From artists getting international recognition, the obsessions that came with nominations in awards we were hearing about for the first time and their immerse involvement in politics, this year was indeed special.
Year kicked off with a couple of albums in the pipeline – from Maurice Kirya, Bebe Cool, Navio, St. Nellysade, Joel Sebunjo and Lillian Mbabazi among others.
Bebe got the news since he has social media in his hands; his Go Mama was literally the most talked about thematic album the year has seen.
A very ambitious reggae compilation that has songs about love, motherhood, friendship and trust, since its release, he has collected an MTV MAMA nomination for Love you every day, a single off the album, Kora Award nomination in the Album of the Year category, Best Reggae Award at the AFRIMMA and many other nominations elsewhere.
Joel Sebunjo’s album I Speak Luganda too got him nominated at the Afrima Music awards and was also listed one of the Best World Music albums of 2015 by Songlines Magazine with a three star rating.
But even with little international or local hype, St.NellySade’s Omulondo N’engero was quite an enigma and so was the amazing Naava Grey with a self-titled album.
Maurice had a very personal Mwooyo, too released in the first quarter of the year, the albums that delves into his relationship failures, love life and family was the home of probably the most important song of 2015, Busabala.
In a year where video production seemed to surpass the audio bit of it, no one worked as calculatingly or even strategically on a music video like Maurice Kirya and Sasha Vybes on Busabala.
Given a village setting, the video featured Maurice interested in a top rural diva, played by Jackie Akello who is over protected by a mean dad portrayed by Jaffer Amin.
It was one from the many local videos that appeared to have been scripted, story boarded and cast directed – it’s that Ugandan video that had almost each and every aspect in the right place but still managed to bring the satire and dramedy without forgetting its message.
It’s a video that has his wannabe groupie fans in mind with the appearance of Tabu Flo (which I guess they relate to) and the Kiganda dance feel which makes both your mum and mine comfortable while watching.
But besides the video, it was still that song that was played on both Sanyu FM and CBS in equal measures or that song whose lyrics tickled a mechanic in Kiseka Market the same way they did to an accountant at some office in Workers’ House.
It’s one of those songs of 2015, if not the only one that confidently remained true to class and quality yet they were consumed by the masses.
Busabala was that song whose vision maybe the second and last phase of having one quality music industry, that industry where Sebunjo, Kinobe, Kerunen or Kenneth Mugabi won’t be alien to a person whose definition of a concert is one at Nakivubo.
2015 was still the year Uganda’s self-proclaimed music doctor, Jose Chameleone was literally man handled out of the industry, generally having a bad year that he ended up surviving on his 2014 hit Wale Wale and so did Bebe Cool with Love you every day, yes he dropped a hot album but he failed to produce a monster hit off it.
Besides that clique, the biggest revelation this year could have been the Qwela Junction shows, not the Kavulu status, these shows made Ugandans this year not only appreciate the music but the different aspects of it – the Sax aces, Guitar maestros and Divas were all shows that were clearly out of the box and deeply thought about and choreographed.
Guys like Pallaso, Sheebah, Irene Ntale, Natty Nethan, A-Pass and King Saha among others ruled chats. We had songs like Bakuwe Kyonywa, Twatoba, Gundeze and Wuuyo among others becoming club anthems.
It was still a year we are going to look back and say that we listened to awards than music, artists preferred to talk about the conquests from their previous music than their future works.
Because of this when Eddy Kenzo was nominated for the BET Awards, it was understandable for the entire country to rally behind him. Of course, he eventually won and that was the beginning of revaluing and devaluing artists according to international awards won…oh 2015.
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