Fans use their mobile phones to record Nigerian singer-songwriter Patrick Nnaemeka Okorie, better known by his stage name Patoranking as he performs at Lugogo Cricket Oval in Kampala on October 25, 2019. PHOTOS BY MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI
Kampala revellers on Friday endured bad weather as they thronged Cricket Oval, Lugogo to enjoy Nigerian singer Patrick Nnaemeka Okorie better known by his stage name as Patoranking’s performance.
This is his second time to perform in Kampala although he has been in Uganda thrice.
The singer first performed in 2015 in a concert named Born to Win alongside Tanzania’s Diamond Platinumz. The concert at Cricket Oval also doubled as the official launch of Spark TV, the first-ever female television in Uganda, a subsidiary of the Nation Media Group (NMG).
His last visit to Uganda had been two years ago to promote his album God Over Everything although he didn’t perform. The third time was Friday at Lugogo where he thrilled revellers when he headlined the Wilmer Concert organized by Evoke, a talent promoting platform.
When the show was announced a few months ago, many feared it would flop because of the ‘high priced’ ordinary ticket that went for Shs50,000.
However, some local entertainment analysts believed Patoranking being a big international star would still attract a huge crowd of revellers regardless of the ticket price.
Although the show didn’t pull a ‘good crowd’ and would easily pass for a flop, revellers were seemingly thrilled as they sang along during his performance.
Besides the ticket price, there was a heavy downpour Friday evening leaving venue ground muddy. Only revellers believed to be the singer’s diehard fans endured the weather to the end of the show.
The show started with performances from DJs Alibreezy, Naselow and Kasbaby among others. Performances started somehow late with local singers Vinka, Cindy, Karole Kasita, Gravity Omutujju, Beenie Gunter, Big Trill and Fik Fameica who did the last local performance until the singer got on stage.
Going by the es of KCCA, outdoor events end at exactly midnight or else a fine of Shs5M.
Patoranking got on the stage about 10 minutes to midnight and performed past midnight, disregarding the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) rules against outdoor events not going past midnight.
According to KCCA, any performance past midnight attracts a fine of Shs5 million. It, however, remains unclear whether the organisers paid the fine to allow the Nigerian reggae-dancehall singer to perform past the restricted time.
On stage, he performed several songs starting with ‘Suh Different’ which lit up the seemingly dull crowd and that even drew closer to the stage to enjoy his performance.
“Thank You Ugandans for coming for the show even in the bad weather. I am happy to be here again because Uganda is my other home,” Patoranking said before he went on to perform other songs like My Woman My Everything, Girlie O, Love You Die, This Kind Love and Another Level among others.
He invited Fik Fameica back on stage as they did their hit song titled Omu Bwaati and he left him to continue with the show. Seems time was not on Patoranking’s side as he left the stage without performing any songs off his new album Wilmer.
