Bloggers Music

Written on October 31, 2007 – 11:20 pm | by Michael |

With his gold-capped teeth and dollar-printed shirt, Chameleone resembles many of the American hip hop artists on music channels worldwide. But he’s the product of a country more often associated with war and hunger than bling.

Uganda’s Jose Chameleone — born Joseph Mayanja — is just one of a new wave of young Ugandan musicians who have taken East Africa by storm. He is one of the top selling artists in the region and is now rapidly gaining attention in the West, as shown by his nomination for an MTV Europe Music Award to be announced Nov. 1.

“I think now the West wants to listen to something new, something different,” Chameleone told the Associated Press in an interview at his spacious home in an upmarket suburb of Kampala, reached by a steep dirt track.

“And where is this music going to come from? It’s going to come from Africa. … Many of the top-selling artists in America now are using African melodies.”

Chameleone describes his music as “urban African” — a fusion of many different music styles from Afrobeat to ragga. True to his name, his voice adapts to any genre he tackles, moving effortlessly from a husky baritone to smooth, melodic lyricism.

His interest in music began at his school in Kampala when he joined the choir and a cultural dancing troupe. After a warm reception to his performance at a school talent show and winning a competition to compose the school anthem, Chameleone — now 29 — began going to nightclubs and befriending DJs. One night, one of them put a microphone in his hand.

“I got people’s attention very quickly. Their reaction made me really realize I could sing and that I had the power to write my own music. It really encouraged me,” he recalls.

In 1995, Chameleone went to Nairobi, Kenya, where he worked with an established act and performed a weekly slot at one of the top nightclubs. His reputation grew and eventually his girlfriend gave him the money to record his first track, Mamma Mia, which proved to be a huge hit in the late nineties.

He said his work reflects the world around him. In his song Shida za dunia (Problems of the World), Chameleone urges people to work hard to achieve their dreams, and in Jamila he condemns domestic violence.

“I’m not an artist who believes in music about fictional things,” he says. “I’m not going to tell you about my bling bling, I’m not going to tell you about my cars,” he says. “I can be of better use to my community talking about life the way it really is. What I usually try to do is reflect back what I see around me.”

Uganda has had a tumultuous history marked by war, dictatorship and civil unrest. Though the country has been peaceful for almost two decades now, 9 million people live on less than a dollar a day. Despite the challenges, a vibrant and dynamic music scene is burgeoning and — according to experts — creating an entire new entertainment industry.

“Even five years back, musicians in Uganda were nowhere to be heard. They were poor, they were not recognized — it was as if they had no job. People thought they were actually losers in life,” says Isaac Mulindwa who has been involved in the music industry for 12 years.

However improvements in marketing and the recent proliferation of FM radio stations and television stations has brought a more upmarket appetite for local artists — and injected money into the industry.

Mulindwa set up the first ever music awards ceremony in Uganda — the Pearl of Africa Music Awards — which began in 2003. The awards forced artists to compete with each other and raised the bar in terms of their product, image and marketing, he said.

“Five years ago hardly any videos were being produced by local artists,” he says. “Today every artist who makes a song also does a video and the quality has improved.”

This year the PAM Awards — held on 3rd November — will include artists from Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania as well as those of Uganda in a glittering ceremony costing organizers almost US$500,000.

Awards are decided by a mobile phone text-voting system. Last year some 80,000 votes were cast.

But Chameleone, for one, is hoping to take his act beyond Africa — and be a model for other rising stars.

“The key is to work hard and stay true to yourself, that’s how I got where I am,” he says. “The music industry wants more from artists here. Now it’s Africa’s time.”

Via www.iht.com