Rema Namakula (L) on stage with Yvonne Chaka Chaka (C)
When Yvonne Chaka Chaka arrived in Uganda, together with her son, the two were received by Shule Magazine Director Jackline and Comedienne Ann Kansiime. The South African song stress had come for a Friday evening charity concert organized by the Shule Foundation.
Since the event had not been well publicized, no one was sure it would pull big crowds. But the 53-year-old South African Singer proved she only needs publicity for two days and Ugandans will dig deep into their pockets to get Shs100,000 for an ordinary and Shs5M for a table.
Before 8pm, Serena Hotel’s Victoria Hall and lobby was already filled with people waiting to be entertained by Chaka Chaka.
It was a Charity show and this meant a boring beginning with video clips of testimonies from Former Street Children that were helped by Shule Foundation, performances from Jehovah Salom Acapela Band kept entertained the crowd that was inside as they waited of the ones taking photos in the lobby to take their seats in the auditorium.
The opening performance was from Jacob Nsali who did two songs with the famous Coconut. It was around 9pm when Rema Namakula dressed in a long dress showed up on stage. She performed only two songs Banyabo and Tikula before she left for speeches from the Director of the Foundation.
Chaka Chaka on stage. PHOTOS BY ISAAC SSEJJOMBWE
The director later left the stage for Bobi Wine who came on stage and did an old Love Ballad Abalungi Balumya and Aidah before going political to perform the song called Uganda.
South African High Commissioner in Uganda who came on stage and showered the night’s main act with praises.
The self-proclaimed Mama Africa, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, took to stage clad in a long dress.
Even with a band on stage, Chaka Chaka kicked off her performance without the band. She started with song with Man of the World, a song that praises Nelson Mandela.
She went on to do songs like Me to You which got the crowd on their feet singing along with her. After about three songs, Chaka Chaka invited Rema and a girl who she believes had a powerful voice as she says she met her in Kabowa. They acted as her backup singers as she did several songs with them.
As the crowd was singing along to You Make Me scream with Rema backing up the singer who was entertaining the crowd off stage and mixing with them, there was a technical glitch when the lights and sound went off.
It was a hard moment for events promoter Balaam Barugahare who was organising and indoor event for the first time since he acquired sound and light systems. This took about 30 minutes when everything came back to normal.
When Chaka Chaka came back on stage, there was no time left so she was doing a marathon of performances doing songs and stopping half way before she sings another. Ugandans didn’t mind because it was the best part of the event, she performed songs known by the young and the old.
She did songs like Mr DJ, Am in Love with the DJ, Let me be Free, I am Burning Up and climaxed show with Umqkmbotih which she invited Bobi Wine on stage to perform the song as they called it a night.