History was made when Meddy’s brand new song ‘My Vow’ set up a new record for the fastest Rwandan song to hit one million YouTube views in just two days, a milestone that the US-based singer is celebrating with his music supporters, fellow artists and Rwanda’s music community at large.
The song has received good reception since Meddy dropped it on Friday, July 23, that its video has been leading East African music streams on YouTube.
However, ever since the song hit a million views, speculations arose, bringing the singer on the spot of buying views to impress his audience, leaving so many divided.
But based on a few facts varying from ‘My Vow’s lyrics and the record 50 million YouTube views held by ‘Slowly’, as the most-watched Rwandan video and Meddy’s relentless efforts to push his music beyond borders, so many people are convinced that the singer’s music viewership should not surprise anyone.
Meddy has so far 620,000 YouTube subscribers, over 30,000 followers on Twitter and 716,000 Instagram followers while his Instagram fan page counts 251,000 followers, not to forget his wife’s 89,000 Instagram followers.
The numbers don’t lie, according to one Jean-Baptiste Mico who said that the singer has added Ethiopians to his fan base after marrying their Mimi Mekfira in May.
"He [Meddy] is known in Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya… the song is in English which means that there is a small number of people from overseas watching it. Why would it be a big deal to see his song gather a million views in 48 hours?” Micomyiza reacted on his Twitter account.
"…so does his wife from a country with a population of 112 million who have many followers. You can also check how his name or song has become a trend on Twitter,” he added.
Jealousy
Some artists came in defense of Meddy ever since the debate sparked on social media on Monday, July 27, especially after female cultural artiste Diana Teta mentioned ‘views are bought’ on her facts list that she posted on her Twitter account.
Gospel musician ‘Egdar Ntamvutsa’ is one of a few who closely followed Meddy’s music journey from his early days, a journey which he said everyone should pick leaf instead of taking a ‘he bought views’ on him.
"Haha I remember when Meddy started his career, they used to say that we are going to break like MJ (Michael Jackson) we will end up growing up haha then boom he grew up and you are starting to say he stole views ... the man is a legend let’s all accept that and learn from him. Leave him alone...,” Ntamvutsa said.
When he learned of the criticisms about his long-time music colleague, musician Tom Close defended Meddy, hailing the star for not only standing firm and representing Rwandan music well but also becoming an inspiration to Rwandan artists.
"Meddy is a lesson itself for Rwandan music. Let’s put jealousy aside and learn from him, it will help many of those doing music from here in Rwanda,” the musician said.
Bobby Rutarindwa, a regular Twitter user, also said that only jealousy is driving some people to accuse Meddy of buying views instead of joining him to celebrate his milestone and take pride in Rwandan music in general.
"It’s ridiculous seeing some Rwandan artists jealously bashing Meddy for his many YouTube views while they could emulate a thing or two! Support your own!” he posted.