Saturday was music galore in Kampala as music lovers celebrated the annual World Music Day at Sheraton Kampala Hotel and Kampala Serena Hotel. While the event at Sheraton was free of charge, at Serena it was a Family affair, with siblings headlining the show’s performances.
The Fete de la Musique, also known as World Music Day, is an annual music celebration that takes place on June 21. On Music Day, citizens and residents are urged to play music outside in their neighbourhoods or in public spaces and parks. Free concerts are also organised, where musicians play for fun and not for payment. It was first celebrated in Paris, France, in 1982 and later became celebrated in 120 countries around the world, among the Uganda. Since the patent is in France, Uganda got two celebrations on Saturday. One at Sheraton Kampala Hotel Gardens and the other at Kampala Serena Victoria Hall, with different artistes and different organisers.
The event at Serena had veteran dancehall artiste Shanks Vivie ‘D with his Urban Lyfe production as the main organiser of the show and a performer as well, his brother Shank Monitor as a perfomer, their sister and US-based singer Zani Lady C as a perfomer, while Zahara Totto, their niece, was the host of the event. The event started on a low note, attracting few numbers in the audience, which delayed the performances. Because it was a family Affair event, the siblings’ performances were spread out, with Shanks Monitor being the opening act 20 minutes past 10pm, doing songs like Rukaju and Sembela Eno. His appearance and name first confused the audience but after doing several songs, they knew it was not Vivie D. Shanks Vivie D then came next and straight away started with one of his biggest songs, Bundu, which is a collaboration with Steve Jean.
He then did Mujaguzo, among others. He was followed by VJ OJ, another Diaspora-based artiste. Karole Kasita made a surprise appearance. She was not advertised and despite her performance being short, it was worth it. She came on stage with Chekecha, dancing vigorously before joining the audience while doing Tetunazina, her collaboration with Gravity Omutujju. Just like Kasita, Elijah Kitaka also performed two songs. Dawa and Ekyange. He was then followed by Winnie Nwagi, who did five songs, including Gyangu, Malaika, Batuleke, among others. By this time, the show was already at the peak and it had to stay that way. South African artiste Chley, real name Siphesihle Nkosi, was called on stage but before she took the stage, several dancers preceded her, pulling off Amapiano moves that excited the audience.
After five minutes, she came through and joined them. It is not by mistake that Chley is known as the Amapiano Queen. She is a true talent sensation in the African music scene, having made waves with her rhythmic melodical raps, dance moves and unique style of vocals and she proved exactly that with her performance. Despite the audience not knowing what her songs are, they loved her energy on the stage while doing songs such as M’nike, Matha, Vuma, Asambe, and Komasava feat Diamond Platnumz and Jason Derulo. Zani Lady C was the last act of the night and her performance was on live band. She did Ndowa, her biggest song and Charles Yimirira Awo, a song she had given up on until last year when it became a wave after another artiste resurrected it with several TikTok challenges.
