The Observer (Kampala)
David Tumusiime
5 November 2008
opinion
Thank God for Bebe Cool and his big ego; if it wasn't for him and his very public rivalry with newcomers and best new artiste winners Mowzey Radio and Weasel, this year's Bell Pearl of Africa Music Awards would have been the most boring in the six-year history of the awards.
Mowzey Radio and Weasel, strutting onto the not too impressive stage to collect their Song of the Year award for Nakudata (the first of their three awards for the
evening) started it all by sarcastically dedicating their accolade to Bebe Cool.
Radio, who claims to have suffered a brief jail spell because of Bebe Cool said, "This award is for Bebe Cool. You made us. Respect!"
Crown Beverages' J. Kazoora, who had been assigned co-hosting duties in the V.I.P section seized on this to get a comment out of a surprisingly subdued-looking Bebe Cool. He had tried first with Zuena Kirema, the singer's wife, asking her if she thought her husband minded the song named after her.
Getting a diplomatic answer out of Zuena, Kazoora turned to Bebe Cool and asked him if he would consider releasing a remix of the song 'Zuena' perhaps with the duo who were leaving stage.
Bebe Cool's answer was the first exciting moment of the night, replying, "To sing with Bebe, you have to be of a certain class." The crowd loved it!
The timetable for the awards indicated that guests were expected to start trickling into Shimoni Grounds at 6p.m so the real awards could begin after a light meal at 8pm. Surprisingly' this is what happened and it seemed that as the organizers had promised, the 2008 awards were going to be the best organized as well as making history in being the first to be televised live on WBS TV.
The night's three hosts, Mitch Egwang on stage, J. Kazoora in the V.I.P section and Straka Mwezi in the 'general happiness' section seemed also perfectly chosen.
But a few minutes after Mitch came onto the stage, cracks began to appear. The microphone failed several times when PAM Awards boss Isaac Mulindwa Jr was introduced to open the proceedings, heralding the poor sound quality that would mar the event.
This was particularly felt by the performers such as Toniks (Best R&B single) whose attempt to charm the crowd with his smooth vocals ended in a painful performance few heard or paid much attention to. Not to mention that his back-up dancers ran off the stage before Toniks was through with his performance!
The sheer pulsating joy of GNL Zamba to be performing before such a large crowd managed to overcome this glitch and were worthy winners of Best Hip Hop group.
There was also the glaring fact that the supposed main star performer of the night, West African musician Salif Keita, was nowhere to be seen. For the first time in the awards' history, the guest performer did not turn up.
Although the Bell-PAM Awards made much fuss of going regional, the scanty attention accorded during the ceremony to the regional winners from Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi left no doubt that they are not yet regarded as important by both the organizers and the regional artistes. This embarrassing fact was borne out by the Burundi Best Female Artiste Macarena being the only foreign artiste who bothered to attend the ceremony.
To be fair though, there were poignant moments too during the awards.
Little noticed Northern Artiste of the Year winner made it difficult to joke at his stage name BSG Labongo, as he was present and is actually physically disabled. It is something many industry watchers seemed unaware of and watching his slow hobbling progress to the stage on his crutches was truly moving.
His brief speech emphasizing how it is possible for people to make it against all odds resonated the most.
Argue much as you like over the merits and demerits of the Bell-PAM Awards, but the spontaneous reaction of some artistes showed how much they mean.
Best Kadongo Kamu Single winner Gerald Kiweewa's - for his song Nabada - ecstatic dancing on stage moved even the reclusive Isaac Mulindwa Snr to make a Shs400,000 cash pledge on top of the award money that he was handing to Kiweewa.
The star of the night though was Juliana Kanyomozi who managed a first, beating off competition from other musical heavyweights like Bebe Cool and Bobi Wine to take home the prestigious Artiste of the Year award and become the first female to win it.
The irony that the singer has not released an album this year was not lost on the diva who admitted that most of the songs she released this year were 'fillers' to keep her in musical rotation.
The awards were okay. Not exceptional. Just okay. There is obviously a lot of work to be done for next year's awards to generate any interest.
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