Gaby Kamanzi Ingabire

BIO

32-year-old Irene Gaby Kamanzi Ingabire is a Rwandan gospel artiste born in Congo Kinshasa. She is also the praise and worship leader at Restoration Church, Kimisagara.

Ingabire has a degree in Management from Kigali Independent University. She started singing in 1997 with her younger sister and cousin in a traditional troupe called Singiza, which mainly performed traditional songs and dances at local functions like weddings. Later she also joined the church choir.

In 1999, she started watching Darlene Zschech, a Pentecostal Christian who was then the praise and worship leader of Hillsong Church Australia. Her church also created a praise and worship team and she quit the Singiza traditional troupe. When she became the team leader, Ingabire believed one day she would be like Darlene. She learnt a lot of things from the church praise and worship team. She writes songs and can sing all voices.

She went to Burundi in 2005 and started working on her first album. Unfortunately, her favorite producer Aron Nitunga remained in Canada. Her younger sister, Lysette, wrote 'Umva Indirinbo' and she released it still in Burundi.

After university in 2009, Gaby recorded 'Amahoro' and 'Wowe Muremyi'. 'Amahoro' was a hit and up to now it still plays on radios.

Gaby says that a few years earlier when in Uganda at a youth conference, a pastor prayed for her that one day she would do a song that would be a hit and many people would love it. And 'Amahoro,' she believes, was that song.

All along, each time her producer came to Rwanda, they recorded a song and by mid 2011, the album was complete. The 11-track album, 'Ungirira Neza' came out in August 2012.