Kenna has been in the music business for years, but you may have never heard of him. Despite being nominated for a Grammy in 2008 for his single “Say Goodbye To Love,” his music has never gone mainstream. In the 2005 bestseller “Blink: The Power Of Thinking Without Thinking,” Malcolm Gladwell dedicated a chapter to the Ethiopian-born Virginia Beach singer called “Kenna’s Dilemma: The Right — and Wrong — Way To Ask People What They Want.”
Now Kenna has made the conscious decision to step into the limelight for one reason: to raise awareness about the clean water crisis. Kenna speaks with Here & Now’s Robin Young about his new EP “Land 2 Air Chronicles II: Imitation Is Suicide Chapter 3” and his life’s mission for Ethiopia and the rest of the world to have clean water. “I’m from Ethiopia, my father was born in a very rural town, I have so many family members that don’t have clean water,” Kenna says. “It behooves me now to pursue more of an overt approach on my music and my art, to reach the masses so that I can be in a much more significant position, so that I can cause change.” Thanks to Borsboom.