Beauty For Ashes Band conclude music tour of Nairobi

One of Rwanda’s most popular Gospel music group, ‘Beauty For Ashes’ Band, has returned home after a successful music tour in Nairobi. The band is comprised of Olivier Kavutse; the lead vocalist and acoustic guitarist, Amanda Fang (Piano), Christian Bizimana (Keys), Maxime Niyomwungeri (Drums) and Ben Iyakaremye and Olivier Habiyaremye who play bass and electric guitars respectively. Beauty for Ashes with Rwaindair Pilots during their tour. The tour took them to churches and concert halls where they spent one week in Nairobi promoting their music to Kenyan music lovers. Olivier Kavutse and his girlfriend Amanda Fung during the interview at The New Times office in Kimihurura. (Faustin Niyigena) In an interview with The New Times, Kavutse said that the tour was mainly aimed at selling and promoting their work plus making connections within the region. Amanda Fung performs in Nairobi. “Before organising the Nairobi tour, we had visited Kenya and made some connections with International Christian Community (ICC) West and other musicians. This time, we wanted to continue building the strong partnership and of course sell and promote our music,” he noted. Beauty For Ashes performs at ICC West in Nairobi. The band held their first show at ICC West Worship Week, and then Nairobi Chapel and later Frontrunnerz West on Nov. 7. The band was also hosted by Citizen TV on their Rauka show and they were invited to talk to over 850 students at Kkrew Bible Study. Olivier Kavutse during the concert in Nairobi. The band also performed at a concert‘ ‘titled’ One Nation for Janet’ to raise money for former TV personality Janet Kanini Ikua who is battling cancer, an opportunity that saw them perform alongside Sauti Sol and Nameless, among others. Beauty for Ashes performs at KKCrew during student bible study in Nairobi. Their last performance was at ‘Churchill Show’,- one of the biggest comedy shows in Kenya, which is watched by over one million people in East Africa. Beauty For Ashes team in a group photo with Burundian popular artist Kidumu (center) in Nairobi. Fong says the particular trip was an eye opener and proof that hard work and commitment can take any musician far. “The biggest point and the huge experience we had from our tour is that music starts with an artist’s hard work and commitment. We’ve had 1000 likes on our Facebook page within only a week with people telling us how great our music is. That is not something that we have experienced in the five years that we have operated in Rwanda,” Fong says. Olivier Kavutse, accoustic guitarist and head of the band at a coffee shop in Nairobi. (Courtesy photos) Since its inception, the ‘Beauty For Ashes’ band has released two albums--”Siriprize” (2011) in Kinyarwanda, “The Wonders of the Son” (2013) in English, and multiple hit singles - including “Superstar” (2012) and “Turashima” (2013). Kavutse and the band have performed in Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Canada, the United States, Hong Kong and Singapore. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Beauty For Ashes Band conclude music tour of Nairobi