When a heart-warming gospel song brews love

The song is titled ‘Rada’, with three million views on YouTube currently, and the singer is Guardian Angel (real name Audiphaxad Peter Omwaka) and the fan who became his wife is Esther Musila. She is a mother of three adults and older than him by at least 20 years but they have not let that stop them.

“Love wins” has been their motto.

Rada was released in early 2020, and it received good airplay on some radio stations, among them Classic 105.

The following is what Esther told Jalang’o TV, an online platform, in September 2020:

“So, one morning, I’m driving to work and I hear this song. Maina (Kageni) plays it, and he plays it again. So, I DM (direct-message) him and I’m like, ‘What song is that?’

So he tells me it’s called ‘Rada’.

“Who sang it?”

“He’s called Guardian Angel.”

I got to my office, I went to Google and searched Guardian Angel. I was like, “Hey, I’ve never heard of this guy”.

So, I played that song the whole day. By the time I was going home, I knew the words of that song. That same week I said to Maina, “Can I please meet Guardian? That song has touched me. It was speaking me, telling me, “Your radar needs to change”.

It spoke to me as a person. So Maina said, “When do you want to meet him?”

I said, “Friday. Because we work half-day on Fridays.”

So he said, “Okay, fine.”

The meeting did happen and the artiste and the fan had lunch that day and parted ways. That was the Friday when the first case of Covid-19 was announced in Kenya.

“We just started communicating because I went back and I realised, ‘I have been singing Guardian’s songs and I didn’t even know who he was.’ I used to sing ‘Wakati wa Mungu’, I didn’t know who it belonged to. For me, I never concentrated on the person; it’s the message in the song,” Esther said.

One thing led to another and on Tuesday, the two tied the knot. They looked radiant in photos and videos they shared from their wedding.

The song ‘Rada’ speaks about situations. Guardian likens situations with rada, derived from the English word “radar”, and sings that no rada is permanent. A difficult rada today, he sings, will be a better one tomorrow — just like his changed from his days as a street boy to an award-winning gospel artiste.

The song has received a lot of praise on YouTube, with some people saying it helped soothe their troubles when they faced difficult times.

“I almost shed a tear with this song. I also remembered how my rada changed,” writes Martin Mugambi.

Ann Mumbua writes: “This song gives me hope when I’m almost giving up.”

“This song should be added as a verse in the national anthem,” says Martin Ngigi.

Guardian’s meeting with Esther is a chapter gospel artistes know too well. Some have said in interviews that they encountered listeners who thanked them for a song they did.

Gospel artiste Moji ShortBabaa (real name James Muhia) told the Saturday Nation that many are the times he has encountered fans telling him his song touched them in a special way.

“There are many songs I’ve done, like ‘Hajawahi Niangusha’. Someone told me they were singing it all through their job interview and got the job,” said Moji. 

“Other people have had their houses locked and you get my song encouraging them at a certain time, and they write you a message on Instagram or anywhere. They look for you and thank you for the song.”

He added that there is a fan who told him that they were playing his song when applying for a visa and were granted it.

“They said they would send me clothes. So, there are many testimonies,” said Moji.

He added that some gospel songs might look modest in terms of chart performance but they will touch some people specifically.

“It tells me that a song cannot be measured by the usual metrics. As a gospel artiste, you don’t gauge a song in terms of its popularity. A song can cease to be very popular but its effect can run deep. So, it motivates me. When I do a song, I say that even if it isn’t what people call a hit, there is a place it has reached and one day I’ll know. So many times, those testimonies have come out,” said Moji.

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