Nigerian star Mr. Eazi launches program to empower emerging Ugandan musicians

Mr. Eazi addressing journalists during a press briefing held at Skyz Hotel on Thursday.

By Our Reporter

Nigerian star, Mr. Eazi has launched a program aimed at empowering Uganda’s emerging and undiscovered music talent to global success. Dubbed “emPawa”, the accelerator program was launched at Skyz hotel in Kampala on Thursday and will altogether empower 100 musicians on the continent annually drawing from a USD300,000 fund.

Speaking during the press briefing, the “Leg Over” hitmaker revealed that he came up with this initiative following  overwhelming response to his call for songs from emerging artistes for a chance to bankroll their next music project.

“Early this year, I put out a tweet saying I wanted to help emerging artistes and attached an email where they could send their songs,” he explained. “In under 30 minutes, I had already received 4000 emails from various talented individuals across Africa who were sending in their songs. These were just too many and I could not go through all these emails, and that is how this program came up.”

To participate, artists will be required to upload a video showcasing their talent on their Instagram account and tag it — #emPawa100. Each artists’ submission will be reviewed by top industry experts from across Africa. From all entries, 100 artists will be selected to move onto the next stage of the programme and share a $300,000 fund.

Each of the 100 hand-picked artists will receive $3000, with $1000 being invested to create a high quality music video of their submission track. Each of the artists’ videos will be placed on Mr. Eazi’s YouTube channel ‘Detty TV’ along with the emPawa social media platforms, creating further exposure for the artist.

From the 100 artists, 10 will be specially selected to undergo mentorship in an incubator program enlightening them on how to grow their brands, export and monetize their music.

The emPawa program, features an all-star team of acclaimed artists and music producers including Mr. Eazi, Diplo and Raye who will participate in grooming and mentoring the young talent.