ALL PHOTOS BY MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI
For the three years that singer Ykee Benda attempted to pull a crowd was in 2017 when he was releasing his album Kireka Boy. He had a full house at Fame Lounge in Kololo.
The next attempt was last night during his maiden concert dubbed Singa. Besides the Fame Lounge show that was in a small place, Ykee Benda’s Singa concert had revelers filling Kampala Serena Hotel’s Victoria Hall to be part of his first major concert.
There was no curtain raiser for Ykee’s show as he patiently waited for the hall to fill up before he came on stage a few minutes past 9pm. The national anthem was played as the host of the event, Andrew Kyamagero, asked the crowd to stand on their feet. Fox dancers crowded the stage, they were all dressed in white and amid their performance, Ykee Benda emerged from behind also dressed in all white.
There were loud cheers in Victoria Hall as he kicked off his performance with one of his songs titled Onabayo.
Ykee Benda who was charged kicked off the show on a high continuing to do songs like Budumbudu, Nipe and Farmer before calling on rapper Feffe Busi on stage. The two did their collaboration of the song titled Kajambo before leaving the stage for the self-proclaimed smallest rapper.
Fefe Busi excited the crowd with his freestyle session that lasted about 10 minutes then he left stage. Ykee returned with ebilooto, Malaika, Mama, Diana and Superman. He had changed to a white attire with angelic wings that made him uncomfortable while on stage.
Ykee Benda invited Rema Namakula with whom they did their song Whistle. Rema was on top of her game when she delivered with her sweet vocals. She stayed alone on stage to perform touch my Body, a song that made the entire audience sing along with her.
Ykee Benda returned on stage with a wig of dreadlocks and said his next session was a reggae session. He thanked Bell Jams for giving him a big musical platform before he used the reggae session to pay tribute to the fallen Mowzey Radio by performing songs like Ngamba and Lwaki Onumya.
Ykee Benda performed live with Jose Sax and Emma Dragu backing him up on the instruments.
The stage, sound and lighting by Fenon Events also did some magic as he blended in well with most of his songs. Because he doesn’t have very many songs, he bought time by performing songs like Rivers of Babylon, Every Little Thing by Bob Marley.
The other 15 minutes were left for Myco Ouma and Jose Sax who performed with their instruments which are the guitar and the saxophone. They performed songs like Katonda Tambula Nange, On the Low, Wankona and Tukwatagane.
As it approached midnight, he performed Singa but at this time, many people were exhausted and were seen leaving the hall. The show continued until about 1:15am.