Fans and artistes react to Museveni win

At the beginning of the just concluded presidential elections, twelve artistes, Bebe Cool, Judith Babirye, Radio and Weasel, King Saha and Rema Namakula among others, came together to record Tubonga Nawe, a song that may have gotten them in some strange place with their fans.
Many argued that these artistes were only selling their souls because there was a lot of money involved but didn’t mean or even understand what they were talking about.
On Saturday, when all was done and the results had been announced, Tubonga Nawe was literally the most played song of the day – yes, the streets were empty but radios and TVs still dared and played the song.
With messages from different government officials flooding social media (which was supposed to be off by the way!), one thought that the artistes that had made the campaign anthem would be more enthusiastic to share their glory but they were mistaken.
There was barely nothing from Haruna Mubiru, (we totally believe he has no idea of what VPN is) in fact, his final social media post was on February 17, but still even his first post on Monday morning was announcing Kream Production’s Dubai concert.
There was no word from Rema, king Saha, Judith Babirye, Juliana or Iryn Namubiru, even when some of them were vividly accessing social media.
It was Bebe Cool that widely celebrated the win with a post that thanked Ugandans for taking part in an election, as if he wanted to start trouble, he went on to congratulate Dr Kizza Besigye for representing the ‘minority’ with a different opinion.
What followed was an exchange between him and many of his fans including one he asked never to come to his concerts and another one he accused of having porridge brain.
Radio and Weasel were more tactical though engaging, the celebrated Museveni not as their candidate of choice but as the president of the country, they congratulated the losers gracefully noting that; “All of you ran for office because of your concern for Uganda, the election is over but your principles should endure for the betterment of this nation.”
They sealed off the post asking Ugandans not to risk being partisan but work at all levels as a country.
Chameleone was though somewhat apologetic reaching out to those that condemned him for his choice to know that he’s human and thus too has rights and still calling for reconciliation.
He even took time to ask his fans not to boycott his shows because of his decision; “To all Friends and Fans who have thrown unkindness to me for practicing my fundamental right of choice, please stop threatening to boycott my Showcases that shows how conditional your support to me is.”
Unlike Bebe Cool that was trading insults with fans, Chameleone and the Goodlyfe duo were more diplomatic in their responses; they either promoted peace or defended their rights to make a choice.
Santa Anzo, who happened to be in the room when Tubonga Nawe was released faced it rough when she congratulated her people in Moyo for voting rightly, one of the respondents asked her if the state in her home district is one she can handle for a week; “She can’t stay in Moyo for a month but now she’s here congratulating them for voting to stay in the same situation,” noted one of her followers.
Bobi Wine, who lashed at artistes on Tubonga Nawe didn’t congratulate anyone but was on social media calling for the release of Besigye.
Mathias Walukagga, who was often campaigning with Go Forward’s Amama Mbabazi too took to social media, it’s just that he was more poetic and also used his love of football to deliver the Luganda message.
“I’ve never this kind of referee giving out penalties to the side committing the offences,” he wrote.
Other artistes just took to social media to appreciate the fact that the process ended peacefully thus now they can have concerts again.

‘Africa is on the rise’ – Grammy winning Kidjo

Angelique Kidjo at the Grammy Awards. Net Photo

A break from the normal; this year’s Grammy Awards were held on Monday night other than the traditional Sunday.
But that wasn’t all, over the years, the audience from Africa has been catching music’s biggest night on South African music TV Channel O, but now, almost a year since they shut their doors to the rest of the continent, it was hard knowing where the live telecast would be.
The awards were though live on Vuzu Amp one of those DSTV channels people barely talk about.
There more reasons why Africans were interested in this year’s Grammy Awards than those before – truth, it wasn’t the first time an African artist was getting a nomination but was one of those rare moments where more than one African was up for the gramophone.
Much as there has always been excitement every time an African is nominated for the Grammy Awards, many have complained about a blanket nomination which tags all the different African and nonwestern music genres as ‘World Music’.
For instance this year, Angelique Kidjo and Ladysmith Black Mambazo were placed in the same category as Brazilian Gilberto Gil’s samba album and Indian sitar player Anoushka Shankar. 
Kidjo won, making it her third Grammy gong in this category for Sings, beating even the most reviewed Zomba Prison Project, an album conceived of by American writer and producer Ian Brennan comprising of recordings by prisoners at the Zomba Central Prison located at the border of Malawi and Mozambique.
While accepting her award, the Beninese singer dedicated the award to traditional artistes and the young generation in Africa, saying that there is a lot of music in the continent that the world must bring themselves to discover.
“Africa is on the rise, Africa is positive, Africa is joyful,” she said during the non-televised pre-show.
Touching on the issue of race, the singer said that people can use music to promote harmony and unity: “Let's get together and be one with music, and say no to hate and violence.”
Sings merges African songwriting and rhythms with European classical instrumentation, a fusion on which Kidjo has always experimented. 
Her win was the second straight one for Kidjo who won the same award for Eve at last year’s event.
Besides Kidjo, Africa was well represented in other categories, Rocky Dawuni, Ghanaian reggae artist was a nominee in the Best Reggae Album for his latest project, Branches of the Same Tree, but lost to Morgan Heritage’s Strictly Roots.
South African artist Wouter Kellerman‘s Love Language is also nominated for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.  Neville Diedericks, also a South African gospel artist was nominated for Best Gospel Performance/Song for his part in Israel & New Breed’s How Awesome Is Our God featuring Yolanda Adams.
Regarding on the way you look at it, other nominated Africans included Nigerian-American artiste Jidenna for his hit single Classic Man that was nominated for the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration and Ethiopian/Canadian act the Weeknd won two awards out of the seven nominations.
In other Grammy news though, Kendrick Lamar got into the night with the biggest number of nominations at eleven but managed to get only five of them. Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars, and Meghan Trainor won the top awards of Album of the year, Song of the year, Record of the year and Best New Artist respectively.

Using ballet for the environment

Earth song is the third single off musician Michael Jackson’s ninth album, History: Present Past and Future, Book 1. Besides it being the final song Michael rehearsed and performed before dropping dead a couple of hours later, Earth song is special because it’s one of those pop culture hits that talk to the world.
It looks at the degradation and bastardization of the earth as a fall out of various human activities.
But this was 1995, the world wasn’t that messed up though Michael was prophesying. Today however, the world is a danger to its self, all the amazing forests have been destroyed, our relationship with animals has changed plus our lifestyles are a danger to the environment.
Probably, the Uganda National Contemporary Ballet must have been thinking like Michael when they chose to reawaken his earth message when they staged their dance drama Bolero at the National theatre last week.
The drama that was majorly choreographed by Valerie Miquel merges stories of environment degradation, pollution, confusion and ironically seduction.
Not to make it so hard for the audience to digest, Miquel opted to have musical interludes by one Samuel Nalangira whose skills on the Adungu and Ennanga are incomparable, his performances were however not in line with the theme of the day, he mostly channeled his emotions towards relationships gone bad.
The dancers on the other side, had fun on stage, their eloquence and swift transitions within moves made the entire production a smooth one for the eyes. With the guidance of Miquel herself, we were taught about situations of dominance – where brilliant groups crumble because they failed to choose a leader among themselves.
The solos routines by the likes of Jonathan Mayambala, Peter Khalifa, Simbwa and Sarah delivered authoritative messages about planting trees, fighting pollution and controlling the mind among others. Simbwa especially started off by showing how Ugandans highly cherish the polythen (kaveera), in a twist of events, the Kaveera annoyed him, blocked his sewage system and soon his water was dirty.
Simbwa, with a backdrop of a rock pop song swings and locks with the air in anger before finally collapsing in abyss….. What a sensation performance?
Miquel stars in the last performance where she brings on her seductress gear. The electronic charged performance was based on Miquel whose moves force all the men and women in the club to join in. This piece doesn’t only remind us on a fact that we need to have fun but also channels Maurice Ravel’s one-movement orchestral piece titled Bolero, which was the inspiration of the project.

Ugandan films nominated at international festivals

A scene from Bala Bala Sese

2016 is already registering lots of success for film, as you may know, Joseph Ken Ssebagala’s House Arrest is vying for the biggest award at the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCAs) – Best Film Overall against the likes of Ayanda and Tell me a sweet something among others.
But before the country even gets over all this, last week, more good news came trickling in with the nomination of Boda Boda Theives and Bala Bala Sese are up for the biggest award at the Luxor African Film Festival (LAFF) in Egypt.
Boda Boda Theives had a good year being nominated for the Best Feature Film at the Durban International Film Festival, Nigeria’s Africa International Film Festival, Berlinale Internationale Film Festival and of course picked a nomination of the Best Actor at the African Academy Film Festival.
Directed by Donald Mugisha, the film scooped two awards at the 2015 Uganda Film Festival though its competition, Bala Bala Theives was highly overlooked in all categories of the Ugandan showpiece.
Bala Bala Sese stars celebrity couple Michael Kasaija and Natasha Sinayobye  and it’s a story about lovers that go through deceit, greed and betrayal while trying to stay together.
The film boosts of good cinematography, sound and the Kasaijas were both amazing, but like Boda Boda Theives, they will have to compete with Lamb, an Ethiopian film that gained a lot of positive international reviews last year.
If one of the two films wins, they will walk away with $4,000 (about Shs13.8m) as the prize money.
In the other categories at LAFF, two more local short films White Faces (Robert Katogo) and Kai: The Vendor (Robert Nyanzi) will too compete for the Best Short Film prize.
The LAFF are organised by the Independent Shabab Foundation, an NGO in Egypt under the auspice of the country’s Ministry of Culture and aim at promoting screening of African movies in the North African Country.
Besides LAFF, Kennedy Kihire’s Drawn Together is nominated for the Best Short Film at the Cameroon International Film Festival (CAMIFF) and will face off with films like Nigerian Tope Oshin’s Ireti, HUM!! by Nabe Deone (CAMEROON) and United Kingdom’s Andrew Oldbury’s War.
The CAMIFF is due in Cameroon this April.

New art gallery opens up in Kampala

A new gallery has opened in Kampala prominently featuring mostly art collections by new or little known artists.
Located along Kira road in Kamwokya, the Acacia Art Gallery is looking at providing space to artists that may not get a chance to showcase their work in renowned art galleries since they may not have built a following yet.
Ronnie Tindi, an artist and one of the brains behind Acacia Gallery notes that they’ve created a space where a person doesn’t have to be an affiliate of theirs to exhibit and as you could imagine, he notes that they arew also open to genres ranging from abstract, realism and sculpture among others.
Although Kamwokya is known for different galleries such as Umoja or Afriart, there is something very new about Acacia Gallery, for instance, where in other places it’s the art and a space, work here was curated in an inclusive way.
They allow a day to day person to interact with the different paintings hanging on the wall, especially with a fact that the space doubles as a restaurant for Ethiopian food, Tindi says with the traffic that follows into the place for food, they hope they start tickling Ugandan minds about art.
The inaugural showcase featured work by Tindi himself, Brian Kavuma, Paul Kintu and many artists from Angavu art studio.
Tindi notes that he’s always loved art and thus the vision behind the gallery is showcasing people’s ambitions and work in a great space.