Euphoria of Kenyan music fading in Europe

There are three main reasons for this: First, and to be specific the population of Kenyans in Europe is static after stringent Shengen Visa entry requirements of 26 EU countries, and three non- EU countries were harmonised in the mid-2000s.

During the same period the German government added a caveat to the flow of au pairs into the country, and those who came in between 1990s and 2005 are either babysitting their own kids themselves, married, engrossed in furthering their education or they have simply outlived the night binge.

Again, entertainment has become an economic issue to most Kenyans because they are spread in cities that are far flung from each other.

Second, Kenyan singers have themselves contributed to the downward spiral. A majority of them are stuck to their hits of yesteryears.

The simplistic effort with which contemporary music is produced in pre-recorded fruity-loop studios - which do not require gruesome rehearsals - is another factor and, as a result attracts also, a large number of untalented solo career singers now saturate the domestic market with music that can hardly sell beyond Kenya's borders – all to the chagrin of the few gifted musicians.

Like football or athletics, no amount of training or practice can make one a musician – it is inborn. Pasting lyrics on pre-recorded instrumentals, one cannot claim ownership and it is not the same as composing a song with an assortment of instruments played live that can take weeks or months to bring to a desired format – I call them ‘singer’ since most of them sing in one keynote voice!

Music is about creativity and spontaneity. Replicating one beat adopted in an earlier hit, belting out the same old songs ad nauseam, is a sure route to oblivion. Lawrance Madole or Marlaw might have faded from the music scene, but not his songs with melodies that are distinctly unrelated.

With his trade mark of hoarse voice Josheph Mayanja (Chameleone) of Uganda steers away from monotony and has carved for himself a niche in the entertainment circles, releasing danceable repertoires as often as he has been doing.

In this league are others like the bongo maestro Rehema Challamila (Ray C), and the late Lucky Dube; their vivacious voices will not fade soon, much like the late Luambo Makiadi, better known as Franco, the accomplished Congolese guitarist, composer and singer whose music has been transfixed in the memories of many 25 years after his demise.

Third is the lack of sensitivity to the prevailing economic situation by our singers clinging to the belief that the euphoria their hits elicited several years ago is still intact; this is misleading. They also believe disposable income is in abundance abroad no matter what one does, thereby contributing to the fatigue of fans, organisers and NGOs.

The term organiser means business risk-taking people as opposed to promoter who is paid specific amount of money to facilitate an event.

Kenyan singers attract economically untenable crowds; Jaguar 's tour in July of this year drew less than 120 people, a sad testimony compared to the 300-plus crowd that came to see Chameleone a few weeks earlier.

Another case in point is Diamond Platinumz’s tour in Stuttgart in 30 August, which was marred by chaos. Fans ravaged the hall utilities and stole or destroyed the DJs' laptops after the organisers delayed Diamond's arrival to the venue to mop up enough money to pay the singer his balance in advance, confirming the obvious that Diamond was communicating through mobile phones with his friends already in the hall and he knew his hosts were uncomfortable.

But the venue was already a war zone by the time the money issue had been cleared up; nevertheless the police was fighting a running battle with the revellers, and this made it impossible for the terrified bongo flava star to leave the car when he eventually showed up at 4 am.

To the Nigerian promoters, it was a double tragedy – they are now ruminating over the scale of the damages they had to settle. It is rumoured the singer will be returning for a free performance, which revellers suspect will cost more to put a bottle on the table.

With some organisers dropping along the way and others concentrating on disco events, Lady Jullie has in her private capacity remained resilient along side Kenya Development Associates, a non-profit making organisation credited with enabling most East African entertainers to make their débuts in Germany and other parts of Europe since 2003.

It does not make economic sense to engage a singer whose market has sunk to unprofitable level for them to make pay demands of Kshs350, 000 and above in fee alone to travel all the way to entertain 130 fans bringing in just Kshs229, 000 from gate collection at a hall costing Kshs117, 000 plus Kshs105, 000 before miscellaneous costs are added.

Resorting to the up-coming singers charging less performance fees has equally proved disastrous due to the fact that costs such as those of Air ticket, Visa, Insurance, Hall and personnel remain the same. Whether drinks are sold or not recouping the total costs is a mirage. It is even more horrendous to an organiser when a singer demands business class tickets and additional shows in other cities or the neighbouring countries.

Our music is still known simply as ‘Kenyan Hip-Hop’ or ‘Kenyan Dancehall’, save for Ohangla or Mugithi, which are rightly typical Kenyan. There is no American Jazz, Soul or R&B and without the desire, will and talent to grow, no one has missed our CDs in music stores outside Kenya.

* Mickie Ojijo is a banker in Germany, currently doing part-time consultancy work and a freelance journalist a long time contributor to the only English magazine, The African Courier, in Germany. He is a founder member of Kenya Development Associates-Germany and is its secretary.

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