“We Began 2015 In Debt.” Broke Elani Explains Why They Have Been Annoyingly QUIET Unable To Release A Single Song

Singing trio, Elani, left their fans yearning for more hits after they went silent not releasing more songs when other artists were busy flooding the airwaves with songs.

At one time, Elani, which comprises of Wambui Ngug’I, Bryan Chweya and Maureen Kunga, almost surpassed Sauti Sol as the dopest music group in Kenya.

The trio is known for hits likes ‘Nakupenda’, ‘Milele’, ‘Koo Koo’ among others. They dominated 2014 top to bottom but 2015 came with its challenges.

Elani says they held a mega concert towards the end of 2014 and unfortunately it drained all the cash they had.

“As our year came to an end back in 2014, we decided to put out a concert. We dubbed it ‘Cherry Love’ because we wanted to give you all the love that you had given us. It was one of the most exciting moments of our lives because we prepared for six months, and the concert was mind-blowing. The support that we got from our fans was unthinkable. You came out in large numbers and for that we thank you. Unfortunately at the end of it all we were millions of shillings in debt. It was heart breaking for us because this is the thing we loved to do and we still love to do, and we were hoping that for that moment it would show us some love back and it didn’t.” Wambui explained.

They went on to divulge they began 2015 in debt and were forced to ‘stop’ releasing songs and plan how they could make money through other avenues.

It’s then that Elani turned their attention to royalties they earned from Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK.)

“We began 2015 in debt and we are very grateful to corporates that came and gave us gigs and we were able to clear the debts. But sadly after clearing the debt we sat down three of us and realized that there is actually a problem why we can’t make money off other avenues that are very open to artists to make money. So we took a break and actually tried to figure out what was actually happening because being artists who are signed under MCSK we are entitled to royalties.” Revealed Chweya.

Elani says they received Kes 31,000 as royalties from MCSK and that made them realize they had been robbed. They decided to carry out investigation to find out why they made so little yet they boast of hit songs after hit songs.

To clear wrong doings, MCSK gave Elani a ‘compensatory’ amount of Kes 300,000. But Elani were still not satisfied that 300k was the money their songs generated as  royalties.

The trio is calling for transparency and accountability on the part of MSCK in distributing royalties to artists. They think the music body has robbed them.

Watch the video below is see Elani explain their ordeal: