An Evening of Music with Kenyan Pop Star Eric Wainaina
Join us for an evening of music featuring songs by Eric Wainaina, one of Kenya's leading pop stars. Eric established a relationship with the Tisch's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program last year and is at NYU Tisch this month, as IPA's Artist in Residence to perform some of his music for Tisch students.
A graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston, he stepped into the limelight as part of FIVE ALIVE, a male acapella band. His first album, SAWA SAWA, was released in 2001 and remains one of the highest selling solo albums in Kenya. His new musical, TINGA TINGA TALES, a British-Kenyan children's TV series has been adapted into a musical that is being presented at the New Victory Theatre on Broadway this month.
His notable releases include 'Kenya Only', a song that instantly made him Kenya's favourite modern musician. After the 1998 terrorist bombing in Nairobi where over 200 Kenyans lost their lives, 'Kenya Only' was adopted as the unofficial song of mourning, receiving extensive radio and TV airplay nationwide.
Wainaina returned to the top of Kenya's musical agenda after he released 'Nchi ya Kitu Kidogo' (‘Country of Bribes’) in 2001, a song that launched his crusade against rampant corruption in the country. With the chart success of 'Nchi ya Kitu Kidogo', Wainaina received international accolades. Transparency International (Kenya) supported him as an artist who would help educate people on the negativity of corruption, appointing him an ambassador. He was also appointed Ambassador for the NGO MS Kenya, Kenya Human Rights Commission and by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights for his commitment to fighting the abuses to justice through music.
You won't want to miss this special event with one of Kenya's most celebrated singer songwriters.