It was such an honor to receive the invitation to participate in the fifth edition of the annual Global Citizen Festival. Being an international event, we had the opportunity to meet and interact with the greats in the music and film industry. We shared the stage with A-list artists like Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, Demi Lovato, Ellie Goulding, Usher Raymond, Ruben Blades, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Yandel among other greats. As usual, we were the major talk of the event as we gave an outstanding performance of a famous Luo folk-tune ‘Koblo’ that quickly became a favorite song for Jada Pinkett Smith and Salma Hayek as they danced to the song while we performed. We also had an opportunity to present an Afro-fused rendition of Selena Gomez’s ‘Kill em with Kindness’ that has been a wow factor to the entire world. Our rendition of this cover is fused with a Giriama traditional folk tune ‘Mbiu.’ This was a special piece to the event as we represented Selena Gomez who had a few weeks earlier canceled her performance due to illness. Our presentation was well complemented with costumes that strongly depict our coastal Kenyan culture (inspired by attires worn by “wazee wa kaya“).

 

Being a favorite of many in the festival, Usher Raymond could not resist but invite us on stage to join him and Rubén Blades as they performed a single entitled ‘Champion’ from his latest album ‘Hard to Love.’ This was such a humbling request to us as we got the honor of performing with a multi-award winning artist.

Earlier on 22nd Sept. as a build up to the festival we interacted with various celebrities in music and film industry in a gala event organized by Global Citizen. The event dubbed ‘World on Stage,’ brought together artists and dignitaries to discuss and push governments as well as corporates to commit themselves towards ending poverty in the world. Some of the artist who performed at the ‘World on Stage’ event are Kesha, Aloe Blacc Paul Simon Tom Morello, just to mention but a few. At this event, we teamed up with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s cousin Tom Morrello and performed Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land is your Land.’ We also had an opportunity to jam with Aloe Blacc and Darren Criss backstage.

Check out the links to YouTube videos of our performances.

Kenyan Boys Choir performing ‘Koblo’

Article By @MahaC