Monday 20 May 2013

Obsessions' Jackie and Sharon split




Obsessions has always been some sort of mystery.
When they came onto the scene in the early 2000s, the public criticized them of doing other people's songs and skimpy dressing.
Before they could address the problem, they experienced a massive exodus of all the female members in the group citing all kinds of malicious actions including sexual exploitation.
This saw the group recruit a fresh team of gorgeous and talented female dancers.
This introduced us to Natasha Sinayobye, Helen Lukoma, Cleopatra Kohairwe, Brenda Nambi, Sharon Nalukenge and Jackie Tumusime.
These beautiful girls didn't only grace stages but even a number of social pages.
In 2003, the group of both boys and girls embarked on a musical journey, to kick start the project were the boys. They blessed our radio stations with hits like; house girl, dance with me, Nod your head and You and me.
Like I said, mystery and controversy has always courted the Obsessions, in 2003 during the inaugural PAM awards, this RnB and Afro Beat group picked up two awards for best Hip hop single and artist, later that year Michael Kasaija a founding member left the group with girlfriend Natasha.
In 2004, the guys left the group leaving Ronnie Mulindwa as the last dude standing. This saw the group turn their focus onto the girls.
Even when we all questioned their musical abilities, they enjoyed a sucessful musical run with Wekumme, I will do, Mwekutte and the fans favourite Jangu.
Later all the girls left and replaced by a new cast including Mya and Sheebah, when these too left, there were no further recruitments. Obsessions became a duo of Jackie and Sharon.
As we all know she gave the group a lease of life after contesting in the Amplified edition of big brother, they actually made a comeback with Pollination alongside the Goodlyfe crew.
At the beginning of this year, they redid their Mwekutte and even shot a video for it.
However news coming from the camp is that its all not well between Sharon O and Jackie, the Airtel Kika presenter. The girls have since split and Sharon has fast embarked on a solo music career.
Sharon, with the help of her husband Ronnie Mulindwa has already released her first solo project Mpola mpola, a song about a lover she has chased for a long time.
On May 3rd, she released the video for the song and still, nothing about it indicates that its an Obsessions' solo project, the video too was directed by Ronnie Mulindwa and the artiste credit read Sharon O.
Efforts to talk to the two girls has hit a dead end as their phones are hardly accessible and both their social media accounts have not been attended to since January 2012, may be the good old days of the group are behind us.

Wednesday 15 May 2013

Good Lyfe's Radio and Weasel for BET awards




In any job, there comes a time when everything one touches turns to gold.
For the Good Lyfe crew, that time must be this year.
Even when we are barely into the first half of the year, the boys have such achievements to boast about.
They've sentenced us to a dancing life by releasing a hit after hit; can't let you go, fitting, fantastic, magnetic and Bakasitooma just to mention a few.
They successfully went on to host Katogo, a famous music show on Record TV, premiered their magnetic video, headlined an MTV Base Zanzibar concert, a sensational collabo, Kiboko changu with Amani and, their sold out Obudde concert last week.
They are currently the most played local artistes on different international music channels with three videos; Magnetic, Can't let you go and Fantastic rotating concurrently.
On Tuesday 14th, the boys added yet another achievement on their CV by becoming the first Ugandan artiste to be nominated for the prestigious BET Awards.
The singing duo have been nominated for this year's Black Entertainment Television Awards in the category of Best international act: Africa.
They are nominated alongside Nigeria's 2Face Idibia and Ice Prince, South Africa's Toya Delazy and Donald, and R2Bees from Ghana.
After receiving news about their nomination, the boys went wild on social network thanking the fans for the support and prayers, they also congratulated fellow nominees.
The BET awards recognize the best African American individuals in music, film and sports.
The nominees were announced in a live televised ceremony hosted by comedian and actor Chris Tucker, other nominees were later announced on BET's flagship famous show 106 & Park.
Young Money's Drake leads the nominations with 12. Rappers Kendrick Lamar and 2Chains are up for eight awards each.
Other artistes like Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Miguel and Ryan Lewis also made the nomination list.
The show will air live on June 30th from the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles and,  at least Chris Brown and R. Kelly have been confirmed to perform. 
Like one could imagine, the boys are in a very competitive category that winning it all may be far fetched but for an industry short of international glory, being nominated for the BET awards is as good and thus an achievement.
Since they hit the scene in 2008, Radio and Weasel have been the most controversial and dynamic duo to grace the Ugandan stage, over the years, they've pocked artistes and figures; Bebe Cool, Chameleone, Rabadaba, AK47, Charlie Lubega and Straka among others.
Early last year, many critics wrote them off with a career post mortem and autopsy report ready, with their reinvention this year, any body who has ever doubted Radio and Weasel will be asking for forgiveness.

Best Female R&B/Pop Artist
» Beyoncé
» Tamar Braxton
» Alicia Keys
» Rihanna
» Elle Varner
Best Male R&B/Pop Artist
» Chris Brown
» Bruno Mars
» Miguel
» Justin Timberlake
» Usher
Best Group
» Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
» Mary Mary
» Mindless Behavior
» Slaughterhouse
» The Throne (Kanye West and Jay-Z)
Best Collaboration
» 2 Chainz (featuring Drake) - "No Lie"
» A$AP Rocky (featuring Drake, 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar) - "F---in' Problems"
» French Montana (featuring Rick Ross, Drake and Lil Wayne) - "Pop That"
» Kendrick Lamar (featuring Drake) - "Poetic Justice"
» Justin Timberlake (featuring Jay-Z) - "Suit & Tie"
» Kanye West (featuring Big Sean, Pusha T and 2 Chainz) - "Mercy"
Best Male Hip Hop Artist
» 2 Chainz
» A$AP Rocky
» Drake
» Future
» Kendrick Lamar
Best Female Hip Hop Artist
» Azealia Banks
» Eve
» Nicki Minaj
» Rasheeda
» Rye Rye
Video of the Year
» 2 Chainz (featuring Drake) - "No Lie"
» A$AP Rocky (featuring Drake, 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar) - "F---in' Problems"
» Drake - "Started From the Bottom"
» Drake (featuring Lil Wayne) - "HYFR"
» Kendrick Lamar (featuring Drake) - "Poetic Justice"
» Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (featuring Wanz) - "Thrift Shop"
» Miguel - "Adorn"
» Rihanna - "Diamonds"
» Justin Timberlake (featuring Jay-Z) - "Suit & Tie"
» Kanye West (featuring Big Sean, Pusha T and 2 Chainz) - "Mercy"
Video Director of the Year
» A$AP Rocky and Sam Lecca
» Benny Boom
» Director X
» Dre Films
» Hype Williams
Best New Artist
» Azealia Banks
» Joey Bada$$
» Kendrick Lamar
» Trinidad Jame$
» The Weeknd
Best Gospel Artist
» Deitrick Haddon
» Lecrae
» Tamela Mann
» Mary Mary
» Marvin Sapp
Best Actress
» Angela Bassett
» Halle Berry
» Taraji P. Henson
» Gabrielle Union
» Kerry Washington
Best Actor
» Don Cheadle
» Common
» Jamie Foxx
» Samuel L. Jackson
» Denzel Washington
YoungStars Award
» Gabrielle Douglas
» Jacob Latimore
» Keke Palmer
» Jaden Smith
» Quvenzhané Wallis
Best Movie
» "Beasts of the Southern Wild"
» "Django Unchained"
» "Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap"
» "Sparkle"
» "Think Like a Man"
Subway Sportswoman of the Year
» Gabrielle Douglas
» Brittney Griner
» Candace Parker
» Serena Williams
» Venus Williams
Subway Sportsman of the Year
» Victor Cruz
» Kevin Durant
» Robert Griffin III
» LeBron James
» Ray Lewis
Coca-Cola Viewers' Choice Award
» A$AP Rocky (featuring Drake, 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar) - "F---in' Problems"
» Drake - "Started From the Bottom"
» Kendrick Lamar - "Swimming Pools (Drank)"
» Miguel - "Adorn"
» Rihanna - "Diamonds"
» Justin Timberlake (featuring Jay-Z) - "Suit & Tie"
Centric Award
» Tamar Braxton - "Love and War"
» Fantasia - "Lose to Win"
» Miguel - "Adorn"
» Nas - "Daughters"
» Charlie Wilson - "My Love Is All I Have"
Best International Act: Africa
» 2Face Idibia (Nigeria)
» Toya Delazy (South Africa)
» Donald (South Africa)
» Ice Prince (Nigeria)
» R2Bees (Ghana)
» Radio and Weasel (Uganda)
Best International Act: UK
» Marsha Ambrosius
» Estelle
» Labrinth
» Rita Ora
» Emeli Sandé
» Wiley




Wednesday 8 May 2013

More than singing in a Karaoke bar



Naturally, when a family member is travelling, its human to get together and have one hell of a night. For me, Wednesday was one of those nights. My brother was leaving for the studies which may take years before he sets foot in the pot holed Kampala again.
For some reasons, he had always wanted me to visit some places and I had strongly resisted his sheer temptation, since this particular night was on him, he decided to do things his way and thus taking me to one of these places……. a karaoke bar.
I had never been in one and truth is I didn’t even long to enter one, but when I did, I will admit I was fully blown away.
Unlike the movie setting or our own Alligators where karaoke is about a screen, lyrics and booze, Kampala redefines the meaning.
Dancers, weird names and bar services are some of the few things to write home about a multi activity karaoke night experience in a Kampala suburb, to give this article meaning, I will tackle each of these in that order.
First the dancers; in a civilized world, karaoke would refer to a person sing lyrics of a famous song regardless of their good or bad voice. In any way, your professionalism and dancer is not called for, however, in this particular one, dance groups outnumbered the musicians in the house. They were all sorts of all-girls dance troops, well….. Did they have the moves?
It was just an issue of which dance troops shook their behinds more, it’s like these girls watch Konshens and Mr. Vegas’ videos for a living.
Weird names; Ugandan entertainment usually rhymes with weird names, think about it, our top musician is called chameleon, the other one is cool something and their other colleague is a beverage…….. Wine. Thus when two or more artistes are in the vicinity, you should expect such names.
At this karaoke bar, names came in a rather overrated gear; the MC kept calling out artistes like; Good Speed …. Wait, is this even a name? Peter left and Henry Right!! East Africa voices crew (kale Bebe Cool should hear this), High voltage, one code and Jarule … yes, that’s what he called himself.
The artistes were mostly combined in duos; they’ve actually picked lessons from Radio and Weasel. They all performed in a way where one raps and the other cries for love.
In a suspicious way; all performers were putting on shades in the night and, headsets they were not using. Their outfits were rather casual that it was easy to mistake them for the fans.
I was seated next to one of them, he seemed uncomfortable whenever I criticized a performer, kumbe he was an artiste too.
He sang about people trying to put him down and I was still condemned to that bad singing for the next three minutes, how I wished he could get a full time job.
After singing, the artistes would collect the CDs from the DJ because it’s the only copy they have, they would then be paid in drinks, most of them sang for two bottles of beer.
They actually took tips from the audience seriously; one even interrupted his own music to thank a fan.
Their song choices were from a wide range, they did songs from the famous artistes and few of their own. As you could imagine, most of their own music was mostly tailored to fit our current kidandali format.
There was this performer who declared himself Uganda’s true king of dancehall, his reason was that he sounds like the original king of the music genre; Shaggy. The guy looked like some of our artistes living in their heads, in his head; he was convinced he’s only competing against the internationally renowned Shaggy… poor guy.
However, Khalifah eventually saved the night with his Minakonda, Ekitangaza and nkwate wa. His performance was a breath of fresh air, the other artistes watched him with admiration, the same way he probably watches Chameleon on bigger concerts.
Just like many of our artistes, Khalifah too was first cut his teeth into the industry through different Karaoke bars around town.
The services; make of what you want but the services were quite a spectacle, when Khalifah suddenly recognized me as a journalist, the waitress changed and improved the way they were treating us. Cleaned the place and continuously greeted us. Then the MC asked me to tip him, mbu because am new at the place.