Although the Wale Wale singer had not been lined up to perform, he made a surprise appearance on stage, to the excitement of revellers who had been waiting for Cindy.
The singer on stage, where he gave chance to revellers to sing with him. PHOTOS BY ANDREW KAGGWA
Music is one of the most consumed art forms and like sports, it is believed to unite masses. To imagine that on Friday afternoon, Mbale was a beehive of activity though for the wrong reasons. Apparently, a group of disgruntled residents were protesting the new list of towns that are yet to be elevated to city status and Mbale was surprisingly missing from the list. So one of Uganda’s cleanest towns had sunk in the police blue camouflage, ready to engage anyone that dared to attempt chaos.
Yet a day later, no one was even talking about the city status disappointment, instead, they came together to celebrate music with artistes Cindy, Fik Fameica, Spice Diana and homegrown talents such as Byg Ben Sukuya and Sharon Sento.
At the beginning of the day, all communication had included such artists, but very little had been said about the Ghetto Kids or Chameleone, two performers who ended up shocking revellers that had turned up at the Mbale Stadium.
Apparently, this used to be the home ground for a once great football club, Mbale Heroes in the 1990s, but today it was serving a different purpose as the host of the climax of MTN at 20 regional expos that have been going on in places such as Soroti, Mbarara, Hoima and Gulu.
You can say all you want about local talent in such regions but every time such companies have outings in such places, these people always prove their worth. In this case, much as many earlier ones may not have had a lot to say, rapper Byg Ben Sukuya had the audience engaged with his energetic performance.
Of course, he is not entirely a Mbale bred rapper, considering the fact that he spends most of his time performing and battling other rappers in Kampala, but his lyrics that are mostly in Lumasaba gets him easily around the crowds.
Cindy was expected to perform after Fik Fameica, however, lights went out and in a snap, Chameleone’s song was playing — no one took it seriously until the man stepped on stage. A show stopper he is, he took the crowd through songs of his almost 20-year career and had some of the people in the crowd join him.
“I am happy to be here with you people of Mbale,” he said to a crowd that was ecstatic and vividly shocked to see him. Clad in shorts and a vest he would later switch for a yellow one, he allowed people on his stage, and to hold his mic to do his songs as he cheered them on.
Of course later Cindy had to reclaim her thunder after Chameleone performed, great as always with her dancers, she did a good job but Mbale could not get over the surprise Chameleone had thrown upon them.
issejjombwe@ug.nationmedia.com