Few are the times when Whites are expected to understand the African language or rather even sing it. However, Deena Sabrina Herr, a German musician has left many believing in the occurrence of this possibility after her perfect singing in Swahili and Luganda without an accent.
Deena was brought up in Germany and after high school, she moved to Rwanda for her gap year in 2012. It is during this period that she volunteered to work with Street children. To ease her communication with the kids, she had to learn the local dialect.
View this post on Instagram
Growing up, she had a passion for music and she had written her own songs. As she taught music to the kids, they also introduced her to local music and instantly fell in love with the region. And after her college years in Berlin, she returned to East Africa.
In 2015, Deena released her first song in Luganda “mumulete” and she was surprised at how fast it went viral considering she was just a visitor in a foreign country. This realization as well as the encouragement from her current manager that singing in luganda could really work made her work hard in learning and identifying with the language. She made more hits including collabos with Goodlyfe duo and Jose Chameleone. In total, she has 8 songs in Luganda.
View this post on Instagram
Deena has a new song out titled ‘’Aktion Tym’’ which will be premiering live on NTV Da Beat Friday 4th September.
In an interview, she revealed that her parents and two brothers are very supportive and they often travel to East Africa to check on her as well as follow her music progress
Watch Her Previous Release “Tokota” Below:
