After two years without gospel physical concerts, gospel music lovers were finally treated to some local Christian music performances at the ‘Praise & Worship Live Concert’ that took place on Sunday March 6, at Canal Olympia, Rebero. At exactly 8pm the hosts Eddy Kamoso and Edith Nibakwe opened and welcomed revelers at the concert after long hours of waiting for the show to begin. Although they were not pleased by the concerts delay, when Kingdom of God ministry blessed the stage first, their songs ‘Uri mwiza’ and ‘Nzamuhimbaza’ took the crowd by storm as they sang along to these famous songs. The hosts repeatedly apologised for starting late and promised to give revelers a nice show as there were many big artistes who had not yet sang. Things got a turn when Gisubizo ministries, one the most famous gospel ministries today took on to stage. On their high notes and melodious voices they got people out of their seats when they sang ‘Akira amashimwe’ and ‘Ebenezer’. The third performance was from Josh, a unique gospel singer with a traditional touch alongside him were his traditional male dancers as they blessed the stage. His unique traditional style to gospel music seemed to have been admired by many as they danced along with him traditionally. At around 9.30pm, Tanzanian singer Rose Muhando got to the stage and immediately the crowd chanting and couldn’t hide their excitement to finally watch her perform after eight years since she last performed in Rwanda. With a stunning performance, Muhando still proved that she could dance and sing with outstanding vocals at the same time. She came with two dancers whom she danced along with energetically as she was beaming with smiles and so were the revelers. After her performance there was a long break that saw many revelers leave the venue before other local famous gospel singers like Aline Gahongayire, Israel Mbonyi and Gabby Kamanzi, among others could perform. After the long pause the MCs came back and welcomed other artistes who were supposed to perform with a maximum of three songs each. Those artistes include Theo Bosebabireba, Aline Gahongayire, Gabby Kamanzi, Serge Iyamuremye and Israel Mbonyi as the last performer. Gisubizo Ministries won third place and was awarded a prize of Rwf1 million. Aline Gahongayire took second place and was awarded Rwf2 million and the winner of Gospel Stars Live season 1 was Israel Mbonyi with a grand prize worth Rwf7 million. Launched in May last year, the contest was initiated to not only empower gospel artistes financially but to also promote and support the gospel music industry to the vast audience of the creative industry in general. The concert was organised by Matts Rwanda Services to celebrate and recognise gospel artistes who made a difference during the ‘Rwanda Gospel Stars Live’ contest.
