The Rwandan music icon
THE first time Masamba Intore stormed Kampala as a headline artiste was last year, as Club Rouge started its Rwandese Night. Turning up with over 50 girls, he took the Rwandese fraternity in Uganda through a roller coaster musical ride to Rwanda.
By Joseph Ssemutooke
THE first time Masamba Intore stormed Kampala as a headline artiste was last year, as Club Rouge started its Rwandese Night. Turning up with over 50 girls, he took the Rwandese fraternity in Uganda through a roller coaster musical ride to Rwanda.
The good news is that Intore will return to Club Rouge tomorrow to check on how the night he helped inaugurate is faring. The show kicks off at 8:00pm. Masamba will perform alongside DJs Mupenzi, Momo, Dash and Roja. Entrance is free for ladies before 9:00pm.
If there are any superstars in the Rwandan music industry, Intore is definitely one of them. What would you call a man whose show attracts a 25,000-strong crowd, such that in the small city of Kigali only the Amahoro Stadium can host his event?
To put it straight, it is on record that Intore has previously held two full-house concerts at the stadium. This, however, might also have had something to do with the rarity of performances in Kigali.
Over the last couple of years, the sonorous-voiced and hunky singer has pushed his way to the topmost rungs of Rwanda’s music industry, with chart-topping and air wave-dominating hits such as W’itiku and Jenga Taifa.
Nyeganyega, the title track of his November 2005 album, not only conquered the radio but also homes and schoolyards. He is now one of the artistes whose names are the theme of arguments regarding the country’s best singer, alongside Jean Paul Samputu and Miss Jojo.
Looking into his story, the weight of Intore‘s talent means it did not take him long to become one of the most popular singers in Rwanda. He returned home in 2004, ending a life of exile that had seen him born in Burundi in 1969 before moving to and growing up in Belgium.
Immediately, he won over a fan base, introducing a unique fusion of Rwandese cultural and Western European musical styles.
Perhaps Intore, whose name means ‘War dance’, naturally had to break through the ranks and become a star. Why not when Intore is the son of Athanase Sentore, the legendary musician who is considered to be Rwanda’s best ever.
His father first taught him to play the inanga, Rwanda’s traditional 10-stringed zither, at the age of seven.
His being a son and student of Sentore, whose music style has always drawn straight from the taproot of Rwandese cultural sounds, explains why Intore’s Afro-beat rhythms contain so much of the Rwandese traditional sound.
The star’s life story is ‘music’ on every page, reading that even while in the diaspora in Belgium, the commodity he chose to trade in was music. It was his remaining true to the traditional African sound while in the diaspora that led him to meet legendary Senegalese musician Youssou Ndour, as the two artistes shared the stage at a concert organised for the International Refugee Day.
It was Ndour who advised the Rwandan exile to return home, telling him in a chat after the show that, ‘You have talent, Masamba, but do not waste your time in galleries in Europe.’
And ever since the Rwandan followed up on Ndour’s advice, there have been no regrets.
Intore is not only a musician, but also a theatre actor. He has starred in a world-touring play, Rwanda 94, which was about the genocide.
His dream while growing up was to be a journalist in either a newspaper or on radio, but he has dismissed all possibilities of ever joining the practice in Rwanda because he thinks the media practice there is still substandard.
THE first time Masamba Intore stormed Kampala as a headline artiste was last year, as Club Rouge started its Rwandese Night. Turning up with over 50 girls, he took the Rwandese fraternity in Uganda through a roller coaster musical ride to Rwanda.
The good news is that Intore will return to Club Rouge tomorrow to check on how the night he helped inaugurate is faring. The show kicks off at 8:00pm. Masamba will perform alongside DJs Mupenzi, Momo, Dash and Roja. Entrance is free for ladies before 9:00pm.
If there are any superstars in the Rwandan music industry, Intore is definitely one of them. What would you call a man whose show attracts a 25,000-strong crowd, such that in the small city of Kigali only the Amahoro Stadium can host his event?
To put it straight, it is on record that Intore has previously held two full-house concerts at the stadium. This, however, might also have had something to do with the rarity of performances in Kigali.
Over the last couple of years, the sonorous-voiced and hunky singer has pushed his way to the topmost rungs of Rwanda’s music industry, with chart-topping and air wave-dominating hits such as W’itiku and Jenga Taifa.
Nyeganyega, the title track of his November 2005 album, not only conquered the radio but also homes and schoolyards. He is now one of the artistes whose names are the theme of arguments regarding the country’s best singer, alongside Jean Paul Samputu and Miss Jojo.
Looking into his story, the weight of Intore‘s talent means it did not take him long to become one of the most popular singers in Rwanda. He returned home in 2004, ending a life of exile that had seen him born in Burundi in 1969 before moving to and growing up in Belgium.
Immediately, he won over a fan base, introducing a unique fusion of Rwandese cultural and Western European musical styles.
Perhaps Intore, whose name means ‘War dance’, naturally had to break through the ranks and become a star. Why not when Intore is the son of Athanase Sentore, the legendary musician who is considered to be Rwanda’s best ever.
His father first taught him to play the inanga, Rwanda’s traditional 10-stringed zither, at the age of seven.
His being a son and student of Sentore, whose music style has always drawn straight from the taproot of Rwandese cultural sounds, explains why Intore’s Afro-beat rhythms contain so much of the Rwandese traditional sound.
The star’s life story is ‘music’ on every page, reading that even while in the diaspora in Belgium, the commodity he chose to trade in was music. It was his remaining true to the traditional African sound while in the diaspora that led him to meet legendary Senegalese musician Youssou Ndour, as the two artistes shared the stage at a concert organised for the International Refugee Day.
It was Ndour who advised the Rwandan exile to return home, telling him in a chat after the show that, ‘You have talent, Masamba, but do not waste your time in galleries in Europe.’
And ever since the Rwandan followed up on Ndour’s advice, there have been no regrets.
Intore is not only a musician, but also a theatre actor. He has starred in a world-touring play, Rwanda 94, which was about the genocide.
His dream while growing up was to be a journalist in either a newspaper or on radio, but he has dismissed all possibilities of ever joining the practice in Rwanda because he thinks the media practice there is still substandard.