VALU VALU: JOSE CHAMELEONE

JOSE CHAMELEONE

He has now lasted longer than a decade. And in Uganda, where musicians keep falling by the roadside like plastic off a heating metal, it’s no mean achievement, especially if one has spent nearly the entire decade at the very top of the industry.

Listening to Mama Mia now, hardly anything about the song could have given the hint that there was more where that had come from, and that its creator was to go on and claim a considerable market share of the music listening public, save for the fact that it was then a new and hitherto un-heard sound.

Jose Chameleone has stayed consistent in his use of usable lyrics, of singing songs that listeners can use for more than just listening. He sang about key social concerns, about marital faithfulness, the need to work hard, and trying to awaken the country’s conscience about the way it rewards its heroes.

And that has set him aside from a majority of musicians. He has had faults too, like cases of sly plagiarism where he uses tunes of already made Caribbean songs for his. But his fans will tell you that does not matter. Valu Valu, a fine infectious sweet love ballad, will do his standing no damage at all. It will only go further to cement his place as one the greatest musicians to have come out of this land in our time.