Musicians turn to virtual performances during coronavirus' spread
Thursday, April 30, 2020
Christus Regnant choir at a past event in Kigali.

Rwandan artistes are embracing technology to get their music out to fans during the coronavirus crisis.

Christus Regnant choir is among local artistes embracing the trend.  

"We wanted to give a message of hope to people, but it was a bit hard because we couldn’t meet and rehearse or perform”, said Wellars Bahati, one of Christus Regnant members.

Bahati said he composed the song and shared the lyrics with the rest of the choir members on social media platforms to add their voice notes. The song is called, "Mu Maboko Yewe”, and it was released on Wednesday, April 29.

Speaking about the song, Alice Ladouce Nyaruhirira, the choir’s director, said: "After, all members recorded their verses remotely and submitted the voice notes to our senior composer for editing before we could take it to the studio for recording,” she said.

Nyaruhirira said the process is called "virtual choir”.

She added that each member was able to participate in the song. The final footage of the video was edited by Eugene Havugimana, who is based in Italy.

"I’m definitely not going to claim that the process was easy, because we had to convince all members to participate in the recording process remotely,” Nyaruhirira said. "We're just doing the best we can with the resources we have, and to show our fellow artistes that this time can be used well to go on with our daily activities."

"In your hands of the Lord; my hope resides. In your arms Jesus, rests my strengths. Father, hold my faith in your will, I am here because of you”, reads one of the verses.