“As I promised, my “Gakondo” journey begins now”, is what singer Bruce Melodie posted on Twitter after releasing his first Gakondo song “24” back in October. From here, music enthusiasts thought he was putting a stop on other genres and concentrate on the traditional style of music. The singer’s declaration had since drawn mixed reactions among his music supporters. Some believed that it was just the beginning of the singer’s venture into cultural music, but to many, it would be the worst decision that he would regret for the rest of his career. It, however, took less than a month for the artiste to prove that he was ready to stand by his word. With the help of his producer Element of Country Records studio, he recorded his new song ‘Abu Dhabi’. The song, whose video was shot in a Tanzanian village by a one video director Kenny, is an imaginative story around where the singer falls in love with a girl called ‘Angelina’ who is taken away by wealthier man to enjoy life in Abu Dhabi, Dubai. Released last week, ‘Abu Dhabi’ is a typical Afrobeat, not Gakondo, the genre Bruce Melodie confessed he was venturing into. The singer has come out to clarify that his heart belongs on Afrobeat, the genre he calls the ‘Gakondo music of Africa’. “People need to get this straight. What I meant by switching to a traditional music genre was that I’m now going to do pure Afrobeat, in other words, traditional music of Africa and I think Rwandan traditional music also falls in that genre,” he explains The singer, who rose up the charts of R&B, Afrobeat and even Hip Hop, revealed that his decision to do pure Afrobeat was influenced by the fact that the genre is dominating the current African music market while it also remains the most entertaining among his other songs. “If you observe, most successful musicians on this continent are those who do Afrobeat, and we learn from experience. African artistes are good with R&B but nobody in this world can do better Afrobeat music than Africans. The majority of Rwandan artistes’ songs being played on regional and African radio and TV stations are Afrobeat. So, I see a lot of potential in this genre,” he said. Though he normally sings Afrobeat and R&B genres, Bruce Melodie insists that he won’t regret going Afro because besides being the biggest source of income for the singer, the genre has a growing popularity in Africa and also has a lot to offer him worldwide, compared to other genres. “Take “Nta Kibazo” (featuring Urban Boys), “Kungola” (featuring Sunny), and “Saa Moya” for example, all these have become hits and I was able to get good business out of them,” he explained. He, however, was quick to add that he can still record other afro infused genres.
