Afrobeat and R&B singer Mani Martin, on Thursday night, released his new song titled, "Mapenzi”, a love song that features Kenyan Afro-pop band, Sauti Sol. The audio and video of the song were both released on the same day after a year of working on it.

According Martin, who wrote the song, the audio was produced by different producers, including Rwandan, Congolese producer Jacques Kikene Mastola, and Sauti Sol’s Polycarp Otieno aka ‘Fancy Fingers’, who recorded some of the vocals and producer Pastor P who did the final mix.

The video was filmed in Rwanda by music video director Meddy Saleh.

Local Afrobeat and R&B star Mani Martin. Courtesy.

I have always wanted to do a project with Sauti Sol since I started listening to their music a long time ago and was captured by their artistry as a whole, the singer said about working Sauti Sol.

The singer has since teased the video on his social media and his YouTube video enjoying close to 8,000 views in two days.

The song, which contains Kinyarwanda, Swahili, French, Lingala and English lyrics, with the artistes taking turns with the lyrics.

"By the time I went to record the song with them, all the Kinyarwanda and French parts were supposed to be mine but during the recording session they suggested that we switch. They sang the Kinyarwanda and French parts while I sang Swahili and English instead.

It turned out to be a great idea and it was fun teaching them my mother tongue.  It wasn’t even difficult for them to catch up with Kinyarwanda, I just struggled a little bit with the accent to come out perfectly but I loved it in the end,” the singer said.

editor@newtimesrwanda.com