Last week was one of the busiest weeks in Rwanda’s entertainment industry since the year began. Big artistes including the likes of Zagazzilion and Josh Baraka of Uganda performed in Kigali, while Juno Kizigenza’s new album ‘Turaje’ came among the top five trending albums worldwide on Audiomack. The New Times takes a look at the stories that made headlines last week. Alyn Sano drops debut album Last week, Alyn Sano, a talented artiste with dreams of stepping into the global realm, launched her debut album, 'Rumuri,’ and the rest was history. Comprising 13 songs, including 'Inshuti,' 'Lioness,' 'Mama,' 'Positive,' 'Mwiza,' 'Mariya,' 'Umwihariko,' and 'Sakwe Sakwe,’ which is already a hit among others, the album features contributions from different producers including Knox on The Beat and Kenny Vybz. Urumuri is among the top three albums trending on local airwaves and charts following Juno Kizigenza’s ‘Yareje’ which also premiered this month. Juno Kizigenza's “Yaraje” ranked among top five new albums on Audiomack Juno Kizigenza's debut album 'Yaraje' was ranked among the top five new albums of the week on Audiomack. The album, released on June 14, contains 17 songs and has been played more than 396, 000 times on the American website. Audiomack announced that the new album trended on the streaming platform from June 13 -20, alongside other big projects like Asake’s second album 'Work Of Art', a ‘Gift & a Curse’ by American rapper Gunna, “See Ya” by Wiz Khalifa and “Deus” by Sean Tizzle among others. Audiomack is a youth-driven, artist-first music streaming platform that allows creators to share unlimited music and podcast content for free. The ranking was made on June 14. Josh Baraka, Johnny Drille and Zagazillions thrills Kigali Uganda’s Nana star Josh Baraka, and Zagazillions best known on his hit song ‘Nilo’, were among the artistes that thrilled fans at the recent edition of Hottempah’s events that took place last Saturday at Mundi Centre. On the same day, Nigerian superstar Johnny Drille was also performing at Friends of Amstel Fest at the BK Arena, where thousands of revelers had gathered to enjoy the taste of Amstel lager and good music. Rwanda’s female stars Ariel Wayz and Bwiza also performed at the show that ended at exactly 9:00 pm. Josh Baraka and Zagazillions collaborated with young Rwandan artistes such as Juno Kizigenza, Kivumbi King, Boy Chopper, E.T, Ish Kevin among others, to thrill revelers of the event which was among the most highly anticipated shows of summer 2023. Hottempah is a big local event known for its Ugandan music themed shows that attract the youth of Kigali in numbers.
