Years after the Pearl of Africa Music Awards collapsed, several awards have come and gone.
Last Friday evening, we witnessed yet another known as Uganda Entertainment Awards (UEA). The glamorous function was held at Speke Resort Munyonyo.
The idea was topnotch but the execution was not. The first edition of the UEA saw a number of people rewarded for their contribution to the entertainment industry.
The hiccups
The event was slated to kick-off at 6pm only to begin at 9:30pm. It was a red carpet affair as guests and nominees made their way into the ballroom.
Having started late, the ceremony ended at 3am when the last award was announced, unfortunately there were no witnesses.
One of the headliners, David Lutalo, declined to perform because revellers had already left when he was called on stage.
The winners
Some of the big winners where a no-show like Ann Kansiime (best comedianne), Salvado (best comedian), Flavia Tumusiime (best female radio presenter), CBS (best radio station), King Saha (R&B), Sam Bagenda (best actor) Irene Namatovu (song of the year Kuzala Kujagana) and Goodlyf (best group) among others.
On the brighter side, Nation Media Group’s Dembe FM and NTV were some of the big winners. Talk and Talk show won the best entertainment radio show while the host Kasuku took home the best entertainment radio presenter. Deception won best TV series, Sarah Kisawuzi was voted best actress while The Beat’s Douglas Lwanga won the best male entertainment TV presenter.
David Lutalo beat Bebe Cool, Bobi Wine, Jose Chameleon and Kenzo to the Male Artiste of the Year title while the female equivalent went to Sheebah Karungi.
Music Video of the Year went to Sitya Loss. David Lutalo and Maro’s Mubi Bubi took the best collaboration, Apass took dancehall artiste while Neesim was voted producer of the year.
The emcee of the night, renown Nigerian TV presenter E-Hiz took to the stage at 10pm clad in fitting black pants, black suede jacket and a white shirt.
He explained the heavy traffic he encountered in Uganda before pulling a few jokes about Ugandan men and women.
The highlights
Tooro Queen Mother, Best Kemigisa who was also the guest of honour gave thumbs up for the awards and congratulated both the nominees and winners. “You are going to be part of history and I would like to congratulate both the nominees and the winners,” she said.
There were performances w by Minayo, Toniks and Maurice Kirya but it was Madoxx Ssematimba who wowed the audience with his tracks Oluyimba and Easy.
According to the director of UEA, Vincent Nsubuga, the aim of these awards is to create a platform for to reward entertainers and also to encourage them work even harder.
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