Kenyan singer-songwriter Ila Nia teams up with fellow rising star Kahuti on “Choosing You”, an Afro-R&B love song that is out now across all streaming platforms. The four-language duet is the first release from the Spotify x ONErpm Fresh Finds Nairobi Sessions.
“Choosing You” opens with a confession. Ila Nia admits, in Swahili, that she can’t stop returning to the same person. Kahuti meets her with reassurance, and they spend the rest of the s ong about picking someone again the next day, and the day after that – “I will keep on, keep on choosing you”.
The song almost had a different name.
“It was actually called ‘Destiny’ before we changed it to ‘Choosing You’,” Ila Nia says. “I’d been looking to work with Ywaya Tajiri for a while, and he happened to be the songwriter on the song. It felt destined for us to work together. That session was the first time I met Kahuti in person too, and it was magical. Everything was seamless. We didn’t struggle.”
The session Ila Nia’s referring to was one of many at Snowball Studios in April, when Spotify brought its Fresh Finds program to East Africa for the first time. Held in partnership with ONErpm, the two-day camp put rising Kenyan, Ugandan, and Tanzanian artists in the same rooms as some of the region’s most respected producers and songwriters. Grammy-winning British-Ghanaian hitmaker JAE5, whose credits include Burna Boy, J Hus, Dave, and Rema, was also in attendance.
“Choosing You” was produced by SoFresh 254, the man behind Charisma’s 8.6-million-view breakout “Sina Noma,” and written with Ywaya Tajiri, one half of Watendawili, the duo whose “Cham Thum (Atoti)” has crossed 20 million streams.
For Ila Nia, the song reaches beyond the romantic frame it wears.
“Choosing doesn’t have to be romantic,” she says. “It can be a friendship, a mother and a daughter. For me, that’s my daughter. But I’m such a lover girl. When I fall, I don’t double-dip. I’m focused on the one person I’ve chosen.”
Ila Nia is one of the most exciting new voices in Kenya’s Afro-R&B scene, moving between Afro-soul, Swahili rhythm, and Afro-pop. Her 2024 collaboration with Afro-pop veteran Nameless, “Haya,” picked up Best Breakthrough Music Video at the 2025 East Africa Arts Entertainment Awards. This is an annual ceremony held in Nairobi celebrating artistic excellence across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and South Sudan.
Kahuti is a Kenyan singer-songwriter and guitarist known for his warm, guitar-led songwriting. He broke through in 2025 with his debut EP “Boy Lover”, headlined by the Kinoti duet “Feel The Love,” which has since crossed 1.5 million streams on Spotify.
More music from the Fresh Finds Nairobi Sessions is set to follow across the coming months, released through ONErpm.
Choosing You by Ila Nia featuring Kahuti is out everywhere now.