Meet Anne Kansiime …………The musician

Fame, success and change move hand in hand. When one succeeds at what they best, their qualities, speech and status is amplified even when they are still the same person.
You could as well use those two to describe the city and country’s number one female comedian, Anne Kansiime. Fame and success but not changing, even when she has a reason to.
With a very successful mileage as a member of Fun Factory uganda’s top comedy outfit, co-host of a successful TV show, Radio and TV actress, and a pay TV ambassador, Anne is still the same simple girl from Kabale.
And now, the funny lucky girl has added music onto her already versatile list of careers. But as you may know, Anne is special, thus, this is not any kind of music, its children’s music.
“Am into music now, though, I will continue doing comedy and acting,” She says.
She doesn’t hesitate to give me an acapella for some of her kid’s rhymes. They are beautiful musicals about colors, animals, Jesus and all those things that inspire kinds.
“This is a project looking at giving Ugandan kids a chance to be kinds,” she asserts.
“It’s absurd finding a friend’s two year old daughter singing and cramming lyrics to Beyonce’s girls run the world, this is not what she should be singing,” she continues.
Much as her musical move may come as a surprise to many Ugandans, Anne says it always been her best kept secret and ambition.
“I have always wanted to sing professionally but our industry is complicated,” she says referring to the Baibe type of songs dominating our air waves and more so she hated that her voice sounded like that of a 12 year old trying out music.
However, her turning point was when she was chosen to voice an advert for GOTV, a multichoice pay TV franchise.
“From a comedian’s view, the GOTV advert was supposed to sound like a mistake of a song that no one would seriously listen to,” she says and continues.
“Who would listen to a song called my name is Kansiime,” she wonders.
But then, something went tragically right, the song went viral and before the funny girl could settle, her image was already unsettling kids in traffic and public places. Some had resorted to calling themselves Kansiime and it’s the only song they wanted to dance to.
“A friend at a kids event called me to ask for my song so he could play it for the kids,” she reminiscences.
That’s the first time she considered doing music for children
Anne is currently signed to Benon’s Swangz Avenue and hopes to musically work with Baby Gloria, Little Tummie and a playful song with Mun*G.
She however notes, she can collaborate with any artiste as long as they are too willing to sing for the children.
Unlike her comedy persona, Anne doesn’t use her onstage kid’s voice in any of her songs.
“If I used my stage voice, I would be ridiculing the kids, that wouldn’t be respect for them,” she notes.
The album she aptly named, “My name is Kansiime,” is a ten rhyme album all written by Anne.
“We were taught how to write poems and transforming them into songs,” she says.
The first album is completely in English because it’s the language widely taught in schools and, she wants the songs to reach out to all children regardless of class and status.
Her career move has since been supported by both her NTV and Mini Buzz bosses, as a fact, Mini Buzz is planning a weekly kids show.
Four songs; Days of the week, Best friend, I wanna dance and Colors of the rainbow are already complete; their production would perfectly fit into any kids show music theme and easy sing a longs for both parents and teachers.
“I will be making a couple of appearances on different kids TV shows, I will sing with them, rhyme, this is their project”, she says.
The album will be ready by April and Aunt Anne (as she wants to be referred to) is planning a mini concert for her kids. Once released, Anne Kansiime will make history by being the first Ugandan or even East African to do a strictly children’s music album.
According to Anne, she chose to partake this project so as to be relevant to the kids because, just like the adults they too matter.

Men’s Collin Assimwe auditions for Big Brother

The auditions for the eighth edition of Big brother took place on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

On Saturday, people started arriving as early as 7:00am even when the actual audition was scheduled to begin at 9:00am.

In no time, Sheraton was jam packed by Big brother hopefuls; leave alone the show being the talk of the place.

The tension was high as people were all over the place waiting for a chance to impress the selection team. Some guy, a potential housemate probably was seemingly rehearsing some funny stuff, he kept laughing to himself every now and then. Others were even discussing their house strategy.

As you could imagine, the competitive looks were also a very common sight, from the girls especially. They kept on picking on potential competition calling them fake and time wasters; I was one of the unfortunate victims to be labeled “some short dude”.

The DSTV officials were in place to help out people with filling their application forms, I personally didn’t expect to see any familiar faces but I was dead wrong, the auditions turned out to be some high school reunion for me, as well as other hopefuls who kept bumping into each other.

Then the celebrities, a number of upcoming artistes especially those whose faces are familiar from some bubble gum video but you can’t actually put a name to the face, then the glamour girls and models that usually grace some of these pages.

Famous faces were quite scattered around and if anything is to go by, our next contestant may actually be a face we’ve seen before.

However, with all the beauty, swag and elegance in the building, there was one guy you could not fail to notice and this was the NTV panelist of MEN, Collin Assimwe. He is the youngest of the three musketeer panel of the show, his ideas are not necessarily pro-women but they love him like he is the insulin for their diabetes.

The hunky star arrived at the audition at about 9:30am and kept his cool throughout, he was unfortunately seated next to some loud dude who pretended to know all about this audition, I think he’s been auditioning for the past six seasons or more.

Collin spent most of his time on his hi-tech gadget probably sending messages or face booking about the entire thing.

Of course, for a guy who can make a girl fall for him in seven days, he actually got a number of them turning to stare in admiration.

That aside, the show attracted a number of weird, annoying and very annoying accents, it’s like the entire thing was about accents, in any way if one unsuspecting fellow walked in, they could easily mistaken this for a radio audition.

Big  Brother Africa is known for a tradition of being tight lipped about the eventual housemate, this year’s edition premiers in may and God willing, one of these hopeful contestants will bring the prize money home for the first to time.

Triisha Mukanza: the singing detective

As Uganda celebrated 50 years of independence, we all kept our focus on what was said and done at Kololo, but little did we know that even our brothers and sisters in the diaspora where also joining the jubilations. Concerts were held a head of the October 9th celebrations and the most hyped being one in Stockholm Sweden.
I won't say I attended it but I at least got video evidence of the concert and, as many shows of the kind, it was attended by Ugandans working in and around Sweden with performances by the legendary Afrigo band and very many Ugandan artistes we may not and some we may never know.
One of the various performers was a young lady clad in a sky blue evening dress, and the moment she openned her mouth to sing, nothing else mattered. They all listened, directly feeding from her musical mind, the soul in her voice was one meant to touch the heart strings of even the cold hearted and to top all that, she is insanely beautiful.
Patricia Mukanza, aka Triisha, is one Ugandan girl with super vocal abilities.
No wonder she left a mark on many that even the veterans of Afrigo band praised her performance not to mention a number of rushed interviews by various online channels.
To those that have heard Patricia sing will agree that she has a Keri Hilson and Ciara influence on her signature.
She has covered various songs by famous acts like Trey Songs, Drake and Rihanna though, it was her original compositions like Hold him down and star that caught the attention of Record producer and RnB star Mario and in a backstage interview, he's heard calling Triisha the next big name in music.
She exibits qualities of an international act just by the way she carries her self, even when she's an upcoming artiste, she knows her worth and this interview didn't come the easy way. I had to stalk her on both twitter and facebook. Even before she accepted to skype it, the young singer and rapper was keen to know how I learnt about her work, the website for the paper I write for and much more.
Patricia Mukanza, is a Ugandan artist based in the US and Sweden where she was born.
“My parents are from kampala Uganda and, I’m musoga as well. I grew up in Sweden but I’ve also lived in Uganda for one year, I experienced the Ugandan culture even closer into my life and it was an amazing and unforgettable chapter of my life,” she says.
Like all famous musicians, Patricia started out in different school choirs like the one at the Swedish Catholic school where she studied.
“I had very artistic views; i started dancing ballet and jazz. I first participated in choir when I was 8 years old,” she added.

Patricia’s journey to the stage is quite a dodgy one; it was through a friendly network that she managed to see the first producer she worked with, at 14; she wasn’t so sure of her chances. Not even that first record made her any confident but the random listener that asked her never to stop singing.
Since then, a more confident Patricia has gone on to tear up stages with artistes such as Mario and our own Afrigo band.
Much as Patricia is really passionate about music, she still plans of a future outside performing, just in case…….. She’s still a student in New York where she majors in Criminal Justice something totally different from art or music.
“Hmm I don’t want say that I want do anything else than music because that’s the only thing I want to do, but since I’m studying my other option I believe would be a detective or special agent,” she says with a smile.
Even after being out of the country for such a long time, the 20 year old is keen to keep in touch with her country. This was evident with the way she continuously slit in Luganda words in her ligua, they may have been broken and incorrect but still impressive. She fluently speaks both English and Swedish.
Patricia is currently working on her debut EP Beautiful Pain and she says, she draws most of her inspiration from within. At the moment she writes most of her music which she directly gets from her day to day experiences.
Patricia’s knowledge of Ugandan music is quite overwhelming; she refers to Afrigo band as a classic.
“When you talk about paying homage, you are talking Afrigo band,” she says.
To my surprise she knew who the likes of Lillian, Cindy, Maurice Kirya and Blu3 were, though, it’s the Goodlyfe boys Radio and Weasle she has shared a stage with in Gothenburg.
Everything seems to be taking shape for the young singer and detective, with her hold him down doing relatively well on iTunes, Patricia can’t hide her joy.
“I’m overwhelmed of the support Uganda is giving my music. The U.S has taught me a lot when it comes to music but as you know you can’t survive without the home support. Am just happy that the three countries I call home are appreciating me for what I love to do,” she says.

Douglas Lwanga: the katogo chef

When you first meet Douglas, he comes off as a young adult doing a TV job and to him; it’s not a big deal.
Little does this young adult know that for a typical Ugandan teenager looking up to Bobi Wine, Chameleon or Navio, the name Douglas screams larger than life celebrity.
He describes himself in rather few words, “Douglas is a TV personality, family man and also business minded”, he says calmly. In fact, as I settle into the interview, he apologizes for not being able to make me tea.
He has the most famous music show on TV at the moment, the show boosts of over16, 700 face book likes (the most liked Ugandan TV show) and still, that success has not gone to his head.
“You can never assume you are the best, you always need to look and learn from those you think are better”, he says.
In fact, he says it’s this attitude that pushed him to always do better every day.
“Am afraid of being too comfortable. I prefer looking at what my show is lacking to develop it”, he adds.
This year, Douglas' show Katogo was nominated for the yet to be held Radio and TV awards but even when I tell him that am sure he was winning it, all he says is “ God willing”.
Katogo, a show with many pages debuted on Record TV in 2009, it was a result of a major shake up at the station and in a production meeting with the new management, one young producer and active contributor to the meeting Douglas Lwanga was spotted.
“I had earlier joined the station as a background person, so after the meeting, the new manager asked me to do a show and I openly declined”, he says.
“He couldn't take no for an answer thus made me do a couple of shows from political ones, family to katogo its self. He said if I failed as a presenter in one month, he would let me get back to production”,
It was after one month that the manager let him off the hook, not to get back into production but to specifically do a local music show which was untitled at the time.
“The name katogo was a lose translation to mean a mixture of food and drinks. The show was meant to compliment another show on the station which specifically played foreign music”, he says.
However, according to Douglas, the turning point of Katogo was when he had Bebe Cool on the show.
“Because of the controversies between Bebe Cool and Bobi Wine, the two artistes barely trusted any TV presenter. They felt like some presenters and media houses had taken sides”, he narrates.
Douglas exhibits the perfect working culture you will rarely find in a ugandan tv presenter. He makes a log for all the artistes he wants to appear on his show in a specific month. His focus and dedication could not hide, at one time he excused himself to call and confirm the interview with Leilah Kayondo that evening.
He's a former student of St. Lawrence and says, he's not in the entertainment industry by mistake. In his days at Cream Land, he and friends formed a dance group; they ended up performing and touring different St. Lawrence campuses.
“It’s my background as a stage performer that helped me adapt to TV easily. I actually think the ministry of education should find a way of including performing arts in mass communication”, he suggests.
He's also a multi-talented chap that besides his presenting job, he does graphics for cooperate companies and different musicians. He has done concert adverts for Bebe Cool, O Ssuna, Bobi Wine and Konsens's previous concert in Kampala. It’s because of this background that many artists got to know him as a colleague thus appearing on his show whenever he calls.
Not afraid to face his fears, Douglas says he was intimidated by TV's big shots prior to the premier of katogo.

“In an industry with names like Straka, MC Kats, Tuff B and Rwamiti, you can't compete. These people have built reputations for years”, he says.
Lucky for him, he didn't have to compete, thanks to the different segments featured on his show.
“my show comes five times a week which gives me an advantage to do a number of things, I can premier a new song everyday and I can report a breaking story when it happens”, he says.
He also adds: “I premier a new song daily and whenever an artist brings his video, they can expect it to be playing in at least three days”.
Though, even with a great work ethic, Douglas has not been saved from artists and their drama. Much as he has not had issues with any artist, he can't say the same about them.
“Someone will bad mouth your show because you are not playing their songs enough times”, he says. He's also had a problem with artists thinking his show is meant to provide PR for them.
“An artist will call you with a story of his rival attacking him and in minutes the rival will call you with a different version of that story. Each of them will want you to consider their story”, he says.
He's also had the taste of our celebrities' always enormous egos, he says, “some people have refused to appear on my show because they feel like they are bigger than the Ugandan TV industry, one said if he was to give me an interview it had to be in the comfort of his home”, he quickly tells me he has no exceptions for his show and all interviews are done at the station regardless of the artist in question.
When I met him at the Record TV studios, he had been editing and organizing music for his show later that day. His dream is to see the show become regional and probably global.
“I want to be able to stream the show on line in a few years time”, he says.
And, like many music pundits, he too thinks Ugandan music is on a crash course due to the lack of creativity, he however feels if promoted enough, world musicians can save the future.
“many people think we hate world artists like Qwela, Maurice or Kaweesa but no, we simply don't get their videos yet we truly believe in them”, he says and immediately shows me clips of Maurice kirya's performances he's yet to showcase on his upcoming episodes.
Katogo is produced by one Wajid and, Douglas gives him various mentions during the live broadcast. Together, they have created a modern TV revolution and their biggest asset is still the perfect connection they have with their audience.
“I try to be as original as possible, I don't know if it’s me or the music that people love. But so far, we are happy with the love the public is giving the show”, he says.

Robin Kistie starts own music label

Model, MC, poet, actress, TV/Radio presenter, social worker and an all round entertainer are some of the things one can write about the Login presenter.

She’s down to earth and humble contrary to what is portrayed in her TV show.

It’s probably because of this that Robin Kistie has been judged harshly by the public.

“People have said all sorts of things about me and my accent, one writer called it borrowed”, she profoundly says.

Well, for those hating, you may have to stop especially those nursing unfulfilled music dreams because, the pencil girl may be your boss lady soon.

The fast rising media personality has created a music label, the New Vibes Records.

In an interview with the Observer, the fast talking presenter informed us that her label is here to change the course of the Ugandan music industry.

“The label is looking at professionalizing music in Uganda beginning with the production, management and artiste discipline. We are looking at producing Ugandan music for the world market”, she asserts and continues,

“New Vibes is looking at producing the best RnB, Hip hop and African contemporary artistes in the country”, she adds.

Unlike many local labels, New Vibes is self contained to market, manage, promote, record both audio and video, concerts and, other artistes’ welfare like public image and presence, vocal, dance and acting training. Like she says this is more of a musical movement for a change.

According to Robin, the initial idea was to start a visual production house but, since she runs a non profit art camp, New Generation Youth Group (NGYG), plans had to change because of the abundant talent within the group.

“NGYG, these are youths I teach acting, dance and TV presenting. It’s my way of giving back to the public using art”, she says.

“I was touched and inspired by the quality of talent in the group, I decided to start a label to nature, manage and promote some of this talent”, she adds.

To prove that she’s serious about the new venture, Robin has already signed artistes; Jolly Fingers, Diaspora based rapper Philosophy, Michael Ross’ younger brother Allan and the Uptown Duo of Remy and former big brother housemate Kyle Duncan. 

New Vibes is not signing any established artistes at the moment.

“My biggest focus is the youth, people who have not gotten a chance to showcase themselves”, she affirms.

Her passion for art is vivid, when she talks about one Julio Sekaliyo, an inspirational contemporary act, the tone in her voice gives away more than the words she uses.

To ensure that work kicks off, a studio for the label has already been set up. KOB record studio is operating with two in-house producers Gonza and Nash, both unfamiliar names in the business.

“We are working with new faces, minds, ideas, producers………….everything is new”, she says.

Nothing like money is required to join this musical movement, in fact the only requirements Robin noted were talent, commitment and discipline.

“Passion is everything; I would love to sign someone who is not in it for the money”, she warns.

Robin is not taking anything for granted, you would think that since she’s part of the media fraternity, she wouldn’t mind about promotion but no, in fact she has already talked to Nigerian artiste, also a former Big brother star gamer Goldie Harvey to help distribute New Vibes music in the West Africa.

“We shall be holding a launch party for the label at the end of February, by that time at least all the label artistes will have something to show the public”, she affirms.

Big brother Africa 8 auditions for Ugandan on

It’s less than three months when the new season of Big Brother will premier and preparations are truly in high gear.

Now, before Biggie introduces us to a whole new class of 2013, auditions for shortlisted candidates across Africa are on.

In Uganda, auditions will take place at Sheraton Kampala on Saturday 23 March to Monday 25, starting from 9:00a.m.

Even those who missed the deadline stand a chance to submit their application forms at the time of the audition provided they contact with the multichoice offices.

Multichoice is also giving applicants who failed to apply or pick form at all chance to enter through an open audition on the same date, venue and time.

The open audition will allow individuals who were unable to enter one last chance to impress the selection team.

All you are required to do is fill the entry form which, according to the multichoice website is still available at their offices.

All applicants are expected to be citizens of the participating countries; it’s a bigger requirement for one to have a valid passport or will be able to obtain one by the end of March.

Big Brother is looking for an exciting candidate above 21 years of age, fluent at speaking the queen’s language tolerant, bold and strongly passionate about the Big Brother Experience.

A lot is expected to happen on the show next season, from celebrating former Kenyan Housemate Millicent Magadi for her triumphant entry into Kenyan politics to, celebrating the life of their own Goldie Harvey, who died on Valentine’s Day.

Big Brother is part of the Africa magic ten year celebration and is expected to be epic with new twists and tricks.

In Uganda, speculations are still on as of who will represent the country this time round, rumors have vividly targeted Kato Lubwama, basketball star Lugudde, the colorful Straka and as always Desire Luzinda.

Young Mulo in collabo raw

Ugandan entertainment is never short of Drama; from some dude alleging Chameleon is African’s richest artiste, to Bebe’s promise to wed Zuena by the end of 2012, our industry is simply active and hilarious.

A few months back, one teenage dude fell in love with all those Jamaican slangs, to confess his obsession to the world, he did a song that no Ugandan understands.

The song went insanely viral making the name Young Mulo a house hold one.

Now, word reaching my clobbered laptop is that this seventeen year old (strong allegedly) is in a row with another artiste, stipperman, a legendary upcoming artiste.

Its believed Stipperman approached Young Mulo for a collabo and, for the star that the Tebakusobola singer is, there was no way he could let Stipperman rub shoulders with him, leave alone sharing some of his star dust without coughing some dimes.

Mbu, then Stipperman and his manager tricked Young mulo into entering their studio to jokingly do a free style and that’s how the Nsimye gwe collabo came about.

Talking to miles Rwamiti, young mulo confessed he didn’t know he even had a song with Stipperman till someone showed him the video.

“Those people used my vocals illegally”, yes young mulo actually said “vocals”.