Bobi Wine walks to the stage at Maddox Ssematimba’s concert at Sheraton Kampala Hotel. PHOTOS BY EDDIE CHICCO
When it was announced that Reggae Singer Maddox Sematimba will hold a sole concert, many rushed to make all sorts of criticism. The most notable one being that he could not pull a crowd because his music was old. The other was that people wouldn’t want to pay much (Shs100k, Shs50k and 30K) for someone who didn’t have new music.
All this was settled last evening at Sheraton Hotel Gardens in Kampala. While people strolled in one by one at the start, they later poured in big numbers to fill the gardens. Performances kicked off from Ziwuuna Band made of Frank Mbalire and Sammy Kasule who performed covers of legendary singers like Philly Bongole Lutaaya and Julianna Kanyomozi among others.
Maddox Ssematimba performs
Their 30-minute performance was not for millennials but for a much older crowd. Lucky enough, singer Spice Diana was there to make the millennials feel at home. She did most of her songs and climaxed with Omusheshe, a song she did with Ray G from Mbarara.
Maddox came on stage a few minutes past 10:00pm, a time when revelers could not wait to see him perform. Maddox did songs like Take It Easy, Bwakedde, Kampala, Abato, Leka Nkulage.
He saved the best for last. Namagembe, a song that proved to cut across all generations was played last, towards midnight. It is in that moment that Bobi Wine made a surprise appearance on the stage and performed alongside the legend.
The crowd went wild and those in the ordinary section kept on wondering and trying to go closer to the stage to see what was happening over there. The big-screen zoomed out a video of Bobi Wine alongside Maddox on stage. It was the end of Maddox’s shine because after he left stage, the crowd kept on calling the name Bobi Wine until everyone left talking about how Bobi Wine came at Sheraton and made a surprise performance.
The security was tight following the fact that the President of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was at the premises probably having a meeting in the Hotel.
Maddox security was also taking orders from Special Forces Command (SFC) and it helped reduce risks of theft and violence at the show. After last nights’ show, Maddox will perform tomorrow (Sunday) at Freedom City and then go to Jinja next weekend at TransAfrica.
