Priscillah Zawedde alias Azawi. Photo | Courtesy
To tell the story of Azawi, Priscillah Zawedde, you need to know a bit about her background. A girl who worked and served food on the streets of Kampala, toiled, and had seen the worst in life.
But that is a story that very many people have heard; to know the artiste that is Azawi, you need to know the artiste that is Zed.
Before the Lo Fit EP in 2020, very few people knew who Zawedde was; she was not famous and neither did she have a renowned song to her name. Yet to people who stormed different hangouts in the search for live music, she was a common fixture.
Then, she played with a cover band; they did a number of songs, but whenever they did a reggae fusion, Zawedde, then known as Zed, would come to life – she was a gem on that small stage, easily fusing reggae, dancehall, kidandali or whatever Uganda does effortlessly.
But on another day, she would take Winnie Nwagi’s Kano Koze to school with a lot of ease. There was a lot of talk that she had original material, but she did not perform it as much.
But her vibe was always reggae or dancehall; whenever Karma, the band she played with, was on stage, you were sure Zed would perform a medley of Konshens songs before winding up with a song or two from Chronixx.
The beginning
Then, in 2020, the girl surprised at least many people with Quinamino, a suggestive balad that basically invites you to dance. Now, the surprise was not the fact that she could sing, but the fact that she was now known as Azawi.