By Ian Ortega
I would love to confess that I really doubted Eddy Kenzo. I don’t want to claim like many that I saw all his success, the success that has been part of him in the first year coming. I was first saw Eddy Kenzo in the collabo he did with Mikie Wine (Bobi Wine’s younger brother). It was a miserable collabo, and it seemed Mikie Wine stood better chances of making it far in the music industry. He had a successful brother; he had a studio to produce his songs. If greatness looks for giants to stand on, Mikie Wine had those shoulders of Bobi Wine.
Then, Stamina the first version of the song comes around. Eddy Kenzo notices the guy dancing in the video, he redoes the song, and the Stamina remix and Stamina dance becomes a craze around town. That was in 2009/10. The guy was to later go on, bring us more dances such as the Bolingo dance just to mention but a few. We even had the song he did with Barbie Jay, Sumbusa.
Fast forward, it was the Sitya Loss video. It was going viral. It was getting mentions from top international celebrities. Television host, Ellen DeGeneres was in the plans to invite the Ghetto kids to her show because of the song.
But had the detractors stopped? No. On the contrary, some (the Kasuku Group) claimed Kenzo was a dancer. Others (the Bebe Cool Group) claimed Kenzo was still an upcoming artiste. It looked like the Kenzo team still had lots of things to do to prove its critics wrong, so they claimed.
Then guess what? The BET nomination came. Again, many claimed it was a fake announcement. Days later, it hit them hard that it was an actual nomination. Till then, only Radio and Weasel had earned a BET award nomination. But remember the BET nomination had appeared days after Bebe Cool had been nominated for the MAMA awards. For the first time, Bebe Cool’s stance towards Kenzo changed. He was slowly molting from the critic he was to the fan he was to become.
It is thus no surprise that in all maturity, Bebe Cool was one of the first top artistes to come out and congratulate Eddy Kenzo upon winning the BET award. However, he only forgets to acknowledge one thing, that the tables had turned, Eddy Kenzo was now Uganda’s number one music artiste.
Why do we rate him as Uganda’s top music artiste at the moment? It is simply because his success has been certified. The Black Entertainment Awards are seen in almost the same light at the Grammy Awards. If the Grammies are Diamonds, then the BETs are Gold.
This morning, I boldly posted on my Facebook Account:
“The Eddy Kenzo award is going to be a game changer in the music industry. You know when that guy who’s been getting D’s in class starts getting A’s. Those getting B’s wake up and pull up their socks. For long Eddy Kenzo was that student in the class. I remember writing an article satirically predicting that he will bring Uganda’s first Grammy and BET and I was abused by the readers. Now that this award is here. That Eddy Kenzo is now certified Number One music artiste in Uganda, you are going to see the best of Ugandan music. The best music will actually come from Bebe Cool. All plans to complete the house are postponed, he will now transfer all the money to producing more songs. Thanks Eddy Kenzo, Uganda’s number one artiste.”
Of course, there was a comment that quickly came in to rubbish the number one status of Eddy Kenzo. For starters, I am a Bebe Cool leaning fan, however, my support for Bebe Cool doesn’t blind my objectivity as far as the facts at hand.
Someone commented on my post;
“Congz to Eddy But I still do believe one song doesn’t make u the best music brand in the land… he’s not yet done enough to beat Chameleon Bobi and Bebe.”
I appreciated where he was coming from, and respected his opinion because I am certain; it represents the opinions of many. So I replied back in a longer update;
“You people who keep saying that Eddy Kenzo has not yet done what Bebe, Chameleone, and Bobi have done. What else do you want him to do?
Engage in more fights? Do drugs? Step on tables? Plait his hair? Really what else? For once let’s accept, the dude is currently number one.
It’s not good to live in denial. You can’t beat something that you keep denying its existence. The ranks have changed. Bobi, Bebe & Chamili can work hard and reclaim their ranks or hide in denial as the guy continues to sprint at rocket speed.”
Eddy Kenzo’s award is the best thing to happen to our music industry. It’s going to help many talented and upcoming artistes to believe in themselves. Above all, it’s going to inspire authenticity. Eddy Kenzo didn’t become number one by trying to sound as Nigerians or Jamaicans, he came back home and conveyed what it means to be a Ugandan, the originality, the beats and the language. He realized that you can copy styles of other countries but you can never be the number one in that style, but you can always be number one in the Ugandan style.
Had Eddy Kenzo not won the award, we could have the space to deny his number one position. But now that he’s won the award, let’s stop denying the fact before our eyes. Let the so called big artistes work hard to prove their worth. And as they do work hard in the musical gyms, Eddy Kenzo will be the reigning champion.
Here are the current ranks of the top five artistes in Uganda:
1. Eddy Kenzo
2. Bebe Cool
3. Radio and Weasel
4. Chameleone
5. Bobi Wine
Of course an event, a random event can cause the tables to shift, it’s a throat-neck competition. With Kenzo still holding the number one rank, let’s take this moment to congratulate him upon winning the BET award.