BIOGRAPHY: INSPIRING STORY OF SUZANNA OWIYO

Suzanna Owiyo is a Kenyan singer, songwriter and philanthropist who has become one of the top music artists not only in Kenya but also across Africa. 

Suzanna Owiyo was born in Kisumu which is found on the shores of Lake Victoria on the western part of Kenya. She was born in a village called Kasaye Village found in a place called Nyakach in the lakeside city of Kisumu. 

Suzanna Owiyo started doing music at a younger age having been introduced to the world of music by her grandfather who was at the time a player of a musical instrument called Nyatiti. 

When Suzanna Owiyo joined high school, she continued doing music and as a result of her musical talent, she was able to help her school win very many music festivals that were organised in Kenya. 

Her high school was able to win very many trophies at the music festivals that were organised at the province level and also at the national levels across the country. 

After she completed her high school in 1998, Suzanna Owiyo was able to get into contact with another music artist who is found in Nairobi called Sally Oyugi and she was performing as a backup singer for this great Kenyan music artist. 

After working for about two years with this great Kenyan music artist called Sally Oyugi, Suzanna Owiyo decided to quit and instead join another local band that was based in Nairobi the capital city of Kenya. 

The local band that Suzanna Owiyo joined at the time was called Bora Bora Band. After performing with the band for some time, Suzanna Owiyo decided to leave the band and then she started performing in Kisumu which is found on the shores of Lake Victoria. 

While performing in Kisumu, she came into contact with a young business entrepreneur who loved music and this person fell in love with Suzanna Owiyo’s music and he decided to invest some money into her music. 

When the entrepreneur realised how talented Suzanna Owiyo was, he decided to give her the first guitar that she ever owned in her life. 

Suzanna Owiyo later left Kisumu and went back to Nairobi where she joined a music school found in Nairobi called Kenya Conservatoire of music and during this time Suzanna Owiyo was also performing at a club that was found in Karen.

 Her chance to venture into music composition and song writing came when she was called upon to write a song for the centennial celebrations at the opening ceremony that were taking place in the city of Kisumu that is found on the shores of Lake Victoria.

 After sometime, Suzanna Owiyo started working on another album with another music producer who is based in Kenya called Tedd Josiah. 

As a result of this album, the talented singer was able to win a nomination in the Kora awards as one of the most promising female artists category, although she did not end up winning the award but she was able to be recognised as one of the top promising musical talents in East Africa and also Africa at large. 

This album which helped her to be nominated in the Kora awards was also the same album that helped her to also win the Kisima awards as the most promising female music artist of the year 2003. 

Her new song that is called Sandore and also the video of the song that was illustrating the practice of child labour and how to fight child labour also became very successful. 

As a result of the musical success, Suzanna Owiyo was able to organise numerous concerts across Kenya and also abroad very many concerts were also organised for her to perform for her fans in other countries outside Kenya. 

In 2003 around the month of June, Suzanna Owiyo was able to represent her country at a festival which was called the Kenyan festival and this festival was held in Paris which is the capital city of France and this event was organised by the Alliance Francaise.

 In August 2003, Suzanna Owiyo was able to represent East Africa in the Pan- African music festival that took place in Brazzaville which is the capital city of Congo Brazzaville and during this event, she was able to sing alongside other great music artists like Youssour N’dour, Koffi Olomide and also Rebecca Malope who were among some of those great music artists that performed at that event. These were some of the great music artists coming all the way from Africa.

 In that year in the month of December, she was able to perform in Djibouti which is one of the African countries found around the gulf of Africa and Saudi Arabia.

 In 2004, around the month of July, Suzanna Owiyo was able to perform at the Festival Mundial in a place called Tilburg that is found in Netherlands.

 In 2004, Suzanna Owiyo was able to get the chance to perform at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony after emerging as the winner in a competition where very many African music artists engaged in. 

At the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, Suzanna Owiyo was able to perform with her band alongside other music artists Cyndi Lauper, Andrea Bocelli, Chris Botti, Patti Labelle, and Baba Maal.

 Suzanna Owiyo was recently on a musical tour where she was in countries like France and also the United States. During the music tour, Suzanna Owiyo was able to thrill her world audience with her smooth music voice across the countries that she did visit.

 Suzanna Owiyo’s music is very unique to the ears as it is a fusion of the western Kenyan traditional music sounds and then some contemporary rhythms from the modern music all embedded together. 

Some of the traditional music instruments that do feature very often in her music are nyatiti and also Orutu and others.

 Her new single which is called Janyau has traditional instruments embedded in it and it is off his latest album which is called Yamo Kudho that literally means that the wind is blowing.

 In 2005, Suzanna Owiyo performed at the annual corporate council that is based on African summit and this took place in Baltimore which is found in Maryland where she was able to charm her fans with her lovely voice. 

Suzanna Owiyo was also one of the music artists that were able to perform at the World Trade Expo that was held in Japan. She also performed at the Zanzibar International Film Festival that took place in Zanzibar.

 She also did some performances for the Jamhuri day fete that was held in Washington D.C in the United States. 

She was then able to perform in other cities like Newyork and also Maryland. 

In 2006, Suzanna Owiyo went to the United States where she was able to visit the University of Florida where an Arts Medicine programme was started at a hospital in Nairobi which is called Mater hospital. 

In 2007, Suzanna Owiyo joined a music group which was called the divas of the Nile music group. 

This super group of music artists had four Kenyan music artists that were featured in it and some of these music artists were Mercy Myra, Achieng Abura and also another one called Princess Jully.

 This super music group was able to perform at the Festival Mundial in that same year. 2007 was a very fruitful year musically for Suzanna Owiyo and in that year she performed at the World Social Forum where she was able to entertain the delegates who were able to attend the event both locally and also internationally. 

In the recent years, Suzanna Owiyo has been involved in the Non-governmental Organisations, Corporate and also some Government sponsored programmes within her home country Kenya.  

Suzanna Owiyo recorded a song that was based on fighting corruption and this initiative was headed by the Kenyan Anti-corruption Campaign steering committee. She also was able to record the theme song that was used by the Kenyan Tourist board. 

Suzanna Owiyo was also invited to perform at the Masa festival that was held in abdijan which is a place found in Ivory coast.  

When the celebrations of Nelson Mandela’s 90^th birthday was organised, she was invited to perform at the celebrations that were taking place in London in the United Kingdom.

 Suzanna Owiyo decided to release her third album to her fans in 2011 and she called it Roots. Suzanna Owiyo is a very inspirational and talented music artist who is a very good example for Kenyan youths especially those planning to join the entertainment industry. 

She continues to inspire very many youths across Kenya and also Africa as a continent to always chase their dreams.