Russel Kitau Jnr is a phenomenal young artist who is a tutor by day, with a passion for singing for the after-hours.
Russel, goes by the stage name Rus, and comes from a mixed parentage of New Ireland and Manus. His interest in singing peaked at the age of 14, and at 19, did his first stage performance in front of an audience.
Rus completed his studies with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at the University of Papua New Guinea.
Rus takes courage and inspiration from international artists, including Guy Sebastian, Mariah Carrey, Jennifer Hudson and Chris Daughtry.
He started performing publicly by doing small live gigs in Port Moresby in 2018. It wasn’t until 2021 that he recorded a song cover titled ‘Bed on Fire’ by Teddy Swims. This received a lot of views on social media and gave Rus that push to venture into the music industry.
Rus had some help in producing this song cover from recording in the studio to filming its video. Gerard Ketan a talented guitarist and musician was behind Rus in the recording, including Eugene Avediba and George Kurokuro who produced the video, and Boruan Renagi who filmed it. The project helped Rus identify the kind of music he can create.
He is now looking forward to the release of his first single titled ‘Lavim You Lo Shadows’, which comes out at the end this month. It is a song about heartbreak, written and composed by Jimlas Larry. It is more of a rock ballad genre and the young singer is excited for everyone to hear and connect with it.