Editor,

Local artists must know that people don’t just love music because of the message and instruments used in studio. Usually, people love what’s culturally theirs. If you can’t release a song that resonates with their culture, you’ll not warm their hearts.

Before going and ultimately deciding to stay abroad, those artists should have known that their music is, first and foremost, loved by Rwandans, and that Americans have their artists too. If I were them, I would have concentrated on growing my talent instead of going abroad.

As Lion Imanzi correctly put it, if Meddy and The Ben were still in the country, no local artist would ever have come close to them. Those two highly talented young men went when people liked them the most. If they were still here, I bet they would have won the PGGSS Award and pocketed those millions, but look…where are they? What are they doing? Will their songs ever make it to the Billboard Magazine in the United States? I doubt.

The only greener pasture is your own country because there are so many people who support and love you.

David Kimenyi

Reaction to the story, "Why visa chase is becoming a rat game for artistes” (The New Times, September 6)