Young Fortune: Meet 9-year-old girl who stole the show at music festivals

Fortune Kangai, now known by her stage name Young Fortune, is a rising star, and her performance at the Kenya Music Festival State gala held in Nakuru on Wednesday proved just that.

The 9-year-old girl from KBA School Maziwa wowed the country’s top dignitaries, led by President William Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua, and got them out of their seats and dancing along to her catchy song ‘Yesu ni Bazu.’

Citizen Digital caught up with the superstar in the making, and she had a lot to say about her music journey leading to the now viral performance, which she termed as inspiring and encouraging to her craft.

She also spoke about her expectation to gain more numbers on her YouTube channel following the splendid performance before the top government officials.

“When I was performing I felt so good and it feels very good to be in this point, to be in this stage, it feels so encouraging, it helps me also to get more subscribers in my YouTube channel and it markets me,” Fortuned said.

“The fans there were very encouraging; they were really psyched up, I felt so good.”

The youngster stated that Gospel and inspirational songs are majorly her preferential choice of genre in terms of music, further citing that she has so far produced over 100 songs, majority of which she is yet to release on her social media platforms.

She went further to reveal that she started singing at the age of three years, and was composing her own tunes by age six.

“You see when I was at the age of three, I was able to stand in front of the class and maybe sing ‘Baby Jesus’ and all those songs, and I really felt something pushing me... when I was the age of six, so I went to my parents to try to tell them to help me make my own songs and they were like it’s Okay,” narrated Fortune.

According to her teacher, the memorable performance came with great sacrifice and hard work in practice.

“It was not easy, even coming to perform here at the Gala Music Festivals it was a hard task but through the training and the guidance of God we were able to come here,” Fortune’s teacher Nickson Sitati said.

It was at the gala where President Ruto declared that the government will establish music studios in each county to nurture talents that would help the likes of Young Fortune realize their dreams of becoming great musicians.