Mugabi on stage with Naava Grey. Below, the artiste playing a tube fiddle. Photos | Andrew Kaggwa
The past three months have been special for instrumentalists and vocalists. From Maurice Kirya in September, Myko Ouma in October, and Aziz Azion and Kenneth Mugabi in November, the men with guitars and vocals have held concerts at the Kampala Serena’s Victoria Conference Hall.
All these shows took place without the backing of a major sponsor, marketing budgets, or influencers, and neither of the artistes had a trending song to talk about. The shows were marketed purely based on their musical strengths.
With the exception of Aziz Azion, Kenneth Mugabi and Maurice Kirya have basically made their mark as ethno, world music or soul music artistes. It is greatly believed that these kind of artistes cannot make it in Uganda, considering that most of the music played on media is meant to be danced to.
Kenneth Mugabi fans are the kind who will sing along to his songs word for word
Alongside the soulful artistes, there are a number of art disciplines Ugandans rarely appreciate, such as poetry, spoken word, or beatboxing, among others. Yet, all these came out to play at Kenneth Mugabi’s concert on Friday night. It was a success!
This was not necessarily Kenneth Mugabi’s first show; in the past, he has hosted smaller intimate gatherings, but all those were expected to be successful; they played in his strength.