‘Sisi ni Wale’ hitmaker Phina defends Otile Brown over controversial claims on East African artistes
Bongo flava star chanteuse Phina has come to the defence of top Kenyan singer Otile Brown, who was recently criticised by his peers in the entertainment industry in Kenya and Tanzania for comments he made.
Speaking on Obinna TV a month ago, Otile claimed that there were no international artistes in East Africa.
“No East African has reached international levels,” he claimed.
Although Otile went into great detail in explaining his arguments, his remarks were not taken lightly, with several Tanzanian and Kenyan artists such as Bien Aime, KRG The Don, firing back at him.
“It irks me a bit when Otile says that because people are busy building, and I can understand him saying that because he has never ventured beyond. Who is Sofia Nzau to you? Have you never heard of ‘Mwaki’. It has 100 million on Spotify and she has been performing abroad, recently she was in South Africa. I have been on tour all year round; I have played in Kenya only once this year and I have played over 20 shows. Otile needs to rethink himself,” Bien fired back when he was hosted on the same show.
Also from Tanzania, several stars didn’t seem pleased with Otile’s remarks, firing back at him, some pointing out that Diamond Platnumz has been privileged to perform on international stages such as Afro Nation.
But from where Phina sits, Otile is greatly misunderstood.
“Otile Brown is one person with the heart of gold, only that he is always misunderstood because he speaks his mind, he has no filters. But he such a nice guy. He gave me my breakthrough when I was up and coming without a hit. I really wanted to work with him so bad but a lot of musicians discouraged me saying he is such a snob. I insisted on finding that on my own and despite the fact that I was starting out, he did listen to me and gave me a chance he was so accommodating and that’s how we created ‘Super Woman’ that turned out to be my first hit song. He is such a nice guy, only that he is misunderstood,” says Phina whose next song ‘Nipo nyonyo’ went on to be even a much bigger hit.
The two stars later on went on to be very close leading to speculations that they were dating.