Undercover Brothers exhibit musical growth
The Undercover Brothers perform at the National Museum last Saturday. Photo by Brian Oduti
What you need to know:
Making strides. You could have seen them during the Tusker Project Fame Season Six academy in 2013. Before that, they were just ordinary boys
It is a year since the Tusker Project Fame Six and the Undercover Brothers, some of the participants, are improving their talent by the day. Jaylor Mulungi and Timothy Kirya are a singing duo whose resilience is admirable. They are among the handful of contestants who have taken their singing beyond the watchful eyes of the trainers and judges at the academy.
Their performances
Last Saturday, the musical brothers performed at the Uganda Museum. A week earlier, the duo had performed at the Alliance Francaise in Kamwokya, a Kampala suburb. Both concerts themed: “Unveiling the Undercover Brothers”.
At the Uganda Museum, the main hall was a full house. The audience comprised mostly university students.
The audience seemed absorbed in the performance as they nodded to the music and stumped their feet lightly
Clad in a black waist coat and white shirt, Kirya played his guitar as he sang along with Mulungi, who never let go of his maracas almost the entire night. They were supported by instrumentalists that included Joshua Nsimbi and Wake.
They did Nkwenda, a Lusoga love song, Tonimba, Munyenye and many other hits. Most of them were love songs.
Only the strings of the guitars and rich soothing voices of the duo struck through that silence. The fusion of world music with traditional Ugandan beats and instruments was spectacular. The maracas and the tube fiddle set it apart as one of those rare nights where young people in Kampala dance to traditional beats.
Mulungi and Kirya were joined by Kenneth Mugabi, whose song Nambi, got the crowd to their feet and screams. The Fire Host band played songs of barely intelligible words that drowned in extremely loud instruments.
The last song of the night was Nabirye. The audience went into a wild and premature applause, some joining the duo on stage, while others clapped and sang along. “The audience was entertained because even some came on stage and sang along with us,” Mulungi said after the concert.
How they met
The two met in February 2013 at a singing competition called Coca-Cola Rated Next season one. They both reached the finals but they did not win the competition. Kirya was representing Jinja and Mulungi, Fort Portal.
“After we both got evicted, a group of other guys who had also been evicted invited us to join them form a boy band group called Ancient and that’s where we officially met,” the duo explains.
