Sometimes you wonder if you can find the proverbial genie in a lamp to grant you a wish. I dare say that I alongside many Ugandans were wishing on a star, genie or whatever it took to get some refreshing non-Ugandan performances before the year end.
We've had our fair share of Jamaican artistes (seven at my last count) who, talented as they are have played out the similar concert that comprises skimpy booty shaking queen dancers gyrating to hard pumping Dancehall tunes. Yes, even red-blooded males like I need a breeze of acoustic fresh air. And our fresh breeze came from Nairobi, Kenya. Habida was in town for the Kwivuga poetry night!
Habida, for those uninformed, is a Kenyan award winning artist, who came on the map when her debut single Sunshine featuring Nameless gained glory at the Channel O awards in 2007.
Fast forward to 2013 and she finally decided to let her light shine on Uganda. In town for the first time, several local artistes scrambled for a collaboration before she even touched down at the Entebbe International Airport.
Even yours truly... Maybe I could break into the music industry with a Habida collabo? Nay! I quickly pushed these dreams aside as I remembered the Judges advice I had received the last time I tried my hand in a singing competition.
"Denzel, you have a great voice ... that is suited to singing in the shower. And no where else."
At a press conference she revealed that she would commemorate her debut performance in Uganda with a collaboration with Ruyonga, a local lyricist.
Lyricist, you ask? Yes, that's the new age title rappers call themselves of late. Or as they say, everyone can rap, but not everyone can rhyme. She spent her first days in Kampala busy in studio with Ruyonga, recording and practicsing for her performance later in the week.
D-day finally arrived. The Kwivuga Poetry night is a poetry night with a twist. Rather than just listen to novice and established poets belt out line after line of prose, it is infused with music performances and a live art painting. We endured poetry from various acts that transversed topics ranging from the complex like politics to the mundane like...grass.
Habida sashayed back and forth the small stage taking us through her more familiar hits like My Reason and some new stuff like...errm...I can't exactly remember. I do remember humming along though, long past the performance which wrapped up with Sunshine, joined by a very cheeky Ruyonga.
It was a short but sweet performance and as the crowd melted away into the moonlight, we hummed sunshine, for that was what Habida had brought us from the East in Kenya. Encore!
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