Eloi Muhoranimana, better known by his stage name Eloi El, is an upcoming artiste, songwriter and producer whose music has soared internationally. He was one of the most streamed artistes on Spotify and accumulated more than 7,000,000 million streams in 2020 alone. This, he says, enhanced support from recognised artistes such as Lucas Estrada, a DJ and music producer based in Sweden, who is also one of the most streamed in his country. The youngster has also been contacted by major record labels such as Spectrum Recordings, a sub label of Sony Music, and they collaborated on a song dubbed “Belong to You” estimated to be out in August. Eloi El has also collaborated with artistes from various countries, like Pull n Way based in Switzerland, Piece Wise in the Netherlands, among others. “I have also worked as a producer and mix engineer with local and international artistes like Dany Beats, Rita Ange Kagaju, Mike Kayihura, and Daria V based in Los Angeles, and others,” he says. Growing up in a family of singers inspired the 22-year-old to fall in love with music. The youngster notes that music connected the whole family, as it lit up the house. “My whole family are musicians and my father used to play in a musical band called “Irangira”, my siblings and I were groomed by the band. My two brothers, Sean Brizz, Chris Cheetah and my sister Lil Key, are also music producers,” he says. He notes that there was no excuse for him to not love music, especially when his whole family had a background of music, and this pushed him further in his career. His goal is and has always been to be known locally and internationally, and he believes that his dream is coming true. “Having a recording studio at home at that age made it easy for me to practice more often, of course with incessant training from my father and siblings,” he says. Once he had learned the basics, he got more training via YouTube later on. Now, the musician is specialised in deep house music which is a sub-genre of Electronic Dance Music (EDM). Eloi El’s musical journey began in 2011, where he started as a producer and singer at the age of 12. However, he experimented with electronic music production in 2018. According to him, singing is fun but a bit hard in the financial aspect, he has, however, received support working with musicians in Rwanda. When asked if music is a profession that pays off in Rwanda, he says that it pays, though it takes a little more patience. He says that it’s all about talent, time, and experience, with that, money is earned eventually. He adds that because he has been targeting the international audience mostly, it has been hard to get recognition in Rwanda. He is still optimistic though, since now EDM is starting to be played in Rwanda—he has no doubt that it will be much easier for people to listen to his music and other EDM musicians in general. Eloi El believes that gaining local support will require him to collaborate with local artistes like never before. He will release a new song on July 28 titled “Crush on You” via European record label Get the Sound. He has released 14 singles and 10 collaborations and released an Extended Play-EP that he named “Africa to the World”, which he says is one of the top streamed in many countries. The vocalist says that his EP is composed of an interesting vibe that can be played while relaxing or on a trip. It was inspired by an event that was taking place in America about racism. He says that the record label ‘We Are Diamond’ based in Germany requested him to compile an EP about it and went straight to the studio to produce it. Once it was released, it was picked by Spotify and placed on their playlist, that’s how it went viral. Currently, it has over 4,000,000 streams on Spotify. According to him, online music platforms are one of the best ways to gain a following and keep entertaining fans, for instance, YouTube, Spotify, Deezer and many more. “I am working on so much music with other established artistes from different countries and planning to build a network as a music label that will help other EDM musicians and introduce them to the bigger market,” the singer says. Eloi El explains that the beauty about producing his own music is that he creates what is in his mind when composing and writing a song, and he is in control of what instruments to apply in the song. He says that it is easy for him to experiment with different sounds. He set up a recording studio at his home in Kabeza where he records often.
