Muthoni ndonga cultural festivals

When you first meet Kenyan Muthoni Ndonga, A.K.A. Muthoni Drummer Queen (or MDQ, for short), you do feel like you are in the presence of a queen – a queen with a lot on her mind, a lot to attend to and a lot she desires to accomplish during her reign. She is smart, funny, self-confident, full of energy and passion, and doesn't suffer fools lightly. One of her other nicknames is “boss lady.” She is not only a singer, but also an entrepreneur who launched one of the most successful music festivals in Africa, and uses her music to promote social and political awareness and change. In many ways, she epitomizes the 21st century African woman, which may be why she was recently asked to give a TED talk which will drop online Sept. 20. But she was also very happy to share her time with us as she prepared for what would be an amazing set of singing, dancing, and yes, drumming, at this year's Festival International de Jazz in Montreal.

“I wanted to be an entertainer q

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Interview with Muthoni DQ, the founder of Blankets & Wine festival (Part 1)

MDQ: My name’s Muthoni Ndonga, I’m also Muthoni the Drummer Queen. I am a singer, a rapper and a drummer. inom play a set of traditional drums from one of the Kenyan communities called the ohangla drums. I also run a music event called Blankets & Wine in Nairobi and Kampala.

SK: How did you uppstart your music, what were your influences?

MDQ: I’ve always been surrounded by music growing up. We grew up in a very typical urban Nairobi lower middle-class family...just listening to the radio and whatever records my parents had bought when they were younger. So I always sang, inom danced, inom was in the church choir when I was ten years old, which is actually where inom picked up playing percussions. In school I was in the choir, inom was in the teaterpjäs club, it’s just one of those things, it’s just been part and parcel of my life and inom didn’t really think much of it until high school.

“In high school during my

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Muthoni Drummer Queen

Kenyan rapper, drummer and cultural entrepreneur

Muthoni Drummer Queen or Muthoni Ndonga is a Kenyan rapper, drummer and cultural entrepreneur.^[1] Her music genres include hip-hop, reggae/dancehall and soul/blues.^[2] She produces alternative electro-hip-hop music and founded the festivals Africa Nouveau and Blankets & Wine in East Africa.^[3]

Early Life And Education

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Muthoni Ndonga was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. Her adolescent aspirations included becoming an artist, but she was discouraged by her parents due to their traditional values.

Growing up, she channeled her passion for music through school choirs until 2004 when, as a student, she organized her first concert with the help of her friends. In 2008, after having obtained her diploma in international relations and philosophy at the Kenya’s United States International University Africa (USIU Africa), with the intention to increase the visibility