RWANDAN SINGER AND SONGWRITER Mike Kayihura, is being hosted on a BBC show called Africa 360, where his playlist of 20 Rwandan songs are currently being aired on its application and website.

Africa 360 is program of BBC Radio that hosts leading Artistes and DJs from Africa to showcase talent from their country. Mike’s one-hour track list was uploaded on August 8, and will still be listened to for 27 more days.

In an interview with The New Times, Kayihura shared that he was linked to BBC Sounds by Entertainment factory and created a play list of Rwandan songs that represent the country.

"It was a good time to present the good sounds from Kigali to be listened to by different people all over the world.  BBC is heard all over the world so it is a good thing because people from elsewhere will listen to Rwandan music from different artistes.

"It is good for me but it is also good for all of us because the play list has many songs from different artistes, so it’s not just about me.  I put together a play list that has all sorts of sounds from home and they are crossing the border,” Kayihura said.

This 20-song playlist only has two songs of Kayihura and two songs that he featured in, while the rest are from different artistes of different genres as well.

Other songs on his playlist include ‘King Kong’ by Pro Zed, ‘Amakosi’ by Ish Kevin, ‘Zoli’ by Nel, ‘Kantona’ by DJ Pyfo, ‘Ye Ayee’ by Buravan, ‘Away’ by Ariel, ‘Panga’ by Confy, ‘Anytime’ by Mike among others.

The singer recently released an Extended Play dubbed ‘Zuba’ that features eight songs. He released this second EP on August 6 and can now be streamed on all platforms. 

"It’s only on stream able platforms and the feedback so far shows that people are actually streaming and taking their time to listen to each song on the EP, honestly the feedback so far is beautiful, "He says.

Mike Kayihura, 28, started singing at the age of 13 at Christ’s Church Choir at Gacuriro. He went to a music school in Ethiopia and later on started doing music as a career in 2014.

Africa 360 debuted on 21 March during the 1Xtra Weekend Breakfast with DJ Remi Burgz with music by Aya Nakamura, Diamond Platnumz, Sha Sha, Tiwa Savage, and others. Each week, Africa 360 invites leading artists and DJs to curate a playlist from their country. The first episode aired on 22 March with Nigerian Grammy winner Wizkid.