Just a year ago, Obby Alpha was struggling to make ends meet on the streets of Dar es Salaam, as a boda boda rider.
There was a time when he was forced to spend three cold nights on the streets, battling the annoying bites and noise of the mosquitoes, when he couldn’t raise enough money to pay his rent.

Fast forward to today and Obby Alpha is currently one of the best-selling gospel artists in Tanzania with several hits under his belt, including a record featuring Kenyan gospel singer Guardian Angel Pigana na Mungu with over seven million views on YouTube.He is currently the most trending gospel artist in Tanzania.

When Obby Alpha released his first hit song ‘Bora hata Nikushukuru Mungu’ last year, which went viral in Kenya and trended on social media platforms TikTok and Instagram, the gospel star was still struggling to make ends meet.
On a good day, he would earn Tsh45,000 (Ksh1,900), but most days he would go home with Tsh10,000 (Ksh500) or even less.
“When I released Bora Nikushukuru a year ago, I was still a broke boda boda rider struggling to make a living. But after the song became a hit – something I didn’t expect but by the grace of God it did – I couldn’t continue with my boda boda hustle,” the calm, soft-spoken singer opens up.

Obby says fame took over and he had no choice but to quit the job. He says it’s the song that changed his life for the better.
“The song became so popular and so did I and that posed a challenge to my boda boda hustle because every time I had passengers on board, the questioning was intense, they had seen me on a big song or trending on TikTok.” He says.

Although the song was an instant hit when it was released, the money didn’t come immediately and Obby Alpha had to continue to fend for himself, which proved difficult.
“Every time a passenger got off my boda boda, they would ask to take a picture with me. I was instantly popular. It became a challenge and I couldn’t go on.'” he states.
The song has garnered 11 million views on YouTube and is currently his top song on Spotify with over 450,000 streams.

Obby Alpha says the hit song was inspired by the hardship he was going through at that time in his life.
“I had just moved to Dar es Salaam to try and make a living. I knew no one in the city and had no relatives to turn to. I was all alone. Before I took up the boda boda job, I used to sell cooking oil on the streets of Dar and it wasn’t easy to make sales. I also sold octopus (a street food delicacy in Dar), which didn’t bring in as much,” he adds.

On the lessons he has picked in his journey to stardom, Obby Alpha says he has learned to be grateful to God for every situation.
“Just a year ago, I was on the streets as a boda boda, then at a time I was going through a very difficult phase in my life, I recorded a song which turned out to be a blessing and changed my life for good. We should learn to always be grateful in every situation.”