{"id":245,"date":"2020-01-05T00:15:49","date_gmt":"2020-01-05T00:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kalenjin.co.ke\/?p=245"},"modified":"2020-12-29T08:21:58","modified_gmt":"2020-12-29T08:21:58","slug":"cheleles-voice-silenced-but-music-lives-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/?p=245","title":{"rendered":"Chelele’s voice silenced but music lives on"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
The late Diana Chelele<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Kalenjin secular music industry has never been the same again since the sudden departure of Chelele on the cold night of 7th<\/sup> January 2016. Light-skinned and slightly slim, Diana Chemutai Musila, was an epitome of a magnificent queen. The seamless smiles, soft words like those from a child and the elegant gait made her an admirable star of all times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her\nrevolutionary music, spiced with piano beats, then a new thing in Kalenjin\nmusic, still lives on. The curtain fell at a young age of 28 leaving an\nindelible mark in the Kalenjin nation. She was born in 1988 at Mugango village in\nBomet County. Chelele defied odds to become an outstanding female musician in\nKenya and perhaps the best Kalenjin secular artist of her time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nrenowned artist will be vividly remembered for living on the fast lane despite\nharboring a deep-rooted pain, grief and unfulfilled dreams. Before her untimely\ndeath, Chelele\u2019s music was almost in every one\u2019s lips and permeated the\nairwaves from the Kalenjin vernacular radio stations, pubs and households. Her\nmusic traversed all generations and even reminds many of the old good days of\nSouth African music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nstaunch fun of Yvonne Chaka Chaka is celebrated for fusing Kalenjin, Kamba and\nSouth African rhythms into her songs thus creating a unique fast-paced genre of\nher own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking\nat Chelele, one could hardly believe that she had had her big share of trials\nand tribulations. At the tender age of seven, life for Chelele became unbearable\nthat she could not imagine a life afterwards. Her mother, Juliana Rono, went\ndown with heart problem. An illness which forced her to be taken to Uganda\nwhere her husband, Paul Rono, worked as a businessman. Her medication period\nlasted for five years. This spelt doom for Chelele the first born of five who\nwas left with a burden of fending for her younger sister, Beatrice who was four\nyears old then. \u201cNo relative wanted to see us then, so we stayed in a\nneighbour\u2019s house for two years then he kicked us out,\u201d Chelele once told\nJournalist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\nthen went into the cold and spent one year living in a cave in a place called\nMotigo and surviving on wild fruits and weeds under the care of a stranger, an\nold man feared by many people because he was scary and intimidating. The man\nwould go out hunting wild animals during the day while Chelele and her sibling\ngo to school. After a year of real trouble, they were saved by her maternal\ngrandmother who took care of them for two years before their parents come back\nto Kenya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drop\nOut<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between\n1994 and 2006, Chelele attended Njerian Primary School and Chebonei Girls High\nSchool where she terminated her studies while in form three. During this\nperiod, she took part in various music events and won awards for herself and\nher colleagues. By the time she was in secondary school, music had become\nsomething of an obsession for her and it seemed her education was relegated to\nan insignificant corner of her mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No\none questioned her otherwise ridiculous act of switching to music, as she was\nalways known for insisting in doing what she wanted to do. Her teachers said\nthat it was okay for the astute singer to make good use of her talent. By the\ntime she was leaving her formal education, she had already built a name hence\nthe time was ripe for her to make money out of her flair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\nstarted her career by doing contemporary music that was typical for every artiste\nin the Kalenjin Nation. Albeit she showed potential, she was nowhere at the top\nof the chart. After the fusion of South African beats into Kalenjin lyrics, Chelele\nmade a name and transcended the boundaries and controlled the airwaves of vernacular\nstations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journey\nto the Industry<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nhigh school, Chelele had a short working stint with Kiwi Company for six months\nand later left the company citing poor payment. One day in 2007 while relaxing\nat home, Mugango village in Silibwet where she was born, she heard that Philip\nSigei and Makiche were scheduled to perform in Bomet town. She joined the two\nmusicians and exceptionally performed Chelele<\/em>\na song sang by Philip Sigei. The performance branded Diana \u201cChelele\u201d a name she\ncame to like and personalized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sotet ab Subembe<\/em>\nby Scholar Chepkorir was largely inspired by Chelele. The collaboration is\nabout a real story in which Subembe\u2019s girlfriend was snatched by another man.\nThe song is a response to the man that the girl is a by-product of Subembe. Chelele\nushered Scholar into the music industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe songs released some few months to her sudden demise, Chelele seemed to talk\nabout her troubled life when she referred to her estranged lover who had gone\naway after taking away everything from her. She also subtly asked for help\nsaying that she was no longer mentally fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nher last album, she included gospel for the first time. It included a gospel\ntrack, Kamangunet <\/em>in which sheseemed to have surrendered\neverything to the Creator thus succinctly painting gloom picture of her life.\nShe said her enemies were celebrating her downfall but she was looking ahead\nfor a better life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With\nregard to her music, she was creative and constantly looked for new ways of\ndoing things that would appeal to a vast audience beyond the confines of her\ntraditional Kalenjin base. By 2007, the end of her teenage years, Chelele had\nbecome more or less household name among music lovers particularly after she\nblended her music with distinctive and rhythmic South African mbaqanga.  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmusic resonated well with her fans and propelled her to the zenith. In fact,\nknowingly or not, what Chelele was doing was not unlike what Paul Simon, the\nrenowned American Musician and song writer had done in 1986 when he\nincorporated mbaqanga into his own songs and received international accolades.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\nthe time of her death, she had gained a fervent following of her own that was\nthe envy of her competitors. Some of the hit songs that placed her in the\nceiling include: Toreton Elifut<\/em>\n(please give me a thousand shillings), Igaigaiyan<\/em>\n(pacify me), Meus Kwondo<\/em> (never mistreat\nyour wife), Rib Boyot<\/em> (treat your\nhusband well) Mapenzi <\/em>(Love), Mashabiki<\/em> (fans) the list is endless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among\nthe Kalenjin secular singers, she ranked the top and her fame rivaled that of\nthe celebrated gospel artist singer Emmy Kosgey. But as fate would have it, Chelele\nwas not to live long enough to savour her sterling success. Her life was cut\nshort when she was murdered in cold blood allegedly by her estranged husband in\nJanuary 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mysterious death of the renowned singer marked the end of the journey for a fast-rising local musician whose life took tumultuous turn a few years ago but whose songs continued to woo and warm the hearts of many. The lyrics of her music are truly moving, the voice wantonly sweet, the diction carefully chosen and her body movements matching her words. It is really hard to tell why someone in their right state of mind would kill such a talent. The fact remains the same anyway. Red earth is blood, red earth is life, red earth is what takes and keeps safe the lives we lose. Peace be upon you Chelele. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kalenjin secular music industry has never been the same again since the sudden departure…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-music"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kalenjinmedia.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}