Evelyn Wanjiru

Evelyne Wanjiru (born 6 May 1990) is a Kenyan gospel singer, worship leader, songwriter, and music director. She is also an entrepreneur, the host of the annual worship event Praise Atmosphere, and co-founder of Bwenieve Production. Wanjirū's song “Mazingira,” which was adopted as the theme for a Kenyan government environmental conservation campaign, leading to her appointment as a music ambassador for the Mau Forest initiative. Her album Mungu Mkuu won Album of the Year at the Groove Awards in 2015, and her collaboration “Tulia” (featuring Vicky Kitonga) won Collaboration of the Year at the same awards in 2016. She has also received nominations at the All Africa Music Awards and the Sauti Awards. She is known for songs such as “Mungu Mkuu,” “Celebrate,” “Na Iwe Maombi,” “Jehovah Elohim,” “Waweza,” “Utukufu,” “Nikufahamu,” and “Asante.” In 2024, Wanjirū published her first book, The Wait, documenting her personal experience of waiting for a child alongside her husband, Agundabweni Akweyu.

Life and career

She is the fourth-born of Helen Muhonja and Crispin Kinyūa in a family of five. Born in Nairobi in 1989, she was raised in Nakuru's Freehold Estate, where she attended Saint Mary's Girls Primary and Langalanga Secondary School. Wanjirū started her music career at the age of nine, singing in a local church and participating in school music festivals.

Early on, she was actively involved in drama and the school choir. She later joined Tears Group, Nakuru, for a course in music before further benefiting from the Permanent Presidential Music Commission (P.P.M.C) at the 2010 Talent Academy at Kabarak University. After early successes in church and school festivals, she was discovered by music producer Agundabweni Akweyu. Together they started Bwenieve Productions, a music recording studio. She recorded her first album "Mazingira," which was later re-branded as "Waweza. This album received accolades, most notably for her songs "Waweza" and "Hossana. “Waweza” was nominated as Worship Song and Wanjiru as New Artist of the Year for the 2012 Groove Awards.

The song "Mazingira" was also selected as the theme song of the Kenyan government's campaign to reclaim Mau Forest in 2010 During the launch of this reforestation project in eastern Mau, the incumbent Prime Minister of Kenya was impressed by the song, appointing Wanjiru as the official music ambassador for Mau Forest. Under the auspices of this appointment, she began the “Mazingira Bora Afya Bora" campaign for the promotion of good health and a healthy environment.

The title song of her second album "Mungu Mkuu", won the 2015 Groove Awards Album of the Year.

From her third album titled "Matendo", the song "Tulia" a collaboration with Vick Kitonga Won 2016 groove awards collaboration of the year, "Nikufahamu" from the same album was nominated for Afrima in the category <nowiki>'inspiration African female artist of the year 2016</nowiki>. She won the 2016 Xtreem awards worship song of the year. The Sauti Awards U.S.A 2016 nominated her for East Africa female artist of the year.

On April 7, 2012, Wanjirū married producer Agundabweni Akweyu at Buruburu Baptist Church Nairobi, where her late father-in-law, Rev. Kenneth Akweyu, had served as a senior pastor. In their tenth year of marriage, they had their first son, Mshindi Akweyu Agundabweni, born on 6 April 2022. Wanjirū runs a fashion house named Bwenieve Clothesline, and oversees a mentorship program for aspiring musicians.Together with her husband, they run Bwenieve Production and other businesses.

Matendo Album (2017)

Celebrate Album (2019)

Mwanga Album (2021)