Belole Ray

Belole Ray (born Barbara Belole Achingale on 22 October 1990) is Cameroonian musician from Buea.

Born in Buea, South West Region of Cameroon, to a humble, average-income family, she was brought up and educated in the Catholic tradition. She is the fifth of six children. After her high school education, she studied theology at John Paul II institute of Theology and Philosophy in Buea

A songwriter, singer, guitarist and recording artist, Ray took after her father, Henry A Achingale, a well-known songwriter and chorister who has composed many thrilling songs for the Catholic and Baptist Churches in Cameroon as well as others with social and political themes sung by the famous Mamfe Youth Choir International, a group he founded in the early 1970s and led until the mid-1980s.

Belole Ray was detected as a talented singer in her early childhood. She started performing at age 11 while she was a student of Our Lady of Mount Camel College, Muea, Buea. She was one of three girls who made up an a capella group of the college known as Star Sisters.

That was when she started nursing hopes of taking up music as a career and of beating her father's impressive musical record.

In 2013, Ray founded Queen of Angels Choir, a 40-member group in the Immaculate Conception Parish, Great Soppo, Buea. The following year she founded another choir in the same parish known as Holy Infant Choir. As the name implies, the latter group is meant for small children. She is the music instructor of both choirs to this day.

She has also been playing for a Buea-based charitable group called Society of St Vincent de Paul, one of whose principal activities is to entertain inmates at Buea Central Prison.

Away from choir groups and religious music, Ray started working with Cameroonian artist, Dr Sley, as well as Valen, a friend of her brother and manager. Both men did a lot to shape her vision as far as the genre of music she plays today – world music – is concerned.

Although inspired by singers like Alpha Blondy, Lucky Dube and Brenda Fassie, she has, over time, developed a style of her own, which is a fusion of Afrobeats, soul and jazz. With her unique voice that leaves every listener spellbound, Ray flies in the same musical orbit as Nigerian singers Asa and Nneka.

On a general note, she is moved by songs about the many misfortunes that have befallen mankind, such as apartheid in South Africa, the civil wars in Nigeria and the DRC, the Ethiopia famine, the Lake Nyos gas disaster in Cameroon, the earthquake in Haiti, etc. This is owed to her incredible love for children, the oppressed and the underprivileged.

Her maiden recorded song, 'Love This Place (Africa)' was produced by Emil Ngombah of M1 Studio, Molyko, Buea. It features one of Cameroon's finest guitarist, Marcien Oyono, with backup vocals from Africa The Voice finalist Merveille Onguenet.

'Love This Place (Africa)' describes the African continent with its diverse and mellifluous music melodies as a place of peace, love, hope and happiness.
Ray has recorded four other songs with M1, which will be released subsequently.