Ugandan music taking over Africa
Ugandan artistes emerged winners at the continental Channel O Spirit of Africa Music Video Awards held in Johannesburg on October 11.
It was an East African night as five acts from Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya had their music receiving awards - the accolades given for quality and choice amongst viewers of the Pan - African music channel, Channel O.
The East Africa Bashment Crew (E.A.B.C), which is made up of Bebe Cool (Uganda) and Necessary Noize (Kenya) alongside Peter Miles (Uganda), Tanzania’s Juma Nature and Kenya’s Nameless were all in the winners’ circle at the awards.
Peter Miles’ Love was crowned Best Ragga Dancehall Video at Channel O awards. Nameless won the Best Male Video and Juma Nature won Best African from East Africa.
However, the E.A.B.C were the big winners of the night after clinching the premium accolade for Video of the Year thanks to their hit Kube. The song also earned the trio the honour for Best Director.
Uganda was the star territory, producing two of the award-winning videos in Kube and Love.
Despite the fact that Channel O credited E.A.B.C as a Kenyan group, most of the work on Kube was done in Uganda and by Ugandans.
Bebe Cool, Nazizi and Wyre wrote their respective lyrics in the song but the song was produced in Ikon Records in Kampala. Bebe Cool directed the video for Kube, making him the actual winner of the Best Director award.
The Kube video was edited and produced by Don Mugisha of Deddac Yes That’s Us, a Ugandan filmmaking company. Deddac also produced Peter Miles’ Love. This year’s Channel O awards together with the Mobos where Bebe Cool was a nominee and the MTV EMAs where Chameleone is a nominee have reinforced the continuing popularity of Ugandan music among African and European music lovers.
Peter Miles beat Ghana’s Batman Samini (African Lady) who is last year’s Mobo award-winner in the Best African Act category. And in the Channel O category of Video of the Year, E.A.B.C (Kube) beat off competition from Mozambique’s Dama Do Bling (Danca Do Remexe), Angola’s Kalibrados (Quem Manda No Teu Block), Nigeria’s I-V (Maye) plus two MTV EMAs 2007 nominees Nigerian D’banj (Why Me) and South Africa’s HHP (Tlhabane to Maftown).
“I like the system of Channel O because it credits the best,” Bebe Cool said, “It is usually hard to beat an artiste from countries with huge populations like Nigeria or South Africa because their people vote in big numbers. But Channel O uses a panel of judges who scrutinise the videos though they are nominated by the viewers.”
Kube had been nominated four times but lost two awards to fellow East Africans Juma Nature (Best African from East) and Peter Miles (Best Ragga Dancehall Video).
Peter Miles said he was delighted with the awards because it shows how Ugandan music is on the rise as far as the international market is concerned.
And Bebe Cool said this was just the beginning of the “new Bebe Cool.” “I’m going to make sure that every month, there is a new video of Bebe Cool playing on Channel O,” he said, “This win has opened the gates for me and I can’t wait to use this chance to show Africa that there is a Ugandan boy who can sing.”
Bebe Cool also said that he expects to start getting people buying his records from all over Africa. “My mission is now beyond just winning awards as I want to win the hearts of people to help me sell my music Africa-wide,” he said. “This will be possible through the exposure on Channel O.”
The Channel O awards event was recorded and will be broadcast on Channel O (channel 320 on DSTV) on October 25 at 10.30 p.m. In a press statement early this week, the Channel O General Manager Yolisa Phahle said this year’s awards credited quality.
“From the start, Channel O has aimed to be the music channel of choice for fans across the continent and the results of this year’s event well and truly proved that that is what we now are,” Phahle said.
[Via The monitor]
