Wanavokali

Wanavokali, which translates to “Those with the vocals” In Swahili, is a collective of six Kenyan performing artists: Chep, Lenah, Mellah, Riki, Sam and Ythera who share a passion for expression through Music, Fashion and Art. The vocal band is a majority female group and female-led.

The group met at the 2018 Safaricom Twaweza Live Tour, as backing vocalists, where they performed live music on stages across Kenya with some of the best musicians, producers and dancers that the country has to offer. Throughout the whole tour, they got to experience music, especially Live Kenyan music in a personal and very unique light.

In July 2019, with their experience, amazing chemistry on and off stage, and the desire to create broader opportunities for themselves within the music industry, they finally got together as the vocal collective, Wanavokali.

They started by posting covers of artists they had worked with during the Safaricom Twaweza Live Tour and from this garnered a huge social media following and the unwavering support and adoration of Kenyans.

Soon after, they worked on their first original and collaborative project with Kenyan Gospel artist, Collo G, releasing the single ‘Unioshe’ which was successfully received by local audiences and topped countdowns on major Gospel tv programs in East Africa (Kubamba, Rauka, Trace Gospel etc.). The song secured Wanavokali two Café Ngoma nominations for Best Cross Over Act (2019 and 2020) and won The Verse 5 Awards for Collaboration of the Year (2020). The video has, since, gained over 300 000 views on YouTube.

In 2020, Wanavokali became the inaugural winners of Old Mutual's Amazing Voices (OMAV), a Pan-African group singing competition, held in Johannesburg, South Africa. From a pool of 12 singing groups hailing from Ghana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Kenya, the collective was able to bring home the much-coveted title of “Amazing Voices” plus a whopping cash prize of $100 000. Getting to represent their country in the competition was a great honor and now Africa gets to view Kenya as a musical force.

With the win under their belt, grouped with all the experience they had gathered as individuals and as a collective, Wanavokali set out to create their first body of work. The soon-to-be-released self-titled album was born out of a truly unprecedented time in our history. During the lockdown period, the collective was able to execute a series of “Creative camps” where, joined by acclaimed songwriters and producers, they wrote, developed and recorded music that speaks of their truth and portrays them as their most authentic selves.

The album talks about life in its entirety: love, dreams, lust, desire for change, friendship, and celebration. Time's simple pleasures and the joys and struggles that accompany them. The sonic landscape behind this revolutionary work of art is centred around the potent yet soothing blend of voices distinct to the Wanavokali Collective. Wanavokali, the album promises to speak of diversity, youth, fun and family.

Wanavokali released their debut single “Rhumba” off of their upcoming album in...