Sauti Sol, Kenyan multi-award winning band, have yet again made global headlines by making USA President Barack Obama break into a jig during his much anticipated trip to Kenya. Sauti Sol were performing at a State House dinner event hosted by President Uhuru Kenyatta, in honour of President Obama’s visit to Kenya (25th July 2015).
A picture of Sauti Sol hugging and shaking hands with the Presidents: Barack Obama (USA) and Uhuru Kenyatta (Kenya), and a video of them all doing the #LipalaDance has since gone viral and become a powerful sign of cultural exchange in the wake of globalisation, and a call for youthful ways of starting entrepreneurship. “Americans in California are now dancing to Sura Yako,” said President Obama about cultural exchange, during several of his speeches while in Nairobi.
Sauti Sol official statement reads: “We are more than thankful for the support President Uhuru Kenyatta has showed us throughout our career, and by extension Kenya’s bustling entertainment industry. Thanks to President Kenyatta’s crucial role in supporting local arts and culture industry in Kenya, our dream to perform in honour of President Barack Obama has reached fruition. Having both Presidents Uhuru and Obama join us to #LipalaDance is undoubtedly our greatest achievement and a prize too big no award can trump. We thank our fans from around the world, global media and celebrities still reposting and sharing the Obama #LipalaDance clip.”
Sauti Sol danced among the Presidents, Kenya’s First Lady Margaret Kenyatta, Obama’s sibling Auma Obama, his National Security Adviser Susan Rice, the Ambassador of the United States, Robert F. Godec and a host of other personalities, dignitaries and politicians, among them American R&B and hip hop artist Akon.
