Kenya’s Catchiest (and often irritating) Songs

Earworm /ˈi(ə)rˌwərm Noun

A catchy song or tune that runs continually through a person’s mind.

Over the years there have been songs that have stuck in our heads and absolutely refused to get out. Some are jingles from adverts, others actual singles. Songs that keep playing in your head long after you got out of the Matatu and songs that you want to kill your co-worker for humming because now its in your head. Here’s UP’s list of earworms from Kenya

Them Mushrooms song is iconic in Kenya and is one of the first songs tourists hear at the coast. However despite it’s powerful lyrics the first stanza has the habit of worming its way out of your head via humming much to the chagrin of those around you who will then also have it stuck in their heads.

If there’s ever any song that nearly every Nairobian born in the 80s or early 90s knows all the words to, it would be the Boomba Train song by The late E-Sir is who was an icon who still affects music in Kenya today. The Boomba Train featuring archaic sheng and a catchy beat can never fail to be on a list of catchy tunes.

The Juju music video set a new precedent for music in Kenya with it’s imagery and its theme. It shocked conservative women’s guild members into grabbing the remote away from their children’s hands and quickly changing the channel to Family TV and encouraging other musicians to be daring. The song however over the years has become an anathema to our minds. Just hearing the first beat starts a chain reaction in your mind that ends with “Nimeshachiiiziii”

The entire song is basically one long frustrating struggle. Aside from the fact that the video and song have completely different themes the way Chantel says “Tokelezea” sends shivers down our spines more efficiently than the sound the girl from the Grudge makes.

Chokoza despite its stellar video slowly went from being catchy to being one of those songs you wish you never heard on the radio or saw on television. The chorus resonates with a lot of women (and some men) but at the end of the day gets slightly irritating once you’ve heard the word chokoza nearly 50 times.