Cécile Kayirebwa (born 22 October 1946) is a Rwandan singer. She brought her family up in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, but she has toured and published albums. She is known for singing about Rwanda. She sued Rwandan radio stations in 2013 for failing to pay her royalties.

Life

Kayirebwa was born in Kigali in 1946. Both of her parents were enthusiastic singers and she would sing pop songs that she had heard sung by

Johnny Hallyday Jean-Philippe Léo Smet (; 15 June 1943 – 5 December 2017), better known by his stage name Johnny Hallyday, was a French rock and roll and pop singer and actor, credited for having brought rock and roll to France. During a career spanning 57 ...

, Stevie Wonder and

France Gall Isabelle Geneviève Marie Anne Gall (9 October 1947 – 7 January 2018), known professionally as France Gall, was a French ''yé-yé'' singer. In 1965, aged 17, she won the Eurovision Song Contest for Luxembourg. Between 1973 and 1992, ...

. She joined a group who were broadcast by

Radio Rwanda Radio Rwanda (est. 1961) is a radio station of the Rwandan Broadcasting Agency (RBA), a public broadcaster that also owns Rwandan Television (RTV), Magic FM and other public radio stations. Before the attack of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) ...

whilst she was still a child. She had a happy childhood and she trained to become a welfare officer. Meanwhile her singing developed into composing where she built on her study of traditional Rwandan music. She notably wrote songs in praise of the Rwandan Queen Rosalie who was a benign ruler.Cecile Kayirebwa Biography
Colin Larkin, The Encyclopedia of Popular Music Kayirebwa was invited to sing for her Queen, but in 1973 war broke out in her country and she left with her mother to live in Belgium. They lived in

Lozère Lozère (; oc, Losera ) is a landlocked department in the region of Occitanie in Southern France, located near the Massif Central, bounded to the northeast by Haute-Loire, to the east by Ardèche, to the south by Gard, to the west by Aveyron, ...

, where her mother lived with a French soldier and she became fluent speaking and singing in French.Biography
Craig Harris, AllMusic.com, Retrieved 4 March 2016 She was a member of a group called ''Iyange'' for five years.
, africanmusiciansprofiles.com, Retrieved 4 March 2016 In Europe she continued to work as a singer to her fellow members of the Rwandan diaspora. She and her husband had four children and she studied her cultural heritage at the

Royal Museum for Central Africa The Royal Museum for Central Africa or RMCA ( nl, Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika or KMMA; french: Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale or MRAC; german: Königliches Museum für Zentralafrika or KMZA), also officially known as the AfricaMuse ...

Tervuren Tervuren () is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, Belgium. The municipality comprises the villages of Duisburg, Tervuren, Vossem and Moorsel. On January 1, 2006, Tervuren had a total population of 20,636. The total a ...

. She appeared around Europe and America in the group ''Bula Sangoma'' in the mid 1980s and they created an album in 1985. In 1988 she returned home too late to be reunited with her mother, who died in Rwanda just before she arrived. She sang her song about happiness which was titled "Umunezero" and the song was said to be popular with the

Rwandan Patriotic Front The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF–Inkotanyi, french: Front patriotique rwandais, FPR) is the ruling political party in Rwanda. Led by President Paul Kagame, the party has governed the country since its armed wing defeated government forces, wi ...

. Kayirebwa sang in groups and alone. Her first solo alum was titled "Music from Rwanda" and it included songs by . She released albums in 2002 and 2005 and she participates in festivals including the Holocaust Memorial Event in London in 2001. She and Christine Coppel formed a charity called "Hope, the Children of a Thousand Hills" which is concerned with her homeland. In 2013 Kayirebwa sued Rwandan radio stations including the state broadcaster, Radio Rwanda, as she was frequently heard but she had received no royalties.Court orders Orinfor, Isango star pay Rwf 8.6M to Kayirebwa
, February 2013, GretLakesVoice, Retrieved 4 March 2016

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kayirebwa, Cecile 1946 births Living people People from Kigali Rwandan women singers