Eezzy and Juma Jamie right after scooping two awards.
Music in northern Uganda is surely growing and so is the love people in the region have for the local songs.
This was manifested by the thousands of revellers who turned up at Da Link Gardens in Gulu Municipality last week to witness the Northern Uganda Music Awards (Numa) gala as they also celebrate the New Year.
The 15th edition of Numa sponsored by JAMZ production saw the young, old, women, men alike brave the cold night breeze to show support for their artistes who competed to scoop awards in several categories.
This year’s gala had 20 categories among others the breakthrough artiste, Male and Female Artiste of the Year, Hip Hop artiste of the year, Comic category, Dancehall and Gospel artiste category. Overall, 45 artistes were nominated for the prestigious music awards in the region.
As early as 4pm, revellers had already begun queuing at the gates to gain entrance to the venue and by 9pm, there were two long lines with hundreds of people waiting.
Despite technical glitches and electricity outage that dragged back the event’s schedule, the event’s emcee, Cash Owakabi and Lucky alias “the ladies wine”, fired up revellers with rib cracking jokes until 9:51pm when artistes began performing.
Gipsy Mao, Quincy, Wesley and Nuklear who were nominated in the Breakthrough category, were the first to put up spirited performances, forcing the revellers to dance along.
This was later followed by comedians Ojur Kwon and Banana Joe whose comical skits left revellers amused as others cheered them on. But the best part of the night was performances from dancehall artistes Pato Lover Boy, Polite Mosko, Laxy Mover, Ezzy and Eddie Wizzy whose categories were considered as a battle of the toughest, considering the fact that they all staged energetic shows and produced quality hits last year.
By 3am, the event’s judges who oversaw tallying of the votes from the revellers, announced winners of the award in each category.
There were also legendary awards that were handed over to Bosmic Otim and Sherry Princess as well the Special recognition award that was given to Opiyo Twongweno and Doctor Kaunda.
The Gulu District Chairperson, Martin Ojara Mapenduzi, who was guest of honour, lauded the event organisers for their contribution to the growth of the music industry and pledged full support to the music industry in the region.
In attendance at the event were the Gulu Municipality legislator Lyandro Komakech and Kilak South MP Gilbert Olanya.
