The gospel music duo Vestine and Dorcas have released the video for their new Swahili song titled 'Neema'. This is their first song in this language after three years in the music industry.

Currently, artists creating uplifting spiritual songs are focusing on producing works in Swahili, mainly because it is a language spoken by a large number of people worldwide and is predominant in East African countries. Six years ago, Rwanda adopted Swahili as its fourth official language. Swahili is one of the 10 most spoken languages in the world, with over 200 million speakers. The national census published in February 2023 showed that 2.97% of Rwanda's population speaks Swahili.

Vestine and Dorcas gained popularity through songs from their first album 'Nahawe Ijambo', written by Niyo Bosco, with whom they worked for a long time while he was with MIE. The album includes songs like 'Si Bayali', 'Ibuye', 'Arakize', 'Simpagarara', 'Adonai', 'Papa', 'Nzakomora', and others. They created this album while still in school but continued to work on it until completion.

After Niyo Bosco left that label, he stopped assisting these artists. In an interview with the media on December 20, 2022, the girls acknowledged Niyo Bosco's role in their first album. Kamikazi Dorcas said, "He did great things. We are grateful to him. From our song 'Nahawe Ijambo' to 'Nzakomora', he played a very important role. I thank him and wish him blessings. May God be with him, and may he know that God will reward him for what he has done."

Niyo Bosco contributed to Vestine and Dorcas's songs from 'Nahawe Ijambo' to 'Nzakomora'. His voice could be heard in their songs (known as Backup).

They have now enlisted two writers

Through their advisor, Murindahabi Irénée [M. Irénée], these girls continued their journey of creating more works focused on praising God. However, if you look closely, you can see that they have prioritized working with other writers who are also music artists themselves.

Initially, they worked with gospel singer Danny Mutabazi, known for songs like 'Impamba y'urugendo'. He wrote several songs for them including 'Iriba', 'Isaha', 'Umutaka', and their recent release 'Ku musaraba'. Danny Mutabazi told InyaRwanda that he's pleased with the success of the works he wrote for them. He said, "Yes! The songs I wrote for them have been very successful, especially the most recent one (referring to the song 'Iriba' he wrote for them)."

He mentioned that Vestine and Dorcas are talented, and their works inspire many. He said, "They have the values of loving what they do and the gift of singing in a way that touches the hearts of their listeners."

The song 'Neema', which they released on Sunday night, July 21, 2024, was written by Martin Mugisha, who is also a gospel artist. This is the first time he has worked with these girls in writing a song for them. He told InyaRwanda that he was happy to contribute to the girls' music.

However, he mentioned that in writing this song, he collaborated with M. Irénée. He said, "Yes! It's the first time, but I worked with Murindahabi Irénée [M. Irénée] because Vestine and Dorcas are international singers."

"Writing a song for them requires being with Irene Murindahabi to align our ideas, as Irene is also a very good singer. So, I feel very good about it, and it's very pleasing. It's really the first time we've worked together."