Tag: Phy News

Unveiling Venna – an incredibly gifted Kenyan songstress who awesomely aced the Weekend Love cover!

Posted on by Kibaki Muthamia

The real definition of a natural star?

This is someone who’s perfected a skill that’s not an easy scoop. A natural star follows an innate passion, doesn’t pursue the limelight – it’s the other way round.  A star is modest, usually media-shy.

That’s a subdued description of Venna, the artist.

Venna has beautifully mastered voice art and its techniques to produce top tier songs. She has an enviable cache of releases of her own composition. She then ices the cake with incredible covers to popular global songs. She is earthly, cool and the deceptive girl-next-door vibe.

An alumni of Keveye Girls High in Vihiga County, Venna – real name Venessa Akinyi – was born and raised in metropolitan Kisumu City.

She’s teamed up with Producer Crazy Monkey – quite as faceless – to produce her masterpieces, via Street Breeze Records. On a daily hustle basis, Venna is at the studio with artists writing, singing bridges and fine-tuning her vocals.

Venna may have a limited playground at the moment, but her singing easily puts her on a world grand stage with Ariana Grande, Skylar Grey, Sia and the perennial Alicia Keys. It’s not hyperbole, she’s gifted.

Venna has written and released amazing lyrical pieces – Magic, Abu and Melanin, alongside Jamie, Biggy Styles & Emcee Kella – all collectible works of art. It’s the world of covers, though, that really sets her a mile ahead of her peers.

Take one of her signature covers, Right Away, by Seyi Shay.

If you didn’t know, in 2018, Right Away was listed among the most difficult songs to re-do by the reality show America Got Talent. Only a handful of people across the world have been known to successfully pass an audition stage with it.

Trust Venna to deliver a flawless Right Away cover.

Amongst her impressive tally of amazing covers, she’s attempted the Weekend Love cover, originally done by Chris Martin over the Warm Kingston Riddim. Weekend Love is popular on the Kenyan dance hall party scene.

Question: Which Kenyan artist do you look up to, or pair up with for a duet?

Venna: Phy.

(Not a moment’s hesitation).

The thing with soulful covers, is that a review may be biased – say, artist’s appeal and emotional vibe. Supposing that’s possible, sample Venna’s latest cover – a water tight rendition of Man Down, by the perennial hit maker, Rihanna:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEOysACSjRw

 

We really need Phy back on the music scene

Posted on by David Kingsley

If there is an artist that I have missed on the Kenyan music scene it’s one beautiful lass known as Phyllis Ng’etich. You might know her from that Taabu song or the song that she did with Khaligraph and King Kaka dubbed Ruka.

Also read: Why it’s tough being a female musician in Kenya

The first time most of us heard about her was when she was a contestant on Maisha Superstar. To this very day I still remember her rendition of Nameless’ Sinzia. It was magical to say the least.

Phy

Phy is such a great vocalist and I would even dare say that she is one of the greatest female vocalists in Kenya, you might think otherwise and it’s totally okay.

When you listen to her, you just get life instantly. If you were having a bad day, her songs just cheer you up and I am not exaggerating any of this. Ask any die-hard fan of hers.

And it is partly the reason why I would love to see her back on the music scene. Other than the fact that she is such a great singer, I think she is also too young to take a backseat. I believe she is 26 or so.

Phy

Understandably, she became a mother and that is one of the challenges that comes with being a female artist but I believe her child is now all grown and she should now make a comeback.

To be honest, her fans like myself, really miss her and if she released a new song today, we would listen to it for the rest of the year. If we can, we will even make it the national anthem. No kidding.

It is really sad seeing such a talented artist just fade away. Phy, if you’re reading this then it’s about time you made a comeback on the local music scene. Enough said.

Baby onboard! Singer Phy flaunts her huge never before seen baby bump!

Posted on by Pauline Syombua

Singer Phy aka Phyllis Ng’etich is pregnant with her first child as seen on her recent photos shared on her Instagram page.

The lass who popularly known for her hit song Taabu announced the good news in a post where she wrote saying;

Phy

Let’s just say I ‘bumped’ into a blessing.

This however comes as a big surprise since Phy is among the few artists who rarely share photos of their spouses in social media; something that has left many questioning who the lucky man behind the baby bump could be.

Congratulatory messages

Looking at the comments left by fellow artists, friends and fans; it seems that Phy has really managed to keep the news on the low for quite a while.

She however chose to announce her pregnancy just a few weeks after her graduation! The likes of Miss Kihoro and fena Gitu among others have gone ahead to congratulate the lass for the soon to be born baby!

Check out the baby bump below.

Pregnant Phy
Pregnant Phy

Alvindo’s ‘Taka Taka’ is almost hitting a million views but it’s still trash

Posted on by David Kingsley

I was recently astounded when I discovered that Taka Taka, a song by an up and coming musician named Alvin, alias Alvindo, is at 910,000 views on YouTube, just 90,000 views shy of the 1 million mark.

Any Kenyan musician, save for Sauti Sol, Willy Paul, Otile Brown and Nyashinki, will tell you for free that getting a million views on YouTube is such an uphill task. Most of them of dream of getting there organically. Of course, there’s always the easier option of buying views. Hi Octopizzo!

To put this into better perspective, I’ll give you some examples. You know Machozi, one of the songs that made Bahati a household name? It’s still stuck at 945,000 views 5 years after it was released.

Talented singers like Phy, Dela, Wangeci, Fena, P Unit, Masauti have never crossed the one million mark on YouTube despite all the great songs that they’ve composed over the years. I’m sure they dream of that day! It’s coming people!

Phy’s Taboo deserves a million views

As such, you would understand my frustration when I learnt that Taka Taka is almost hitting 1 million views barely two months after it was released. Mark you, the song does not even have a video.

To be honest, this was such an effortless song. Alvindo made a beat on his phone and came up with the lyrics after his girlfriend dumped him. To this extent, you can argue that the song had some inspiration. He included some abusive words and the song was good to go. There was no thought process behind it, none at all.

You see, I’m not in the habit of celebrating sub-standard content. It is for this reason that I feel that it should not have as many views. Kenyans seem to be glorifying trash music at the expense of magnificent content.

In as much as the beat, which was later polished by Magix Enga, is on point I still feel that the song is below average and should not be getting this kind of attention.

And no, I’m not jealous of Alvindo’s success seeing as Taka Taka, which is Swahili for trash, was his first song. There’s a level of mediocrity that I can stand, this song stretches it too far.

But then again, you could argue that the song was so bad that it had to stand out. What do you think? Leave a comment below.

Alvindo with Khaligraph Jones