I want to elevate Catholic music standard- Emmy Pro
Monday, May 09, 2022
Emmy Pro, born Emmanuel Iyakaremye. Photo / Courtesy

EMMY PRO, born Emmanuel Iyakaremye, the founder of Rwanda Catholic All-stars vows to put catholic music on the best standard and compete in the industry of gospel music in Rwanda.

"As Rwanda Catholic all-stars founded by me, I want to do my best to uplift this music industry,” Emmy says.

He goes on to note that "I want the catholic music to be up to standard like the other music genres, so that our music can be played on all platforms without doubting its quality”.

Iyakaremye told The New Times that they want to capture the attention of gospel music lovers and make Catholic music known everywhere.

"We want to take on the Rwandan music industry especially gospel lovers and make people play Catholic songs on radio, television, in cars during journeys and everywhere beyond Catholic churches,” He says.

"It’s not meant for Catholics alone but also all people should listen and enjoy our music too,” he added.

Besides boosting local Catholic music to the international standard he wants to become one of the biggest producers in Rwanda and achieve more in this career.

"For myself, I wish I could have achieved a lot of things in music but I want to be a great producer around the country and globally, I need to develop my career and earn more things so that I can put a stone on the music industry and develop my country,” he told The New Times.

Iyakaremye who was known for producing Catholic songs has generated more songs and turned many catholic singers into super stars.

"Even if I am known for Catholic songs, I do all kinds of music, some people think that I can’t do it but I do all,” he said.

Recently, he featured Catholic all-stars and Aline Gahongayire in a song called Byose bihira abakunda Imana and in two weeks the second song from that collaboration dubbed ‘Dore inyange yera de’ will be out.  

Talking about why they chose Gahongayire in those collaborations he reveals that they have chosen Aline Gahongayire because she is a good singer, humble and she supports limitless God’s kingdom.

"Gahongayire is a great gospel singer, we are doing what we call ‘Oeucuminisme’ which means The Unity of Religions, because God’s kingdom is love and love doesn’t have a religion,” he explained.

Emmanuel Iyakaremye started music production in 2003 he began it from an inspiration he got while he was studying music in highschool, Saint Aloys Cyangugu.

Iyakaremye explained that "I founded Rwanda Catholic All-stars in February 2020, so far now we have worked together on 8 songs including some we collaborated with different famous singers like Mani Martin and Aline Gahongayire.  

Rwanda Catholic All-stars is a group of Catholic musicians who are optimistic in supporting the Catholic music development and Rwanda’s music industry in general.

Iyakaremye says that through the Catholic music development they are using digital standards in singing, mixing, mastering and production in wide-ranging.

So far, Emmanuel Iyakaremye is working with Aime Ndayishimiye who is known as Aime Pride in Universal Record Studio.