CELEB BUZZ: Show some love for Victoria Kimani

Let’s all cut to the chase, shall we? Victoria Kimani is the best female artiste in Kenya (and West Africa…maybe). What makes her triumph over her peers? We can break it down.

Akothee is currently more of an acrobat than a singer (check her controversial London performance). Avril took a sabbatical to focus on personal issues. Wahu got saved. Amani also got saved. Dela is still waiting for 2020 for Adele to release another song so she can do a Swahili cover while Sanaipei Tande doesn’t have the same cosmic flame she had 10 years ago.

Who are we left with? Victoria Kimani. She has all the makings of a superstar. From her euphonious vocals to her designer clothes, wavy oceanic hair, and badass photo poses, Vicky has always shown us that she is different from the rest.

But why don’t mass music consumers appreciate her enough? Why is she the most overlooked artiste in the country? When you hear of big concerts happening in Kenya, you never hear Victoria’s name being mentioned anywhere.

On YouTube, only two of her videos have more than a million views. Someone like Willy Paul boasts of six songs that are above a million yet he isn’t even known outside East Africa.

For those two songs that did extremely well on YouTube, she featured well-known artistes. We can assume that these artistes played a major role in boosting the statistics in Google’s video streaming platform. “Prokoto” had Diamond in it while “China Love” had American duo R. City. The numbers came from them right?

Yes?

Don’t say yes. Victoria is a powerhouse on her own and it’d be unfair to rule that her most viewed videos were the result of foreign assistance.

She has a voice that sounds beautiful, soul-stirring, even orchestral, effortlessly morphing from humdrum to melodic. Her voice swings like a pendulum between consciously raspy vibes and whisper-soft lines, with a hint of catchiness that’s quite beyond this realm.

STANDS OUT

Victoria is one of those rare artsy singers who is just effortlessly gifted. Everything about her music is adorable. She could sing about Mercury and still have me alternating between tears and applause.

Her body of work is also vast and formidable. But I’ll be the first to admit that she is not perfect. Not all of her music is flawless.

Victoria has songs that tilt towards the boring side of things but that’s normal. Every artiste has those songs that you listen to once then you apologise to your ears. Like “Sorry Ears…I really didn’t mean to subject you to this kind of punishment. I thought this was going to be good.” 

Victoria Kimani appears to have all the perfect ingredients to be a Tiwa Savage or Yemi Alade, but she isn’t. I don’t see anything those two have that she doesn’t.

She has never had a terrible scandal and given us a reason to hate her. She has never been accused of raising her leg too high in London or beefing with anyone. It seems like her worst crime was spending too much time in Nigeria and eventually sounding Nigerian.

However, she has changed her sound nowadays. If you listen to one of her past songs like “Immediately” and compare it to “China Love”, you can tell she is no longer a Kenyan trying to be the best in Nigeria. She isn’t like a French politician running for mayor of Rome. She just wants to be the queen of the whole damn continent.

Even if she still sounds Nigerian to some, where’s the problem? We adore Nigerian music after all.

It is said that music is a not-so-good career choice. You might do everything right but still not make it as big as you want. And if you are blessed enough to kick down the door that leads to the Fame Room, an avalanche of backlash, drain, and potent competition always awaits you.

I’ve checked the aorta and ventricles of my heart to see if there is any other emotion for Victoria other than love and respect but I can’t find any. My heart says she is awesome.

In my attempts to figure out the puzzle, I have conducted strenuous research. I currently have 200 plus Mozilla Firefox tabs open on my laptop. I have books and pamphlets in my drawers, along with dozens of scribbled notes.

I have had no sleep in weeks. I’ve stuck a bunch of blog printouts and magazine articles on my living room wall then tried to connect the dots in an effort to figure out this musical crime against Victoria by Kenyans fans.

Every time I feel like I’m on the brink of cracking this major case, I realise my lead was all flawed. Please! Tafadhali! Someone volunteer to end my little misery and inform me, why do Kenyans underrate Victoria Kimani? I’m done researching and investigating, I definitely need to sleep now.