Did Sauti Sol let down their US fans?

Sauti Sol perform in New Jersey.

What you need to know:

  • Performances by the group have been dogged by controversy, but organisers insist critics are in the minority.
  • A section of Kenyans in the Diaspora believe they are being taken for granted by visiting artists.

GLASGOW, DELAWARE

By the time they were crossing the Atlantic heading to the US in early spring this year, Sauti Sol’s breakout song, Sura Yako was already a hit among the Kenyan community in the US. The song, done mostly in Kiswahili, was enjoying unparalleled airplay in clubs, pre-wedding and wedding events throughout the continental United States.

The group’s first gig in the US was in Las Vegas, Nevada mid-February during the Las Vegas Sevens rugby tournament. The manner in which they were received by thousands of their Kenyan fans who had congregated in Las Vegas for the annual event was a clear sign that the "All Boys Band" from Kenya had come of age.

“When they came on stage in Las Vegas, there was pandemonium. The fans went crazy and at the end of the show, we knew they had to come back when they have time for some serious shows,” said Kaka DC, a Washington, DC area promoter who was part of the team that organised the group’s US tour.

Despite the fact that some of them may have left home years or even decades ago, most Kenyans living abroad are so sentimental about Kenya that they try to live as if they never left home.

“Any song that is popular in Kenya automatically becomes a hit among Kenyans abroad and that was the case with Sura Yako. And so, by the time Sauti Sol came over for a series of shows they were already a household name,” said George King, a Kenyan-born Baltimore-based promoter.

King, also known as George Gichobi, who claims to be a member of the old guard of the entertainment industry within the Kenyan community in Baltimore, says he was not surprised by Sauti Sol’s quick rise to the top both in Kenya and abroad.

“Clearly, the boys know their stuff and understand their game. They have the charm, not only on stage but also off stage … They have not let fame get to their heads,” he said.

Mr King says that, as far as he remembers, Kenyan fans in the US embraced Sauti Sol in a way they had never wholeheartedly received any other group from Kenya and he attributes this to a confluence of several factors.

“Their song Sura Yako was a very big hit even here in the US but what helped accelerate their popularity was a series of nominations for both national and international music awards. Their nominations at the BET Awards, for instance, catapulted them into instant international fame,.” he said.

ARRIVED LATE

Despite all that, two weeks after their last appearance in New Jersey, questions are still asked about their performance during their US tour.

Was there any truth to allegations that the group was in fact overrated and their performance did not meet international standards at best, and was outright shoddy at worst? Or was the bad press they were receiving from some of their fans an orchestrated smear campaign by their detractors?

Opinion is sharply divided among the group’s fan in the US. There are die-hard fans that attended the group’s shows who hold the view that their performances were, in fact, great. Those in this group include promoters Kaka CD, George King and Lloyd Osunga of Umoja entertainment.

Then there is the group of Kenyans that criticised Sauti Sol’s performances, terming their shows amateurish.

This group is led by Kenyan-born Atlanta-based Blogger Jean Adero, who was the first person to "out" the group in her blog, In my Head.

Writing a day after Sauti Sol’s performance in Atlanta, Georgia, Ms Adero said the band arrived three and a half hours late, put on a poor show of six or seven songs on a low-budget sound system and then hurried off the stage after 45 minutes.

Ms Adero wondered on her blog, “Did they know we were there? Or are they cocky enough to think that they 'have arrived' and no longer need to expend any additional energy on their lowly fans?”

In a scathing review of the group’s performance, which she termed amateurish, lackluster and uninspiring, Ms Adero wondered why the team had not bothered to inquire how much the $30 the fans spent on tickets was worth.

“When you ask your clients, fans, or patrons to purchase a product or a service, you must think about the value for money and their total experience. This, Sauti Sol, means that you inquire about what $30 can buy in that market in relation to what you are offering. Then you think about creative ways of meeting expectations based on what you bring to the table. And Sauti Sol, you have a lot to bring to the table – you just chose not to,” she wrote.

MISSED FLIGHT

Things went from bad to worse when only one out of the four members showed up for the Seattle concert. The explanation given was that they had missed the show due to unavoidable circumstances. The Nation has learnt that in fact, they missed the show because they missed their flight from Atlanta to Seattle in Washington State.

The same issues were raised after a performance in California where they staged a show before the BET Awards. When news of this emerged after being picked up by a Kenyan publication, some fans who had purchased tickets to their show scheduled to take place in New Jersey over the 4th of July weekend demanded a refund.

Not only did this cause panic among the New Jersey show organisers, it also threatened to unravel everything the group had worked hard to built.

“If they hadn’t pulled off Jersey, they could as well have kissed USA goodbye. The bad press and fans reviews were eating at the core of their whole existence,” said Tony Kioko, a Kenyan resident of North Philadelphia.

“Going into the Street Bash show, we knew what was at stake because of the bad publicity that the group was getting. We knew it was our responsibility to pull every stop to have a memorable show and that is exactly what we did,” explained Lloyd Osunga, one of the organisers of the Jersey show. Mr Osunga, who rates Sauti Sol’s show in Jersey as one of the best ever, claims that isolated complaints from a few fans had been blown out of proportion.

“In a crowd of between 700 and 1,000, it would be unrealistic to expect all of them to see things the same way. The fact that two or three people complain about a performance doesn’t necessarily mean they are right. Sauti Sol are great performers and a majority of their fans would agree with me.”

Be that as it may, a section of Kenyans living in the US will need to be convinced that entertainers from Kenya are not simply taking them for granted.