East African artists 'break' Guinness record for longest song

Enter Mdundo, a Kenyan-based online music publisher and distributor who sought to break the record at the recently concluded Eastern African music summit, ONGEA! In partnership with PHAT! Intellectual Property and Artville Studios, which set up a makeshift studio, Mdundo managed a feat that will go down in history by recording a 4:15:05 song. But that’s not all – 242 artists were brought together for the project.

“We are thrilled to see our artists coming together, not for money or fame but to do something big. Our industry is often criticised for not doing that,” Mdundo CEO Martin Nielsen said.

The song has been titled ‘One People’ and drew upcoming artists, aspiring musicians who have never been in studio and established artists like Kenya’s Winyo, Nina Ogot, DJ Crème de la Crème and Chris Adwar. Slim Burna from Uganda, Munyakazi Deo and Angel Mutoni from Rwanda, Jeff Mduma from Tanzania, Macase Band from Cameroon and Lambson from Tanzania also participated.

Joe Masterkeyz, Artville’s creative producer, was tasked with recording, editing and mastering the song, which he said would be ready in two weeks. He said it was quite a challenge to create the concept and bring the vision together, but having the opportunity to work with artists from different backgrounds and genres was quite exciting.

“We created a guide track and put it out on Mdundo.com,” Masterkeyz said. “Then we made the call-out at the summit and for the four days worked with the artists to create the audio equivalent of Pharrell Williams’s ‘Happy’. Any musician was invited to participate.”

After the song has been handed over to Mdundo, the team will approach the Guinness World Records to begin the process of certifying that the composition is indeed the longest officially released song to date. The current record holder was released through digital platforms iTunes, Amazon.com, Spotify and Google Play on 16 August 2015.

“We will release ‘One People’ on Mdundo.com,” Nielsen said, adding that the song will not be for commercial use and therefore would not earn royalties.