By Seguya Musa
Eddy Kenzo is arguably one of the best and top selling musicians in Uganda at the moment. Due to his endless achievements, the Big Talent CEO has managed to break and set new records this year. We have compiled some of them for you and they are as follows:
1. Eddy Kenzo is the first East African musician to win the prestigious BET award. It should be remembered that the singer won the BET International Viewer’s Choice award in July.
2. Eddy Kenzo is the first Ugandan artist to be on a song with American music superstar Chris Brown. Kenzo appears on a yet-to-be released track titled Promise with Chris Brown along side other music stars like Akon, Nigeria’s Davido and WizKid.
3. Eddy Kenzo is the first Ugandan musician to win African artiste of the year in the Nigerian Entertainment awards. It should be remembered Kenzo beat Tanzania’s Diamond Platnumz and other top artistes to win this award.
4. His Mbilo Mbilo concert saw the attendance of the US ambassador to Uganda, Scott H. Delisi, a thing that had never been done by any other Ugandan musician. Scott didn’t only attend, he also gave a memorable speech at the concert.
5. The Sitya loss hit maker performed at the Africa Cup of Nations finals (opening and closing ceremony) making him the first Ugandan musician to perform at this event.
6. Eddy Kenzo has released over 5 international collabos with several artistes from different countries this year, making him the first Ugandan musician of our generation to record over 5 songs with international artistes in just one year. Some of the international collabos by Kenzo this year include “Selfies” ft Praiz and Meaku from Nigeria, “Chill” ft Gasha from Cameroon, Royal ft Patoranking from Nigeria, Promise ft Chris Brown Akon WizKid and Davido, Jamboole rmx ft Kcee from Nigeria, among others.
7. On his arrival from America after winning the BET Award, Eddy Kenzo received an overwhelming reception from Ugandans at Entebbe airport, a reception that no other musician has ever got. The last time a Ugandan got such a reception was Gaetano Kaggwa in 2003. This reception overwhelmed BET TV too.
8. This year, his song “Sitya Loss” was ranked the most recognized African song internationally after 2 Face’s “African Queen”, hitting a record that has never been done by any other Ugandan artiste.
9. Eddy Kenzo has become the highest paid Ugandan musician both locally and abroad. He is estimated to be costing between $8000 – $10000 for a show abroad and locally he costs over Ugx 5 million per show.
10. This year Eddy Kenzo has received over 20 nominations in various awards both locally and abroad, the highest number ever recorded by a Ugandan artiste. He managed to scoop a nomination in the BET awards, 3 nomination in the Afrimma Awards, 4 nominations in the Uganda Entertainment Awards, a nomination in the Nigeria Entertainment awards, Cameroon Eleganza Entertainment awards, African Entertainment Awards USA, Youth Choice Awards, among others.