It was a fun way to end the month for merrymakers in Kigali as they got to witness the amazing performances from Nigerian singer and songwriter Johnny Drille alongside one of Rwanda’s new kid on the block Sintex at the Kigali Jazz Junction. At an event held at the Kigali Conference and Exhibition Village, revelers started flocking the venue as early as 6;30 in order to get themselves a clear view of what was about to happen on stage. For the over 35 minutes, instrumentalists entertained the crowd that was growing in size as time went by and at a quarter past 9, one of the biggest band in the land (Neptunez Band) step on stage and excited the now hyper audience that was dancing along to what they were playing. This went on for around 20 minutes before Sintex was announced as the next entertainer on stage. The crowd could not hide their excitement as they screamed his name on top of their lungs before he thanked them for having turned up to support him. ‘’I want to thank all of you that have come out today to support me today and I promise you are going to have a great evening,’’ he said before he did what he does best. He went on to perform his new and old songs such as ‘’You, Akuka’’ before the moment many were waiting for. The DJ teased the crowd with the instrumental of ‘’Twifunze’’ which is currently his biggest song and the crowd went into a frenzy. The dancers did a great job as their electrifying dance moves and energy left the crowd in awe. Shortly after doing around 6 songs, Sintex got off from the stage before the Nep DJs came onto the stage and had the crowd really moved with their mixes. This didn’t last really long as the main act of the night, Nigerian Johnny Drille was announced and almost half of the crowd stood up and shouted messages of support and love towards him. ‘’I want to tell you all that I am really happy to be with you here today. It is my first time in Kigali but I am really impressed by almost everything here and I hope you all have a fantastic night,’’ he said. Dressed in black, from head to toe, the Nigerian artist sang for the crowd close to an hour but would have interjections where he would tell part of his story as an artist and personal life which really brought to tears some of his female fans. He performed ‘’Hallelujah, Count on You, My Beautiful Love, Romeo and Juliet, and Finding Efe’’ of which he gave the crowd what the story behind the song is. ‘’I am a shy guy and in 2015, I met this pretty fan of mine (Efe) who told me how she loved my music and requested to take a photo with me which I agreed. I really wanted to ask for her number but because I was shy, I couldn’t gather the courage to do it which happened the second time we met,’’ he said ‘’I, therefore, sang that song to try and find her because I really wanted to take it but when words failed me, I decided to put it in a song,’’ he concluded. At around midnight, he thanked the crowd for having shown him love and stated how impressed he was that even outside Nigeria, people still know his songs before he stepped off the stage and everyone found their way back home. Photo: Emmanuel Kwizera Photo: Emmanuel Kwizera Photo: Emmanuel Kwizera Photo: Emmanuel Kwizera editor@newtimesrwanda.com
