Sauti Sol

Sauti Sol was a Kenyan Afropop band formed in Nairobi in 2005 by singers Bien-Aimé Baraza, Willis Chimano and Savara Mudigi, school friends from Upper Hill, who were later joined by guitarist Polycarp Otieno. They began as an a cappella group. The name mixes the Swahili “sauti” (voice) with the Spanish “sol” (sun).

Their debut album Mwanzo (2009) and Sol Filosofia (2011) made them Kenya’s leading band, and a 2012 EP with Spoek Mathambo took them to Europe. Live and Die in Afrika (2015), first given away free online, carried “Sura Yako”, which Barack Obama danced to on his visit to Nairobi that year. Afrikan Sauce (2019) and Midnight Train (2020) followed, and they shared in a Grammy certificate for their work on Burna Boy’s Twice as Tall.

The members set up their own label, Sol Generation Records, and all four have released solo work through it. After nearly two decades together, Sauti Sol played their farewell show at the Sol Fest in Nairobi in December 2023.