Sauti Sol is a Kenyan afro-pop band formed in Nairobi. The group comprises of four members which includes Bien-Aimé Baraza who is the major Songwriter and plays the guitar and piano followed by Willis Austin Chimano who has the Baritone voice also a Performer and plays Keytar. Savara Mudigi is the Vocalist, Producer, drums, Bass Guitar and Polycarp Otieno who is the Guitarist, Producer, Composer and Arranger.
The artiste genre of music is Afro-RnB and they perform their song in their local dialect mixed sometimes with English.
Sauti Sol was formed in 2005 as an acapella group. They all met at the Upper Hill High School and performed as “Voices in the Light”, a music group at the school before they later changed into Sauti Sol. In 2006, the band started their performance by participating in the Spotlight on Kenyan Music competition, hosted by the Alliance française in Nairobi. They were included in the album compilation recording and later got a deal with Penya Records.
Sauti Sol had a fall out with the government in 2014 when released “Nishike” music video which caused an uproar in the media due to its steamy content, and ended up getting banned from most local TV stations.
Sauti Sol got their breakthrough when they released “Mafunzo ya Dunia” which Literally means lessons of the world, which later feature in their debut studio album Mwanzo. Sauti Sol released their debut studio album Mwanzo on 4 August 2009, via their record label Penya Records, to critical acclaim, and followed up with their second studio album Sol Filosofia two years
Sauti Sol since their debut has released four albums with the titles, Mwanzo (2008) Sol Filosofia (2011) Live and Die in Afrika (2015) and Afrikan Sauce (2019). Also releasing major singles such as extravaganza, melanin, kuliko jana, short and sweet, african star just to mention a few.
Sauti Sol’s second studio album, Sol Filosofia, which was released in 2011 has earned the group earning them various accolades and nominations. In 2012, the band released a self-titled extended play in collaboration with South African rapper and record producer Spoek Mathambo.
Their third studio album, titled Live and Die in Afrika, released online in 2015. The album was released under their imprint label Sauti Sol Entertainment as a self-produced work by Sauti Sol. A total of 400,000 downloads were made during the free download period.
The band has had several successful tours in Africa and Europe, topped Kenyan charts and gained international attention with shows in Europe and the US, as well as television appearances and various accolades and nominations, including their 2011 concert performance in Kenya with South African a cappella group Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
They have gone on to get themselves various award recognitions and also got a lot of ambassadorial roles from top brands in Kenya.
Sauti Sol is one of the most structured independent African music band, also having their own record label that has produced top artiste. It is definitely not a lie to say they are also one of the richest group act in African. With payments from their video views to album sales and endorsement payments. Here are the best songs by Sauti Sol.
1. EXTRAVAGANZA FT. BENSOUL, NVIIRI THE STORYTELLER, CRYSTAL ASIGE AND KASKAZINI
2. MELANIN FT. PATORANKING
3. KULIKO JANA FT. REDFOURTH CHORUS
4. SHORT N SWEET FT. NYASHINSKI
5. AFRIKAN STAR FT. BURNA BOY
6. SURA YAKO
7. ISABELLA
8. UNCONDITIONALLY BAE FT. ALIKIBA
9. GIRL NEXT DOOR FT. TIWA SAVAGE
10. NISHIKE
What do you make of our list? Share thoughts in the comment section below.
