Singer Cosign Yenze has opened up about the emotional journey behind creating his 2018 hit song “Obeera Wa”, revealing that it was initially written as a love song before it evolved into a deeply personal story about his life struggles.
Speaking in a TikTok video, Cosign reflected on the inspiration behind the song that became a massive anthem across Uganda at the time.
According to the singer, the idea for the track came to him while traveling to the village to visit his grandfather. While in a taxi, he had initially planned to write about a beautiful girl, but his thoughts suddenly shifted toward the difficult experiences he had gone through growing up.
“The process of writing that song, actually I was going to the village to see my Jajja and I was in a taxi with a lot of thoughts because it was meant to be a love song talking about a beautiful girl but out of the blue, I don’t know what really switched and I started realizing the life I grew up in and places I had been in,” he explained.
Cosign revealed that after losing both his parents at a young age, he was forced to live with different relatives including aunties and uncles, something that heavily influenced the lyrics of the song.
He added that the original version of “Obeera Wa” had about four verses because he wanted to mention many places and experiences from his childhood. However, he later realized the song would be too long musically and decided to shorten it to just over three minutes.
The singer described the song as one of the most defining moments of his career, especially because of the challenges he faced behind the scenes despite its success.
Cosign disclosed that at the time, Uganda’s music industry was highly competitive and he had just released “Bad Energy” with DJ Caesar. Even though “Obeera Wa” was already becoming popular, he and his team struggled financially and did not have enough money to shoot a music video.
To make the video happen, he said he used money from his job and even sold his two laptops to raise funds.
He also credited DVJ Mercy for helping push the song by constantly playing it on NBS TV’s After 5 show, something he believes helped the track spread to other television stations and radio platforms across the country.