 8.84 star 10.54. Kwa ribu ni sana? Kwa ribu sada, Maryanne? Thank you. Thank you. Finally, I'm here. Yeah, so ego, 4 months old now, yeah? 4 months old. We've done it. First album. Why did you decide you wanted to call it ego? A lot of people assume what people think ego is. Narcissism. But ego, my understanding of ego is our reflection, what we envision ourselves to be, what we think we are. And that's what my album is and that's what I wanted to call my first album. Instead of giving it a self title, naming it after myself or calling it the beginning or other cliches other artists do. Yeah, I just wanted to say is to give Amira of who I am, ego. Amira of who you are and your personality. Yes. And it's not that you're narcissistic or anything. No. I just see myself in this power. Yes. It is what it is. Exactly. So why did you decide on this genre of music Afroso? Why not, you know, pop? Why not? Why? I don't, it just happens. I don't force it. I don't wake up and say the song I have to write has to be Afroso. It just comes. It just happens. I think that's a beautiful thing about being a songwriter and an artist. Things just, it's a calling sort of. You don't choose it. Tomorrow I will try to write a song. The next day I can, I think I have a hip-hop song or something. It just, it comes as out of nowhere. Wherever your soul leads you. Yes, but mostly it just happens to be Afroso. Okay, because today is entrepreneurship Tuesday and it's all about making money and it's all about the business. How do you finance yourself? Like I can imagine producing an album with seven songs must have cost a lot of money. So how do you get financing? The first thing is that I've been doing this album for three years. So it's not something that I woke up, I had this big bunch of cash and I was like let me spend on an album. No, I did it step by step. Anything I got, any bit of money I got, I collected it. It's a collection of money throughout the years that have led me to having an album finally. And sometimes you speak your way through. I have friends who have studios. I have bedroom studios in their houses and it's just like yo, let me record ma, let's do something. I can't afford you and you know for a fact I can't afford you. So can we do something? Just networking and do it and I've nailed it and I'm happy so far. Ah, then you must be very persuasive. Yes, I get that a lot. Okay, so then who are you outside of music? Now I'm curious. Outside of music, I'm also an entrepreneur by the way of other businesses that I can get into another day. I'm a very deep artist, not just in a music sense. I get into interior design, I get into painting and stuff like that. So yeah. We've been painting, oh goodness. The bit appears you have a lot of sides to you but speaking of sides to you, let's talk about some of the songs that you have here. Very captivating title. Agal was born. Agal was born is the first song of my album, very short song. I think I mean it's long, it's an intro. It's a prayer actually. A prayer for, I say translated to English, I say may all your enemies fall, may everything you touch be blessed, may you wake up every day. It's just a short prayer and I wanted it to be the first song in my album. So when someone is listening to it, it's a journey throughout the album. They feel it with me and as we talk more about the album, you'll see why it's the best that it's placed there. I'm kind of touched to see that you decided to begin your album with a prayer. Yes. Amen. Today I've met a lot of spiritual entrepreneurs. I don't know what's happening today. You're trying to get to me. Your next song is Why Am I So Beautiful? My favorite song. Why Am I So Beautiful is an acapella song. It's a story actually. I came up with a scenario of a time and place where people were not allowed to see their reflections. It's a person who sees their reflection for the first time and they're completely blown away. But it's not in a literal sense of, oh, I'm hot, I'm beautiful. It's in a deeper sense in the way that the society most times doesn't want you to know who you really are. And when people are scared of you finding out who you are, it healed that. And they know the day you know who you are, it's over for them, it's over for everyone. It's over. That's my idea of why Am I So Beautiful. I already like the attitude of this album. So good morning. So you are like, okay, so now I have to see it myself. So good morning, bro. Good morning. Good morning is good and then morning. It's a good morning. And it's also a story, most of the songs and album are stories about an awakening just waking up and find one day. But if you've ever woken up from out of a bad breakup or the one day that you finally healed, you just woke up one day and you're like, oh, I feel better, like the pain is gone, the heart is gone, everything. That's what good morning is. Everything is in the past and now I feel fresh. Kind of like Nina Simone's feeling good. It's just that fresh. You've gotten your power back. The dark night is over and now it's the dawn. Oh goodness, goodness. I'm really excited. Okay. So now after you wake up from the dawn and you feel good, you drop the fliest girl in Nairobi. Now that's ego right there. But anyway, let's talk about that. The fliest girl. I like how there's something witty. I'm going to call it witty because I have to give myself prop. I did with the titles. When someone looks at the titles, they see ego. But the stories hidden behind them are not exactly what you think. So the fliest girl in Nairobi is a story about a girl who is jealous that their better half is in love with someone who they think is the fliest girl in Nairobi. So it's a jealousy story and having the ability to address that you know what, I'm feeling jealous. To me I think that's power. That's ego just saying you know what honey, I'm feeling bad. Who is this girl? Other than keeping it in your heart, stalking, checking all the time. I feel like that's weakness. Addressing things head on with no fear. To me that's ego, that's power. And that's what that song is. It's ego healing, not really ego death. Just let it out. You have the power it's in your hands. Say it, talk it out. There's so much power and process in this. Okay, so your next song is tell me what did you want us to tell you or what was going on? Tell me kind of how that same energy with the fliest girl in Nairobi or just having the confidence of addressing things head on. I usually like when there's a situation at hand when there's tension and things like that. Just when someone says is everything okay? The mood feels awkward. Can we talk about it? Just addressing. Tell me what's going on. Tell me why you're acting funny. Tell me why you're playing with my feelings. Tell me why you're wasting my time. Communication. Yes, that's what that is about. I can see, I can see. Wait before we go to your last song because I think that one has just taken the spirituality to a whole other level. But anyway, let's have a look at your Instagram page here. This is your website. How well done. So who made this, how much did it cost? How long has it been up? A good friend of mine named Steve made for me this website. You are really persuasive, I think that. I'm persuasive. I am. So it's been up for a few years I think. Two years now. How is it doing? How are the fans responding to you? Oh wait. Let's finish with the speaking in tongues. Let's finish with this. So what was going on with speaking in tongues? Speaking in tongues is a serenade. That's what I'm going to call it. It's a story about someone who says another person. Love at first sight kind of and they're hitting on them. I introduce myself several times because sometimes I feel people forget who you are. People can disrespect you and you wonder did you forget who I am. The song has that energy of let me remind you who I am. At the same time it's sort of a serenade of the sorts of having the confidence of hitting on someone as a girl. I think women are shamed about it like put to the side. I can't believe you approached that person. But speaking in tongues has that energy of someone. I speak in French. I speak in the luo. I speak in Swahili. I speak in English. So that's where the name comes from. That is amazing. I find you so good to be around. You feel so good. Your energy is so good. But before I take it anywhere else and also how did people respond? So now that you're here you're telling your story you're living your life, you're doing your thing you've woken up from whatever slumber you were in, you've woken up and now you're the boss. How did people respond? To the album. I have a very small but keen fan base. What's that you say? Small but keen. It could be like you could have a thousand fans and you only get two likes. You know where that goes. But I have a small and keen fan base I'm really thankful for and it's really different. One thing I have fun with as an artist is I shock myself. I can't predict what I'm going to do the next time, the next day, tomorrow or the other. I get shocked when I wake up the same way my fans felt when they saw the album because what they expected from me as an artist is another thing and better. I like that too, I felt it too I feel so good, I feel like I don't even want to keep reading any more questions. So now what's next? So after Ego, what are you going to do next? I'm planning on releasing I think I'm going to do maybe two or one videos from the album. It will be my first music video because for a long time I'm so against doing videos I'm really against it. Why? Because I believe music should be hard should listen to the music but at the same time I'm growing into the idea of representing a story with visuals so I'll probably do a video or I'm working on one actually a video or two maybe that's what I'm going to work on and after that I'll release maybe other songs outside of that. Okay from the looks of it your videos are not going to be too busy okay alright so let's talk about maybe other people who inspire you in this industry I'm kind of surprised the whole philosophy on life because I've never met an artist to that kind of philosophy I thought it was just the rest of us but anyway is there anybody who inspires you? I always find a question so hard because Ego To say that someone was inspiring me would mean that I just want what they have mostly or I'm looking up to them and not to get mistaken in the industry who are doing a very very good job but I seek inspiration from people's songs not them not them as a brand not who they are you are studying their souls like whatever energies they are putting out their music songs alright that's amazing that's incredible I want to meet you too please make sure you let the fans know where they can find you on social media this camera Merian Mande Merian underscore Mande on twitter and instagram every other place Merian Mande Youtube Facebook Snapchat CPT.Mande so yeah this is a question I can't let you go without answering I'm so sorry but I gotta ask how did you get awakened how did you find yourself what was the story behind it how did you get awakened I feel like I'm a really nice person really nice really nice person in the sense that easy to heart you know how you could be walking someone just flashes water on you and then a different person be like what are you doing? and I'm just like it's okay that's the kind of person I am and I went through so much without being too nice nonsense that you wonder it felt like you know what it's time to take my power back to stand in your power great as in like wow I just feel all sorts of things right now I'm in a good place also the page is up in here but it's about time we conclude this interview so maybe we can just scroll like real quick and then you can let us know what's going on here this was an event I had at the hedge of creative to launch my album of the south yes okay I can see you've also been okay you've been around I can see you're still here on TV it was really really really lovely talking to you this morning thank you so much for coming through thank you so much for having me I've had so much fun me too anyway so please do not go in your brain most of us is coming up next in the next interview this time we're going to be taking it a bit technical so now that we have been so much oh god I don't know I don't know if you're feeling it let us know if you're feeling it I'd write it for you for a channel