AFRO-FUSION SINGER Elisha Kwihangana, commonly known by his stage name, Elisha the Gift, has his eyes set on winning a global prize at the ongoing 2021 ‘One World’ song contest taking place in Germany. The contest, commonly known in Germany as “Dein Song für Eine Welt!”, was launched for the first time in 2015 as an accompanying measure to the school competition on development policy alle für Eine Welt für alle (all for One World for all) and has been held every two years since. Organised by Engagement Global on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the song contest is open to artists from across the globe. Individuals aspiring to participate in the competition must be aged between 10 and 25 years, but age doesn’t matter for bands. Elisha, 27, chose to compete accompanied by his band to keep his chances alive. The band’s song ‘Save our World’ is among 200 songs vying for the top prize at the contest. He told The New Times that his main objective of participating at the competition was to not only win the big cash prize but also seeing his music get a boost to smoothly spread across the world. “I was mainly motivated to join the contest as a platform to push my music to the international stage. Of course I want to win it too so that I can get that reward. To me, the contest is a great opportunity for me to improve the level of my music,” Elisha said. The contest that Elisha last competed was at the inaugural East Africa’s Got Talent (EAGT) held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2019 where his journey in the competition ended at the semi-finals. The singer, however, said his experience at the contest inspired him to dream big throughout his music career and take on bigger challenges including the ‘One World’ song contest. “EAGT helped me up my confidence in everything I do, especially my music. I have since started to think of opening borders for my music as well as create connections around with the world of music for smooth exposure,” he said. Elisha launched his music career 2013 and built his profile around Afro fusion genre, but his music struggled to flourish until he proved his worth with an impressive showing at the 2018 EAGT in Kenya. He has produced a number of songs including ‘Gasopo’, ‘Samantha’ and ‘Taransifoma’, his latest track that he released last week. The results of the preliminary jury are expected to be announced in September 2021 while the results of the first main jury sitting (top 5, album places and special prizes) are expected to follow in October 2021. The winner of the song contest, alongside the first and second runners-up, will be announced in December 2021 in an award giving gala that will take place in Berlin, Germany. The artist with a winning song will take home a cash prize of Euros 70, 000 (over Rwf82 million). The second best song will bag Euros 20, 000 (over 23 million) while the third will be awarded Euros 10, 000 (over 11 million). The winners will also be given certificates of appreciation.
