Adawnage’s Safari album ranks as one of my all-time favourite albums to date. Songs like Uwezo, Naomba and Safari are still people’s favourites eight years after the album came out. In 2015, the band released their second album, Maisha, which had songs such as Tulizo and I Live for You. The 13-track Maisha album was more mature than Safari as the group experimented with different genres such as soft rock, jazz, reggae, benga, rumba just to mention.
Ready to Love is a love song off the Maisha album whose video was released on Valentine ’s Day. What a way to ride the Valentine wave, Adawnage. The song is about the uncertainties that come about when one is about to get into a relationship. It focuses on the questions one – at the very least – needs to ask themselves before they get into relationships, ie, “Is (s)he the one? Is it the right time? Am I ready?” It is a simple song with powerful lyrics done in both English and Swahili. The audio was produced by Dominic Khaemba of Ageless Music Studio (who produced most of the songs in the Safari album as well as other songs such as Size 8’s Ni Yesu).
Adawnage’s Kaki Mwihaki says, “…this song is an expression of a readiness to love, a readiness to serve each other and a readiness to be with that significant other. It’s an invitation to a soul mate to come closer, to open up to getting to know each other even more.”
The video was shot at Homy Café on Wood Avenue plaza and Lanyavu Gardens in Karen. It was directed by Clinton Dambiz of Cloud Montage (who also directed Moji Shortbabaa’s Wacha Story; Timeless Noel, Hype Ochi and Jabidii’s Odi Dance; and Recapp’s Wacha just to mention). It starts off showing an engaged couple having breakfast. The couple is played by Kaki Mwihaki and her colleague. She clarified that they are not in a relationship. The second verse shows a different scene where various couples are in a garden enjoying themselves and having fun. The song ends on a high with Altarmin Dancers doing serious dance moves before being joined by other members of the band.
The first thing I noticed about the video is the clarity and quality. This makes the simplicity of the video to come out perfectly. The choice of scenery is ideal for the theme of the video and it is amazing how Dambiz incorporates pictures of couples in the video. Adawnage, through their social media pages, had asked couples to send pictures that could feature in the video and my sources tell me the response was overwhelming. They were receiving pictures as late as Saturday when final touches were being made to the video.
“We planned and shot the video in a week’s time,” Kaki says. “We hoped to capture different expressions of love and also invited our fans to send in their pictures to be featured in the couples-slide shots. It worked perfectly!”
The video is a must watch and I give it a 7.89 out of 10.
