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The slow-paced soukous music and its fast-paced subgenre ndombolo, both of which are sang in Lingala and French and feature curvaceous women in their alluring booty-shaking dance styles did not rub off on Victor B.
The Congolese mo-hawked singer instead felt at home with Swahili Rn'B and has put his heart so much into it that he even relocated to the country a week ago to woo the Kenyan audience.
Victor B - the 'B' stands for his surname Basua, had his first encounter with music in Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo where he spent his childhood learning how to play the keyboard, piano, drum and bass guitar.
He would later become a dancer at Stella Musica, a Congolese music group at 13 and later formed an Rn'B music group called Light of Life. The group of four friends recorded an 11-track gospel album called You are My Love.
At the age of 21, he auditioned in the Vodacom Superstar Music and Dance competition, organised by Akon in Kinshasa and emerged among the top ten.
"I did not plan a music competition as my way to breakthrough. I heard of it and decided to audition. The competition was a little scary but also a good challenge. I sang while the whole nation was watching and this is something that I was not used to. Then I eased into the audience and became among the top ten. Although I did not win, this was like a stamp that I could sing and people could feel my music by crying and clapping. I have also really grown and I believe I am a better musician," he says of the experience.
When he was eliminated from the competition, he went to Rwanda to be trained as a music producer before coming to Kenya to record Kumbuka, Anny and I believe in You. Lack of exposure made him leave Kenya for South Africa where he started his own stable, Victor-B Music Records.
It was here that he learned how to produce his own songs and founded a church, Life Church, where he sang, which is what influenced him to record a gospel album titled Change Me before coming back to Kenya.
"Nairobi is the place for me because the Kenyan people understand me very fast with the way I sing and the language I use. Back in my country, many people understand Lingala and French but not Swahili. South Africa has its own languages. I sing in Swahili and I wanted to take my music where people will get my message well.
The 25-year old crooner goes on to explain that the place that he comes from, they speak in Swahili only that their dialect is a tad different from Swahili spoken in Kenya, though one can understand what is being said. "With people from Goma, we fuse the language with a little bit of French or Lingala the same way Kenyans fuse it with Sheng."
He says he is working on music projects with Ogopa Deejays and is in talks for a possible collaboration with a couple of Tanzanian singers. He has so far released My Only Girl. His recording stable, back in South Africa, is still active.
"For me to go to another country it's about a new location and understanding of what others out there do, to learn from them and tap into the international market. For instance, working with Ogopa is about getting something different from what I normally do. That is how an artiste grows," he says.
Victor-B is from a musical family. His brothers and sisters are all involved in music while his father is a pastor who also sells musical instruments.
He is inspired by the Longombas and describes himself as a quiet person who enjoys being with a talkative person. He plays video games in his free time. And yes, he is single.
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