The world celebrates International Women’s Day on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, with the theme of breaking the bias. The goal is to have a gender-equal society and women be given the opportunities to thrive without any bias.
Now, music plays a big part in our lives. We love it, and we adore the musicians who make it. Singers like Beyonce, Jay Z, Drake, Justin Bieber, the late Tupac, the late Michael Jackson, and the late Bob Marley among many others have been able to win the hearts and minds of their fans across the world.
Here in Kenya, the music industry and business are still pretty much a man’s world. Many female artistes don’t make it in the industry because of gender bias and gender pay-gaps among other reasons.
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Today, we celebrate five young female artistes who are taking the Kenyan music industry by storm.
Nadia Mukami
Singer Nadia Mukami is one of the hitmaking artistes in the country currently. She is only 25 years old and has managed to release hit after hit since her breakthrough in 2018 with the song ‘Si Rahisi’.
Her collaboration with her now-boyfriend Arrow Bwoy in 2019 titled ‘Radio Love’ cemented her place in the music industry before she released her debut EP, ‘African Popstar’, in October 2020.
The lead single ‘Jipe’ featuring Tanzanian singer Mario was released in March 2020. The EP featured Khaligraph Jones, Maua Sama, Fena Gitu, DJ Joe Mfalme, Sanaipei Tande, Nigeria's Orezi, Zimbabwe's Tamy Moyo, and Lioness Nam from Namibia.
Nikita Kering
Nikita Chepchumba Kering has wowed the country with her talents. She stepped into the limelight as a young teenager and now she is an award-winning singer at the age of 20.
The evolution of Nikita Kering has been an exciting one and the world is hers for the taking. In 2019, Nikita was a finalist of Nigerian Mr. Eazi’s artiste mentorship program Empawa 100 and released the track ‘Tragedy’.
In 2021, Nikita released her debut EP titled ‘A Side of Me’ featuring the hit single ‘Ex’ which has become one of the most streamed songs on Spotify.
Maandy
Amanda Wambui alias Maandy is a fast-rising Kenyan Gengetone rapper. Manzi wa Nairobi as she is referred to started out as a deejay in 2016 but decided to fully go into rapping and hasn’t looked back.
At the age of 23, Maandy boasts of two albums ‘Kabaya’ and ‘Frisky’. The hit single ‘Hivi Na Hivo’ off the ‘Frisky’ album received a massive reception from music lovers among them Colombian star J Balvin and Afrobeats star Mr Eazi who were filmed jamming to the song.
Her ‘Sirudi Home’ featuring Crisper of ‘Ndovu Ni Kuu’ and Breeder LW has amassed over 1.1 million YouTube views.
Jovial
Singer Juliet Mariam Ayub alias Jovial is the queen of hit collaborations. The 30-year-old has made a name for herself with collaborations like Such Kind of love, Amor, Jeraha, and Zichune with singer Otile Brown. The sultry Swahili singer has gone on to release other successful collabos with Arrow Bwoy, Mejja, Bahati, Mr. Seed, and Tanzania’s Marioo.
The singer who has released a couple of solo projects thus far has however vowed not to work on any new collaborations.
Ssaru
Sylvia Ssaru who is also known as Ssaru created a niche for herself in the Gengetone world. She is a versatile artiste who raps and can vibe to some dancehall as well.
The 20-year-old artiste who hails from Kayole has worked with the likes of Parroty, Kappy and Benzema. She was featured on the 2021 banger ‘Sipangwingwi’ by Exray Taniua and Trio Mio.
She is currently riding high with her latest track dubbed ‘kichwa Tu’ featuring Trio Mio and Timmy T-Dat.
As more and more artistes come into the spotlight, it is refreshing to see female artistes find a place for themselves, to see them get the love and support of fans and make a living.
