Burundi’s ‘Heavenly Melodies’, surprised many with their energetic performance at their ‘Overflow’ concert held at Christian Life Assembly (CLA) church last week. The concert, which attracted many celebrities and members of government, was the Ministry’s maiden concert away from home.

The Ministry’s founder; Fabrice Nzeyimana, talked to Julius Bizimungu about who they are and what plans they have for the future.

Briefly tell us about Heavenly Melodies

Heavenly Melodies was founded on May 15th 2005. It started with six members. The average number of active singers and musicians is always around 80. However if we count all those we have trained they are more than 500 in different Burundian local churches.

It is a music ministry that brings together people from different churches, therefore it is not affiliated to one church. However, throughout the years we have formed some strong partnerships with several churches such as Oasis Church and Christian Life Ministries (Burundi).

Can you take us through your albums and the message they deliver?

Our first album was Ico nifuza. It is made up of 11 songs. This album was more about the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It was followed by Umwizigirwa which is comprised of 10 songs which all touch on the faithfulness of God even in hard times. Our third album was Ibihe which was made up of 11 songs and the message here is about times and seasons; things change through time but God remains the same. Mu Buntu is our fourth and has 10 songs all about the grace of God; we are not saved by our works and own righteousness but by God's unmerited favour. Finally, Overflow with 14 songs is our latest project and emphasizes the overflowing presence of God in our lives.

In which countries have you performed before?

‘Heavenly Melodies’ as a whole choir has never performed outside Burundi except for our recent concert in Rwanda and we were pleasantly surprised by the turn-up and support.

Do you have some other activities that you do outside the church?

Yes we do. We do a lot of social work. We have a hospital ministry whereby we feed the sick, pray and sing for them.

We have singers who perform at weddings and we have a six months training programme which we offer to singers who want to join us, among others.

Do you earn a living from doing this?

It’s not simple to make a living from music even though at the same time we cannot say that it’s not productive work. We all have jobs that we do outside music but we have faith that soon our ministry will be able to be self sustaining.

What is the way forward?

Heavenly Melodies plans to export the Burundian music to many countries. We are already working on a concert in Nairobi which is slated for April next year.

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