Songs like ‘Sabizeze’ and ‘Nyundo’ are songs I grew up listening to on the radio, they bring back some of my childhood memories of looking after cattle, waking up to prepare to go to school with my grandmother and mostly the fun-filled evenings of roasting maize at a fireplace with family.
Jean Marie Muyango caught my attention again when social media buzzed with his upcoming album launch at Camp Kigali, on December 24, 2023.
I got an opportunity to sit down with him and learn more about him, when he started his music career, how he came up with the inspiration to compose these songs that have become popular in Rwanda and the region and his opinion on Rwanda’s current music industry among other things.
The genesis
Muyango who hails from a family with a music background, traces his love for music back to his childhood where he grew up learning ‘Guhamiriza’ - traditional dance- with his father as his coach. Unfortunately, his family fled to Burundi when the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi broke out in Rwanda.
Upon arrival in the neighbouring country, Muyango says they found a good dance instructor called Sentore who had traditional dance and singing groups -Itorero. Muyango said he mentored him until he was ready to create his traditional dance class (Itorero).
Meeting Imitari singing group
After two years, Muyango recalls, they relocated him to Belgium to help one singing group called Imitari. "They were looking for someone to help them create music that they can dance to,” he said.
Continuing his father’s legacy
Muyango notes that the reason he continued his music career after some of his colleagues bowed out had a lot to do with the fact that his father encouraged him to focus less on football which he was passionate about while growing up and focus more on music.
"My father asked me to carry on with the family’s music tradition and I did so, that’s how I loved it,” he said.
He revealed that, when he returned to Rwanda about 10 years ago, he was requested by the Head of State to stay in the country to help build the ‘Itorero’ in the country.
"I said yes to the request and that’s how I returned for good to Rwanda,” he said.
Composing ‘Karame Uwangabiye’ a song dedicated to President Paul Kagame
Muyango said that artistes sometimes work on songs that are difficult to produce which don't become popular, yet others are easy to produce, and they turn out to be hits.
"I can’t say that composing the song was hard because everything I sang about President Kagame, he did. I didn’t make anything up,” he said.
Muyango also revealed that the inspiration for the last verse of the song that "people love" came to him when they had already recorded the song and when he sang it to the team and the producer they were amazed and decided to add it to the song.
Thoughts on Rwanda’s music industry
Muyango says that when you listen to today’s music it ‘doesn’t sound Rwandan’ because of the incorporation of different styles.
I think that they are still learning, and they are faced with two things that are not easy; they need to know their language (Kinyarwanda) and music as well,” he said.
What needs to be done
Muyango believes that there is need for a musical school that teaches artistes to produce songs with Rwandan uniqueness to be able to tell that they are Rwandan in the intro, the same way you easily tell a Congolese or Ugandan song in the beginning.
Imbanzamumyambi album
Muyango who is set to release his new album dubbed Imbanzamumyambi, said that the name was derived from ‘Ikivugo’ -poem- Imbanzamumyambi ya Rugomwa.
He also believes that the album launch, set for December 24, at Camp Kigali, has a specialty of his classic songs being re-made which Muyango says is of so much important to him.
"There’s one particular song that I named after the bad name they gave us as a way of discouraging us when we began music back in Burundi,” he said.
"Elderly people who will come to the concert will be pleased to listen to my songs, as for the young ones if they understand what those songs mean, they also will be happy," he added.