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When the four young men who make up music group Sauti Sol will be stepping at the stage of the BET Awards next month, the most prestigious awards for black entertainers in the world, they will not only be carrying their own dreams but also the hopes of a nation.
Whether Sauti Sol lose or win in their category, they will still have made history. The significance of their nomination for the international award, which only one other Kenyan music group has ever been nominated in, is captured in an interview that they did for an international TV station, France24. An article posted on the France24 TV website in December last year, a month after Sauti Sol won the award for the Best African Act at the 2014 MTV European Music Awards, best sums up the perception about Sauti Sol.
“They are close to breaking into the global market, but they’re not there quite yet,” the article reads, to which one of the band members, Delvin Mudigi, replies: “We are going to be the ones to break the system.” Whatever your expectations, whether gigantic or modest, you may agree that Sauti Sol has made it too soon.
They are on the list of nominees for the 2015 BET Awards, which has 135 nominees - a list that includes the likes of Beyoncé, Rihanna, John Legend, Chris Brown, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne and the who’s who among the best black entertainers in the world. In the awards that were established in 2001 to celebrate African Americans and other minorities in sports, acting, music and other fields of entertainment, Sauti Sol have been nominated in the Best International Act: Africa.
For them to win, they will have to beat stiff competition from some of Africa’s best including Aka (South Africa), Fally Ipupa (DR Congo), Sarkodie (Ghana), Stonebwoy (Ghana),The Soil (South Africa), Wizkid (Nigeria) and Yemi Alade (Nigeria)- also nominated in the same category. Kenya and Sauti Sol enter the nominations as the underdogs. Camp Mulla was nominated in 2012 in the same category but Sarkodie won the award, while Fally Ipupa (DR Congo) was nominated for the awards in 2011.
In the past, various South Africans bands and solo musicians who include Mafikizolo, Toya Delazy, Lira and Donald have been nominated. In 2013, Nigerian hip-hop artiste Ice Prince won the award while his counterpart Davido won it in 2014. However, among the nominees, Sauti Sol stand out as a band that is not satisfied. It’s hungry - hungry for success. In the recent past, Sauti Sol has been the most crowd-pleasing, club-wrecking, festival-killing act in Kenya.
The hot quartet have brought nearly superhuman levels of energy to their shows and they are the only music group in Kenya who can leave nearly every hit song off the set list, and still see their fans walk out of the arena happy. Sauti Sol looks set to reclaim the identity of East African music and dance after the assault from West and South African music, in an industry where it was almost impossible for a Kenyan artiste to prosper. The boy band is made up of vocalists Bien-Aimé Baraza, Willis Chimano, Delvin Mudigi and guitarist Polycarp Otieno.
Theirs is a story about music and friendship. The first three were students at Upper Hill School where they performed in the same music group at the school while Polycarp met them at Alliance Française. From their early days as high school gospel kings to their current status as superstars who are pioneering their own genre of music, Sauti Sol are presiding over an amazing decade of music. They have managed to cement the foundation of their music without the aid of sponsorships, external composers, creative consultants or marketers.
In the interview with France24 TV, Baraza said that they were tired of being “artistes, writers, producers and marketers.” From their very first show, Sauti Sol has sung and played their own songs, becoming role models for a generation of young people and providing nostalgic beats for for old people to dance to again. Their story truly is a punk version of what it takes to make it in Kenya. They came, they saw and they conquered the charts, the airwaves, fashion and pop culture in general.
Formed in 2005, the band’s first album Mwanzo, released four years later, was received with acclaim and since then the group has been inspiring a dance floor revolution in Kenya. In 2011, they released Sol Filosofia, then an extended play and are now working on their third album titled Live and Die in Afrika. In 2014, Google named Sauti Sol’s video for Nishike as the most watched music video on YouTube in Kenya.
Their intelligence, persistence and intensity are turning Sauti Sol into one of the most recognisable bands from Africa. The band has become ubiquitous: magazine covers, radio and TV interviews and politicians have turned Sauti Sol into certified rock stars. Sauti Sol is everything put in one package.
They have the street recognition and fame that was lacing on the local scene, the up-market finesse that H_art the Band do not have and the easiness with music that Elani is struggling to achieve. Their latest song, Nerea, which continues to cause controversy, is such a basic composition that even a lower primary school student could have come up with it. Yet the song invites intellectual discussion. The group has a unique sound and an extensive fan base. Sauti Sol can sing for President Uhuru Kenyatta’s private birthday party in State House, for the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and still not feel out of place at the local drinking den in some village in Nyamira.
One of their most popular songs is Sura Yako, famous for the lipala dance move, a traditional Luhyia dance. When the BBC published their profile in January, they wrote “Sauti Sol are the hottest band in Kenya right now, so it’s surprising that they’ve turned to an old dance more common at rural weddings than city hotspots.”
They appeal to both male and female sexual fantasies. Whereas their song Nishike (Touch me in Kiswahili) was done to market their sex appeal to female fans, the song Nerea has almost achieved the opposite. On the other hand, Sura Yako brought their entire fan base together. Sauti Sol is perhaps the best-publicised band in Kenya and their online presence has made the band one of the most popular on Facebook and Twitter.
