Universal Music Africa (UMA), a division of Universal Music Group (UMG), has announced that it has signed awarding winning Kenyan Afro-Pop band Sauti Sol. The Kenyan Afro-Pop band is comprised of vocalists Bien-Aimé Baraza, Willis Chimano, Savara Mudigi and guitarist, Polycarp Otieno. Polycarp also a producer, having produced some of the band’s top hits.
The Kenyan band has signed an exclusive recording agreement with Universal Music Africa. The agreement will give the band access to UMG’s global network around the world and will allow greater opportunity for the band to reach new audiences globally.
The band released their debut studio album, Mwanzo in 2008, followed by, Sol Filosofia in 2011. The music video for the single Coming Home earned them the Best Music Video award at the Kisima Music Awards, as well as, the Best Fusion Artist/Group of the Year award. Their collaboration EP with South African rapper and producer, Spoek Mathambo was released in 2012. ‘Live and Die in Afrika’, their 2015 third studio album was released as a free download for 48 hours. This early Christmas present to their fans garnered 400,000 downloads in that period alone.
The has successfully toured across Africa, the US, Europe and Australia and has won various wards including, BET Awards, an MTV EMA for Best African Act and MTV AFRICA Award for Best African Group.
Last year the band opened their own record label; Sol Generation Records, with the sole mission of developing and introducing new iconic live African acts. The musicians they have signed under the label include Crystal Asige, BenSoul, Kaskazini (a Kenyan urban-fusion trio formed by Chris, Ywaya and Israel) and Nviiri.
Sauti Sol was formed in 2005 in Nairobi as an a cappella group, until Otieno joined them and they became known as Sauti (Swahili for sound). The band later added Sol (Spanish for sun) to make “voices in the sun.” They have also produced and released numerous chart-topping tracks with top drawer artists, such as, Nigeria’s Tiwa Savage, Patoranking and Burna Boy.