Raymond Shaban Mwakyusa, popularly known as Rayvanny, is a Tanzanian musician, songwriter and recording artist signed under WCB Wasafi record label.
He is the founder and CEO of Next Level Music. Vanny Boy is best known by his song "Kwetu", which introduced him to the world back in 2016.
He was officially signed under WCB Wasafi back in 2015 and released his first single under the label dubbed Kwetu in 2016.
In 2017 he became the first artiste from Tanzania to win a BET Award, after being crowned “THE BET Viewers Choice Best New International Act”.
This made him the second artiste to win a BET Award in East Africa, after Eddy Kenzo who won the International Viewers Award in 2015.
In 2020, Rayvanny made it to the Grammy Awards consideration list through his EP dubbed Flowers.
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Rayvanny’s Profile
Full Names: Raymond Shaban Mwakyusa
Popular as: Rayvanny/ Chui/Vanny Boy
Gender: Male
Occupation / Profession: Singer and Songwriter
Nationality: Tanzanian
Race / Ethnicity: African
Birthday: August 22, 1993
Rayvanny Biography
Early Life
Rayvanny was born in a town called Mbeya, his parents brought him up in a humble setting. Though he was not from a well off family, his parents seemed to give to him all the support he needed.
Rayvanny has a brother by the name of Shadrack, who graduated from Ardhi University Tanzania.
Inspiration
His passion for music began when he was still in primary school. When he was in secondary school, he won the regional Serengeti rap freestyle competition in Mbeya and went on to win the national competition in Dar Es Salaam in 2011.
Music Career
In 2012, Rayvanny joined a music group known as Tip Top connection that was being managed by Babu Tale. At Tip Top, Vanny Boy used to be the back singer for Yamoto Band and Madee Ali.
This gave him more insight into what the music industry was all about and soon enough he had also started making connections as well.
In 2015, he was officially signed under WCB Wasafi owned by Diamond Platnumz and in 2016 he released his first single under the label dubbed Kwetu. Since then, Vanny Boy has never looked back.
Family/Relationship
Rayvanny was once romantically involved with Fayhima aka Fahyvanny who is a fashionista. They have a son together whom they have named Jaydan Vanny and togther they co-parent.
Currently, he is rumoured to be dating Paula Kajala, daughter of Harmonize’s EX-girlfriend Frida Kajala.
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Awards and Nominations
In 2016, he was nominated as the Breakthrough Act at the MTV Africa Music Awards but did not win.
In 2017 he won the Best New International Act: Viewer’s Choice Award at the BET Awards.
The same year (2017), he was nominated for as the Best Newcomer at the African Music Magazine Awards, but didn’t win.
In 2019, Vanny Boy was crowned the Best Male Artiste at Starqt Awards in Johannesburg, South Africa.
In 2019, he was again awarded as the best male artiste in East, South and North Africa in the Annual African Entertainment Awards USA (aeausa).
In 2020, he made it to the Grammy Awards consideration list through his EP dubbed Flowers.
In 2020 he was awarded the Best Male Artist East Africa at the African Entertainment Awards USA (AEAUSA).
He was again nominated for the 2020 - Entertainer of the Year at the African Entertainment Awards USA (AEAUSA).
Again his song Pepepta was nominated as the Best Collaboration at the African Entertainment Awards USA (AEAUSA).
In 2019 he was nominated for the Soundcity MVP Awards for Viewer’s Choice through his Tetema.
Record Label
In 2021 Rayvanny unveiled his own Record Label dubbed Next Level Music (NLM).
Vanny Boy the boast of one of the biggest and state of the art recording studios in the whole of Tanzania ans East Africa.
Album
In February 2021, Rayvanny launched his first studio Album called Sound From Africa that has a total of 23 songs.
Religion
He is a Christian.
Coke Studio Africa
In 2017 was among Artistes who represented Tanzania at Coke Studio Africa. He was paired with Dji Tafinha.
At Coke studio he was also paired with America’s Jason Derulo, Dela and Bebe Cool for a song called Push Up on It.
In 2019, Vanny again made a Comeback to Coke Studio Africa for the Second time where he worked with Naiboi and Laizer Classic.
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Drama/Harmonize
In 2021, Rayvanny was embroiled in a bitter fallout with Harmonize after it emerged that he was seducing his girlfriend’s Daughter.
Rayvanny accused Harmonize of seducing and sending nudes to Paula Kajala who is now rumoured to his girlfriend.
YouTube Channel
Rayvanny joined the streaming platform on March 17, 2016 and so far he has garnered over 529,408,193 views and Counting.
In October 2019, WCB signee became the third person to win the highly looked forward to YouTube Gold Creator award after his Channel garnered over 1 million subscribers.
In September 2019, Vanny Boy set a new record in the Africa Music Industry, after teaser to his song “PEPETA" featuring Bollywood actress and singer Nora Fatehi clocked 1 million views within 6 hours.
Grammy
In 2020, he made a new milestone after making it to the 2020 Grammy Awards consideration list.
The Grammy Awards Academy proposed Rayvanny to be considered for a nomination in the Best World Music Album of the year Category through his EP #Flowers.
“FOR YOUR GRAMMY®️ CONSIDERATION. Our Artist @rayvanny #FLOWERS Album has been shortlisted on the GRAMMY As BEST WORLD MUSIC ALBUM”
He did not make it to the final list.
BET
In 2017 he won the Best New International Act: Viewer’s Choice Award at the BET Awards.