JEAN SABIN KAVANGE, a Rwandan artiste living in France is working on his album that contains songs about patriotism.
The 35-year-old who does Afro Zouk, Reggae and R & B has been on a musical hiatus since 2009, but is now launching his comeback with new songs.
"I took a break in 2009 due to a job I was doing which did not permit me to carry on my music. Not only that, but also lack of enough radio stations and TV stations in the country at the time was another discouragement. But now, I am planning a major comeback with an album as well,” Kavange said.
His album dubbed ‘Iwacu’ comprises of eight songs, of which two are already out, including ‘Iwacu’ that the album was named after. Most of the songs on the album contain messages to the youth, about love and relationships and daily life.
When asked what motivated this album, Kavange told this publication that "all the countries that I travelled to, whoever didn’t know my name called me ‘Africa’. That is when I realised that you may go abroad and have any nationality, but you are still an African.
Whenever I got home in Rwanda, the happiness, love and homely vibes reminded me of what I am lacking when I was not there. From that experience, I was motivated to do an album and name it ‘Iwacu’ which means ‘Home’ or ‘Motherland’.”
His music journey
Kavange started his music journey in 2003 when he was in secondary school at Ecole des Sciences Louis de MontFort. He mostly used to mime other artists’ songs including the Westlife’s.
"After miming others’ songs, in 2005 I did my first song dubbed ‘Adeline’ with Emino. Then I did the second ‘Akavura’ with J Didy who taught me some music instruments from F2K Studio that we worked in with the late producer, Doctor Jack.”
After his song ‘Ngwino’ which was produced from Maurix Studio in 2009, he took a break until this year, when he decided to return to music. The singer plans to return to Rwanda to launch his album.
He has been living in France since 2015. He has a diploma in Sociology and is a Commercial Technician by profession.
Challenges of doing music living abroad
Kavange shaared that it is so hard to do music while living abroad since their genre is not understood easily, yet working with producers who are in Rwanda is another challenge, since they are not physically present. So far, Jay P and Holy Beat are the ones he comfortably works with.
Kavange however, expressed his gratitude to the Rwandan media for the unconditional support regardless of the fact that he is not around to meet them personally.