English radio story
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Young Adult (18-35)Accents
British (General)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
To the BB C's and so it's now 17 53 GMT seven minutes to the top of the hour and singers come from all walks of life. But even so it's unusual for a diplomat to turn himself into a part time singer and then actually make a hit. And yet that's exactly what Gilad Milo has done in Kenya, the former Israeli journalist diplomat and now agribusiness executive composed a song in Swahili called Una or do you know it's about an ex lover? And it actually topped the charts in Kenya, the BB C's Janet on went to meet him in Nairobi. Um When I see you in, I'm in the home of Gilad Milo in Redhill estate, which is on the edge of Nairobi in what used to be coffee plantations. And so it's a leafy suburb surrounded by trees. It's a beautiful day sitting right next to me is Gilad Milo strumming his guitar. He looks as though he would be right at home in an office in a suit and tie, giving instructions or attending board meetings, which is of course, what he did for a long time and what he continues to do largely. But there is another side to this gentleman, a more musical side. And that's what I've come to talk about with him today. Music, all my life intuitively. I like to sing. I enjoy music. You were, you were in a choir when you were younger. I was in a boys choir as a kid. I performed rock with a high school band called Subliminal Sex in high school. Yeah. We were 17 years old and then later at 25 with white donkey. At the time, I had four earrings, spiked hair, leather pants and I did, I tried that for three years, believe it and death down. So how do you then go from being a diplomat in the US to coming back to Kenya and being a musician who sings in Kwa, I left L A and came back to work for Amir and Bin as business development and pr head for an agriculture slash coms company. Me back into music was actually a chance meeting with a guy who heard me in karaoke and said, you know, there's a few of us jamming at the Kenyan National Theater. And so I went, found myself singing No Woman, no Cry, but Marley redemption song, just having fun and enjoying music. The next time I went to a bar where there was a live band, happened to be the band I stayed with for four years. It's Calabash band, a well historically established band in Kenya, which has produced many lead singers finally now, including me and it was never expected. But I started singing cover songs with Calabash, never made any money just for fun. And about two years in I began to play with Ali Kiba Cinderella, Tanzanian Banga music. I began to play with Kiki is from Burundi. But Kenyan in Swahili and songs that I connected to and learned the meanings of the words so I could understand what they were singing and began to cover them by myself with a band. Eventually, it led to let me play with my own lyrics and see if I can write a song. It only happened after I realized I had some lyrics that I realized that I was actually writing on a kind of stumbled into the process. I never even crossed my mind to record it. Really, you were writing a song that you were not going to record. What for the I'm, I'm, I'm at the time 43 years old, corporate executive, third career, living expatriate in Kenya. I've got a 17 year old son who has more chance of being a musician than, than I do. Yeah. It festered in my mind and I walked into the studio and the rest as they say is history. You know, I had a girl walk up to me in the shopping mall and sing fluently and be and wonderfully, Sele and it's really, really cool li li Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My OK a man of many talents there, journalists, diplomats and agribusiness, executive and singer with something to prove. Uh Gilad below there and ending that report by Janet Ono in Nairobi up of our main.