Talented singer Otile Brown just returned to the country after having his music tour abroad.
Otile upon returning was met by a bunch of journalists who had a barrage of questions for him. One journalist was concerned as to what his opinion was regarding Kenyan music going international.
Otile explained that the sole reason Kenyan music is not global is because of the language barrier. He noted that very few people globally listen to Swahili music. A statement that did not sit well with netizens.
“People know the truth but they don’t want to talk about it. Ukweli ni kamba ni Lugha. That’s the truth. The difference between our industry and the Nigerian Industry is the Language and we can’t compete with Nigerians on that,” he says.
Reactions
A lot of netizens felt that Otile’s sentiments were just hot air. Because artists such as Diamond and Sauti Sol have made it to the international music market while singing in Swahili. Others felt that Otile was downplaying the Swahili language which he too sings most of his songs.
Defense
After persevering the online attack for hours, Otile decided to defend himself. The singer through his Instagram explained that he was not in any way trying to downplay Swahili. He went on to defend himself by saying that songs sung in English are doing far much better on Spotify.
Otile went ahead to call out Nick Mutuma who had claimed that Swahili has more than 70million speakers. The singer expressed his shock as to why he was even trying to have that discussion.
Otile concluded by urging netizens to engage further in the conversation. And added that he was proud of Swahili as well as urging artists to work harder.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think Otile Brown is right?
By Wanjiru Mbaru