 33 songs. They released their debut album titled The Force of Grravity in 2016. The band, whose mantra is “Following in the footsteps of the greatest”, performed Africa and Sweetie among others songs.
Music lovers watching online had a great time, going by their comments.
“Ohangla nonstop. No breaks, kaende kaende it goes it goes. If bad bad,” @Lorella A. Jowi commented.
“African music is food for the soul,” @Ian James Mburu said.
“Lulu unaleta zogo,” @Tony Percussionist quipped.
“Guys mad love… jah bless,” @Isaac Mongeri wrote.
“Vive la musique!,” commented @bruno De Vos.
