Over the years, celebration of sounds that are peculiar to Ugandans on local media and stages.
Apparently, radios and TVs have been dominated by local pop which is mostly a marriage of Jamaica’s dancehall, DRC’s soukous and influences from the Caribbean and other places.
But of course, the argument has stayed on what is a Ugandan sound, how can music achieve it or even if it is marketable.
This, in a nutshell was one of the reasons why the Pearl Rhythm Festival that is taking place this Saturday at the National Theatre.
The festival will be happening for the sixth time and again, will bring together Ugandan and East African artistes that share an African sound like Wake, a rapper that brings poetry and Afro fusion to a musical discussion, guitarist Aloysius Migadde, The Undercover Brothers and Kenya’s Michael Ongaro who will be joined by the Suzan Kerunen and legendary Sammy Kasule alongside Ziwuuna Band.
For years, there is no way one can talk about Pearl Rhythm without their full year Stage Coach programme. Under the initiative, the festival sets out to audition and later train artistes that are thought to be future touch bearers of the Ugandan sound.
Each year, four or more artistes that come out of the trainings record songs that is compiled on a CD and later open the main festival.
This year, the Stage Coach artistes include Jinja based vocalist Sandra Kay, Andereya Baguma and songstress Amaru.
Of course, for a programme that has in the past given us acts like Haka Mukiga, Ann Nassanga alias Afrie, Migadde and Happy K among others, there is belief that the three that many will see perform for the first time at the National Theatre gardens have something to write home about.
The shows will kick off at mid day and will go on until midnight.