As the second round of the Empawa Africa competition rolls out, here is a brief reminder of the Kenyan contestants who made the cut in the first round that you might have missed out on.
Empawa Africa is an intuitive run by Ghanian Mr. Eazi that seeks to empower young, independent, African artists to become global superstars. The initiative kicked off late last year calling, independent African artists from 6 African countries (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana and Rwanda) to ‘audition’ for the chance of being picked as the top 100 by Mr. Eazi himself, where they would stand the chance to win a prize of 3000USD. This money served the purpose of funding their music videos which were featured on Eazi’s and Empawa Africa’s YouTube and social media channels. The panel of experts then chose the top 10 artists from the 100 who got a chance to be part of a 3-week masterclass in South Africa with the mentors.
Among these were 13 Kenyans. The top 10 lucky ones who attended the master class were 2 Kenyans, 19 year old singer/rapper Bey T and 16 year old songstress Nikita Kering.
While many songs and videos went unnoticed, the Kenyan finalists greatly delivered with some coming out with hit songs and incredible visual stories.
Below are the finalists in order from most viewed (as of August 2019):
Karun - Glow Up (247K)
Nikita Kering - Tragedy (212K)
Lamu - Something about you (135K)
Boutross - Wrong (94K)
Tetu Shani - Africa Sun (82K)
Monski - Moving (65K)
Yviona - Fanta (47K)
Olivia Ambani - Better Than Just Fine (42K)
Agolla - Nayanka (39K)
Leroy Mumeita - Promises (31K)
Wanja Wohoro - Youth (24K)
Prxnce - Hold it down (16K)
It’s still unclear which one of Bey T’s releases was her Empawa project, but just incase it’s ‘Wololo’ which is at a whopping 370K views (so far), here is the link:
Each contestant that made the cut is so diverse in sound and look, proving how much variety and talent that exists in the country. Sounds of Afro Pop, Trap, Shrap, Hip Hop, Afro Soul, Dancehall, R&B and Folklore are all included in sound and sight. Which ones were your favourite?