Members of the diaspora who are in Rwanda for festive season vacations enjoyed a memorable night thanks to exciting performances from legendary music duo Cécile Kayirebwa and Burundian zouk artiste Jean-Pierre Nimbona commonly known as Kidum.

This was at a concert dubbed Rwanda Konnect Gala held at Gikondo Expo Ground tents on Friday.

The show attracted crowds of all generations, government officials and a number of celebrities among others.

The duo headlined a blistering music extravaganza, with a paired package of both traditional and zouk music, which drove the audience of all ages to nonstop dances.

However, their performances were marred by sound glitches, especially when Kayirebwa was on stage, lasting at least her first 15 minutes, organisers desperately tried to fix the sound problems.

The show started at 8.00 pm, the moment MC Lion Imanzi, the host of the show, warmed the crowd introducing on stage traditional dance troupe Inganzo Ngari, whose performances excited traditional music enthusiasts for a couple of minutes on the stage, to remind what culture should mean to Rwandans, from motherland and beyond.

Next was Kayirebwa, at whom the crowd made the noise by the time she appeared on stage with young girls Ange and Pamela, the girls who usually perform Kayirebwa’s songs at different gatherings and a group of music instrumentalists.

Kayirebwa, who last performed in Kigali back in March during her concert ‘Inganzo ya Kayirebwa’, performed a number of her popular songs like Ndaje, Inganzo y’Umunezero, Mama Ndare, Iwacu, None Twaza, Amazi ya Nyanja, Mbateze Igitego and Inyange among many, most which excited party goers until they hit the stage to dance.

Kayirebwa and the audience alike were not amused moments later when glitches in sound that interrupted the show for a about 15 minutes.

This did not stop the 71 year-old traditional musician though from exciting the audience, whenever sound gave her occasion to do so, putting aside the technical dilemma and focus on entertaining her music lovers.

She proved that old age does not concern her when she spent over an hour on stage as belted her songs that have been popular since the early nineties.

By the time Kayirebwa was about to leave the stage after her performance, almost the entire audience in the tent were already singing a mix of her music that they wished to hear her singing for them, but she opted to give time management a priority to pave way for Kidum.

But, in real sense, it was too early for the audience to see Kayirebwa leave the stage as they were still demanding more music from her, but in vain.

Before Kidum came to stage, it was 3Hills’ and Tusker Project Fame 6 winner Hope Irakoze who took some minutes performing some of legendary musicians’ favorite tracks like Andre Sebanani’s, Nkumbuye Umwana Twareranywe and Urabaruta before concluding with Sauti Sol’s hit ‘Kuliko Jana’

One would not imagine how Kidum was going to change the mood of the audience who were still smelling Kayirebwa’s music inspirations but rarely did it take him time shortly after he performed Zouk songs like Sherekea and Amosozi y’Urukundo, Intimba, Amafaranga which put the fans in the skies, including his Burundian supporters.

People flocked the hall when he performed Vimba, a collabo with 3Hills, in which Hope Irakoze joined him for the performance continuing the moments of jubilations while singing other hits like Haturudi Nyuma, which he featured Ugandan Artiste Juliana Kanyomozi among many more.

The show ended half past midnight, with joy and excitement in party goers’ faces.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw