Kambua Manundu may be arguably one of the most recognisable names in the Kenyan gospel music industry with a portfolio of hit songs and award-winning performances.
The Usiku na Mchana hitmaker shared the story of her journey in the music industry, in what was her first interview in the media in a long time.
While speaking with Richard Njau aka Astar on his YouTube Channel Cleaning the Airwaves (CTA), the mother of one revealed that she wasn’t keen on studies, however, the decision was forced on her by her late father, Prof Manundu.
Having explored her musical prowess in her late teens while singing a song at a youth camp, she had to face a new reality of going back to school.
Having won a music tour trip to the United States of America, Kambua had just started soaring to new heights in her passion.
“After the summer camp, I came back to Kenya and started University. I say started because I did not finish the course,” she disclosed.
At Africa Nazarene University, the songbird pursued a course in Business Administration after completing a bridging semester in Mathematics because she had failed the subject in high school.
“I hated math, I didn’t put any effort to excel in the subject,” she stated.
The award-winning artist revealed that while at Campus, she performed well in her studies but her passion for music prompted her to take a different direction.
“My grades were good, I appreciated and enjoyed it, but I knew my heart was tagging me in a different direction
on campus, I was actively singing. If there was an event I was there.
“Everybody on campus knew there’s a girl on campus called Kambua who sings. I knew music is what I wanted to do and do it seriously,” she explained.
That was when she decided to explore music outside of campus and begun doing background vocals for other artists.
“My Friend was Kavutha Mwanzia’s sister who asked me to audition to be a background vocalist for the song maestro,” she added.
Kambua was versatile in her craft as she also did background vocals for River Road artists, ” I even did some in Kikuyu,” she revealed.
It is at this time that she started earning from music while recording at Kasangas studio. This is how she got to record her first song which was for a competition for Radio Waumini called Amani.
