Winyo, Nina Ogot to play Kigali

“It will be our first time to brace a Rwandan stage and to debut this new acoustic performance out of Kenya,” Ogot said. “We hope a new musical connection will be established with the people of Rwanda who love to listen to authentic African music.”

Winyo and Ogot’s participation at Live & Unplugged Kigali is an outcome of this year’s ONGEA! music summit, which focuses on introducing East African acts to festival organisers who then book them for their events. In this case it was event organisers AFROGROOV who opted to host the duo in Kigali.

“It is a great opportunity for us to take these two acts to Rwanda,” ONGEA! founding director Mike Strano said. “Our priority is to assist festival bookers such as AFROGROOV to discover new acts through our annual four-day music summit in Nairobi.”

Winyo said: “The fact that we have this wonderful opportunity to showcase our music in Rwanda means that we are already making a huge attempt to tap into the Rwandan market.”

AFROGROOV has previously hosted such acts as Thais Diarra (Switzerland/Mali/Senegal), Keziah Jones (Nigeria), Nneka (Nigeria), Joss Stone (UK) and Cecile Kayirebwa.

“It has always been our mission from the start to use AFROGROOV as an avenue to promote this kind of music and artistry that sparks change and triggers acceleration in the development of our creative Industry,” Karengera Kirenga of AFROGROOV said. “By introducing world-class regional music we are disrupting the status quo and influencing other promoters, marketers, media, venues and policymakers to explore a wider musical scope and think differently about music and live performances in general.”

The Winyo and Nina Ogot performance will be held at Ubumwe Grande Hotel. For more information, visit the Live & Unplugged Kigali Facebook event page.