Monday, April 1, 2013

Sophia and Maureen Rock Amsterdam on Easter!


Amsterdam is becoming a Mecca of sorts for Uganda artists. Over the last few years many of them have organized concerts for the Uganda community. Chameleon, Bobi Wine, Bebe Cool, Ragga Dee, Radio and Weasel, Juliana Kanyomozi, Mega Dee, Sweet Kid etc have all been here. The Easter holiday, Independence, New Year and Christmas are the likeliest times to get the artists in Amsterdam.

This year was no different. In January, Eddie Bukenya one of the European promoters first contacted radio and Weasel to perform on Easter weekend but either they were reluctant to travel to Amsterdam or they wanted much more money than usual. Eddie decided to contact other artists. He made a deal with Sophia Nantongo and Maureen Nantume. Arrangements were made to get them visas and announcements about their Easter concert started running online way back in January 2013.

In early march another European promoter DJ Steve, was approached by the Gudlyfe crew to stage a concert in Amsterdam on the same day; 30 March 2013. Announcements were made using the Uganda online platform.  I tried to intervene so that at least the date is changed since all promoters serve the same patrons, but DJ Steve did not relent with an excuse that it was a free market. Later I was told, it was the Gudlyfe Crew who insisted on the date in order to undercut Eddie Bukenya.

Anyway on D-day, the ladies did not disappoint. The Ugandans did not disenchant the promoter; they turned up in their usual big numbers. What I noticed was that most of them were the more mature ones. The more youthful ones must have gone to the Radio and Weasel show. The hall was very modern, with free parking. The drinks were well priced too. A glass of soda or beer was 2.50Eur and wine and whisky 3.75Eur.

The show started after 12.00 midnight same time as changing time to summer time; one hour ahead. So it practically started at 1.00am! It went on up to 5.00am when the patrons left.

I was able to talk to both artists back stage. I talked to Maureen Nantume first. On asking her what inspired her to join music, she assured me that it was senior songbird, Mariam Ndagire and this was way back in 2004 when Maureen was only 17 years of age. Her first hit was “Siri Ndogoyi” in 2006. It was closely followed by “Safari” then the “Njagala Nyo” album.

This trip has seen them travel to Sweden, Netherlands and Germany where they have been performing. They were warmly welcome by the Uganda community both in Sweden and Netherlands and hope it will also be the same in Germany. They appreciate the friendship shown to them. Her parting words were that we as Ugandans should look after our own by cooperating with each other.

Hajati Sophia Nantongo was also happy to be in Amsterdam. She says it has always been easy for her to get visas whenever she travels to go out and perform. She appreciated the organization of this particular show in Amsterdam and praised the sound system as being great. She was also happy with the audience numbers, behavior and the way they were singing along with her. She was surprised that the audience knew all her songs! The “Kajiiko” number was the most liked and the audience asked for encore so many times. According to her, her best number is “Love Super”


 Pictorial






















2 comments:

Ugandan jungle blogger said...

Thanks for the elaborate documentation. United we stand, divided we fall! Shame on the D...promoter who is greedy for Money and has nö respect for the Netherland audience.

Utake Events said...

Bullshit Blog try to write sense next time, stop mentioning people's names, bagamba obukulu magezi naye this is the opposite. gwe simanya jungle blogger tumbavu era sigala eyo mu junggle tafuulu.

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