Edgar R. Batte
5 September 2008
column
Blame it on poor packaging and low quality output. Foreign artistes are getting a big turn up of music revellers that no local artiste has for most of the year.
More than 30,000 fans filled Lugogo Cricket Oval at the end of February to attend UB40's concert. Akon, Wyclef Jean and Shaggy also performed at the oval in subsequent months and the attendance was impressive.
Just last week, Bebe Cool launched his new album before a small audience. Last month, Ragga Dee also launched his album and even if it was disguised under the slogan of "celebrating 20 years in the music industry," many people didn't buy that and he didn't receive an audience that befits his status as one of the musicians that have stood the test of time.
Cynics say the curtain must be falling on the local shows as fans have been exposed to international quality. It is so bad that not even a local artiste organising an album launch and bringing a foreign artiste is guaranteed a crowd, when the main act is Ugandan. After all, the local artistes can't afford to bring in big international acts of Akon's calibre that are guaranteed crowd pullers.
Jamaican artiste Mr Vegas was in town last weekend but just because the main event was Mega Dee's launch, the turn up was just average. The Obsessions also brought in Collie Buddz during their album launch a few months back and saying the turn up was low is an understatement.
Blessing in disguise
However, the development could be a blessing in disguise as it is posed to engineer a change in the mechanics of the local music industry that seems to be suffering a blow in the face of lack lustre music fetes that have seen crowds grow thinner.
Pam Awards chairman Isaac Mulindwa says that the international artistes have raised the bar and our own musicians need to learn from them.
Clearly, the crowd is asking for more and the players in the industry don't seem to be responding. This could probably be explained by the phoney work done by the stars - where almost all their subsequent works sound more or less like the previous ones, with a change in subject and music arrangement drawing the thin line of distinction.
While local artistes deserve credit for having managed to put an end to Ugandans' love for Congolese artistes who flocked Uganda in the 1990s, it is time to revisit the drawing board as music critic and music controller at Capital FM/Beat FM, Joel Isabirye explains.
"The audience is fatigued. Artistes are not investing enough in the production of their music as well as the factor of the subsequent concerts with the same line-up of artistes repeating the same act on stage," Isabirye explains.
In essence, he paints a scenario when an artiste like Bebe Cool launches his album, he is accompanied by Bobi Wine, Henry Tigan, Kid Fox, Chameleone, Juliana, Desire Luzinda and a host of other artistes. The next weekend, Bobi Wine will be launching his album and he will have a similar line-up of artistes singing the same songs they sang the previous week without any new innovations in their performances. Isabirye says the audience is searching for something new which perhaps partly explains the big numbers at concerts by visiting artistes.
"Unless the local artistes try to change the dynamics, I see the curtain falling on the local music industry," he warns. Isabirye argues that artistes need to invest in their performances to earn their money so that when fans attend a concert, they get value for their money.
This is against the fact that most of the music produced today (now termed as Kidandali) sounds recycled which might not solely be described as an identity but lack of novelty by artistes whose creative juices are clearly not put to good use, perhaps explained by the pressure to out "something new".
Besides the pressure, rather than the artistes looking at their craft as a career, they tend to view it as a business and will work towards having the "hit of the moment" in order to get more airplay, which means that they are booked by promoters to perform at shows, which is their main source of income.
An artiste would rather release three albums in two years in order to maintain rotation on the local airwaves than release a single album that exhibits quality and create an identity.
Corporate community lose confidence
One of the major sources of income for the local artistes in through endorsements and performances while promoting products of corporate companies. But the biggest artistes that have performed in Uganda this year have not been brought by music promoters, but by corporate companies promoting their brands. UB40 was here because of MTN, Akon came for a Celtel show and Wycleff Jean was here as Celtel was re-branding to Zain.
Nile Breweries' Shem Ssemambo, the sales services manager for Nile Breweries one of the companies at the forefront of promoting local musicians says big companies are going in for international stars because the local artistes are not raising their game.
"From a corporate point of view, (I guess) bringing in international artistes clearly shows that something is lacking and needs to be fixed," he says. He further argues that the fights among local artistes naturally put off the big corporate companies that might not want to associate their brands with reckless figures.
Little to offer
Fans also feel that many artistes have very little to offer and just rip them off, promoters and sponsors alike with exorbitant performance fees. The big artistes command performance fees of between Shs3m and Shs5m. However, only a few of them can do live performances. Others sing along to their tracks while others only mime as they are products of computerised music studios not natural ability.
Others who have had the hits of the moment like Dr Hilderman's Mazongoto last year and Henry Lutaalo's Kapapaala this year also want to hold album launches yet they have nothing to offer apart from the solo hit they are riding on.
Musician Ragga Dee has fallen victim to jaded concerts, at his 20 years anniversary celebrations where after failing to raise a crowd to fill up his VIP section, he compromised the rules to let fans that had paid for general tickets cross over and fill up the "VIP seats".
But according to him, not all hope is lost. "Ugandans go with what's on (hot). The people bringing in western artistes will lose out because we're competing favourably," Ragga Dee argues, before he owned up to the fact that they (local artistes) are "losing fans because they watch us too much." He highlights a typical scenario last month when Wyclef Jean who had come to perform at the launch of Zain, overshadowed veteran singer Emperor Orlando who managed to attract only a handful of revellers.
Ragga Dee remains rather defiant, adding, "We are here to stay. We'll defeat them (foreign artistes). I could have flown in a foreign artiste for my launch but I didn't. People should appreciate us and do all to (also) improve our quality."
Bebe Cool says that foreign artistes coming here is a great challenge to local artistes to work harder. "If the audience wants international artistes, it's up to us to work harder and bring back the audience."
Bebe Cool had earlier advertised that American artiste Sean Kingston was going to perform at his album launch. He didn't manage to bring the American but he has a 'good explanation' - at least according to himself, "Most people wanted to make it a Sean Kingston concert other than a Bebe Cool album launch, which was disrespectful of them to me so I cancelled the international act."
He didn't have a satisfactory crowd but he says, "The people who attended my show saw I could perform for two hours and they were not bored. So the difference is that Sean Kingston didn't take over my launch." And he doesn't agree that he had a small crowd either. "Despite the fact that there were many events which swallowed more people, I managed to have a big crowd to perform for and they were satisfied which also gave me satisfaction and I will never have an international artiste for my subsequent launches."
He is also not afraid of the trend of corporate companies seeking international artistes for their promotions. "Soon corporate companies will run out of options and they will have to look back to the local scene to work with those who are worth it and the pay bar will rise automatically, hence, it's those who work hard that will benefit."
Now that's one man with a lot of hope.
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