They came, they saw, they conquered! That sums up the U.S trip of Rwandan music duo Dream Boys’ Saturday performance in Irvin, Texas. The boy band made up of Platini Nemeye, and Claude “TMC” Mujyanama performed at the East Africa Chamber of Commerce (EACC), closing dinner in the southern U.S state, thrilling the all East African audience at the annual event. Videos show the two performing before an upbeat audience, with some attendees splashing ‘dollars’ on stage in appreciation of the performance. TMC told The New Times that the show was a success and it encouraged them to do even more to produce music that appeals to the region. “The show went well. We performed many of our songs and people were excited, especially when it came to oldies like ‘Nshatse inshuti’. People from the entire East Africa enjoyed the music. It was amazing,” said TMC. “It was a successful trip for us. We were able to make connections here and there. We are coming back as soon as possible to do more music. We are thankful to God,” he added. The dinner, which was held on Saturday, marked the end of the 11th Annual Trade Conference of the EACC. The conference opened on Thursday October 11, at the Omni Mandalay Hotel in Irvin, Texas. The theme for this year’s conference was ‘Forging Deeper Relationships via Investment, Trade, and Innovation’. The annual gathering is aimed at enhancing business to business networking and partnerships between East African businesses and their counterparts in the USA to promote trade and Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). It was the first time the Dream Boys perform in the U.S. TMC said the group will focus on doing more music that appeals to the region because language is not an issue. The duo won 7th edition of Primus Guma Guma Super Star (PGGSS) music competition, bagging Rwf24 million cash prize having tried their hands on the top prize in five different editions. They debuted in the competition in 2017. Last month, the group was in the news over allegations of plagiarising Tanzania’s upcoming star Beka Flavour’s song ‘Sikinai’ in their new single “Romeo and Juliet”. The song caused a bit of a stir, with the Tanzania weighing in on the debate that “it was copy and paste.” The duo admitted ‘sampling’ a few lines from ‘Sikinai’, while rapper Riderman, who features on the song, said he had no idea that the song had picked some lines from another song. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
