IF YOU ARE A FOLLOWER of local gospel music, you might be acquainted with songs by Elayone Music, a local gospel group that is steadily gaining popularity on YouTube. Though they keep a low profile, the team’s passionate and message-laden music is making strides on the local scene, and many people are starting to pick interest in them. Founded in 2007, Elayone Music have up to 8 tracks to their name, including the popular “None Urabikoze,” a song that many people consider a personal testimony. In an interview with The New Times, Serge Sangwa, the unassuming founder of the group shared their humble beginnings as just a prayer group of teenagers in Gikondo, a Kigali suburb, and how they evolved to become a promising live-recording team. “In 2007 when I finished high school and returned home, I felt like God was pushing me to do something that was different from what I was used to,” he says. Serge Sangwa, during an interview at The New Times . Photo by Olivier Mugwiza. “I had been a singer in a group at school, so I thought I could do the same in my local church. However, I realized that God wanted to place me somewhere different.” He did not quite know where to start. But as he was contemplating the next step, he got an idea: impacting his peers through prayer and worship by gathering regularly at his parents’ home. “That is how we started. On the first day we were just about 3 people, but I requested them to bring their colleagues to the next meeting. We sat on the veranda of our home, sang and prayed. We were using our time for a good cause,” he said. During that time, they composed many songs, but did not really have aspirations of recording. So, they always sang live to the people in their neighbourhood and beyond, at events like weddings, parties or even vigils. “Many people who know us then know us as ‘the children who used to sing at vigils.’ We loved joining ourselves with people that were passing through troubles and encouraged them. For example, we would go and spend a whole week at a vigil, singing and encouraging the mourners,” he says. Later, they thought recording, after a fan who had turned up for one of the events where they had been invited to sing encouraged them to record. “She gave us Rwf30, 000, which was half of the money that we needed to pay for recording our first song ‘Ijoro rimwe.’ We looked around for the remaining half and we went to the studio and recorded.” Then they tried to make an album in 2011, but because of limited resources, its quality was not good. So, they decided to give studios a break until later in 2017 when they recorded ‘None Urabikoze,’ a song that has so far hit 1.4 million views on YouTube. Then they recorded more songs - both in audio and video, a number of which have attracted fair viewership on YouTube. This year, they have a number of songs that will be coming out as they continue with their efforts of reaching out to souls through music. Sangwa says that the band currently has more than 60 written songs, which they hope to record. “We hope that worship will become a lifestyle among individuals and families all over the country. We hope that with God’s Grace, our music will be authentic, filled with God’s power to save people,” he says. Besides their musical endeavours, they hope to establish their own studio so that they record their live music by themselves.
