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Kenyan group wins BBC’s ‘Next Big Thing’ contest - Entertainment news

KENYAN group Yunasi was on December 12 named the winners of BBC World Service’s Next Big Thing 2007 competition. The band, comprising seven men from East Africa and a French woman, triumphed with their song ‘Ndi Ndi Ndi’, about the dangers of excess drinking. They were praised by the allstar judging panel for their “wide open, exuberant vocals” and for being ‘different to 99% of pop music’.

“Somehow we knew we were going to take it,” said the band’s lead singer Simon Maranga Nyarieko. “Our song is the best thing that has ever been done in terms of music. We came thinking we were going to take the prize, but we were nervous. Now we have it, we’re good to go.”

There was a tie for second place, with 19-year-old UAE singer Jeremie Johnson and Serbian collective Vrelo sharing the spot. The judges said Johnson had “the potential to go on and be a world star,” while Vrelo were “fantastic” and their sound “an assault on the eardrums”. The other finalists were Icelandic rock act Hraun and French singer Maya McCallum. Yunasi sing in several languages including Swahili, English, French, Luo, Kisii and Luhya, and they have developed a unique East African music style called Sesube. They take sounds and inspirations from local Kenyan communities, cultural styles and languages, and fuse them with a European component.

The ‘Next Big Thing’ is not their first award; in March 2006, they were one of the winners of the prestigious US International Songwriting Contest for the song ‘Ji Opogore’ (The Difference of People).

They will now play at the O2 Arena as part of the World Service’s 75th anniversary concert.
 

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