Singer Qute Kaye clears the air on death reports
Qute Kaye (C) with Dembe FM presenters at their offices in Namuwongo yesterday. The singer says the death rumours are the work of his enemies. PHOTO BY Edgar Batte
What you need to know:
The singer says he is surprised why tabloids or radio stations would go on to announce his death at a time when he is trying to get back on his feet with his music career.
Early this week, news broke out on radio stations and social networks that singer Qute Kaye had passed on. This preceded news in a local newspaper that he was ailing and bed-ridden.
This, however, is only a rumour on the mill, at least according to Kaye.
In an interview with the Daily Monitor yesterday, the singer, billed to songs such as Ginkese, Gwendota, Njagala Omuwala, Osindise Asitamye featuring Iryn Namubiru, and Gyetwasokela with Priscilla Kalibala, among other songs, also refuted the rumour that he was ailing.
Kaye, who broke onto the music scene in 2007 with his first album Ginkese that took the airwaves, nightclubs and bars by storm, said this was not the first time such a rumour was doing the rounds.
“They said I am dead but I am seated in front of you. Last year, I had to go to television stations and radios to explain that I am not dead,” a smiley Kaye says, adding that the stories were probably masterminded by ill-willed people.
The singer, born Brian Martin Luther Ivan Kaye, however, says he did not know the people behind the rumours of his death.
He scoffed at tabloid reports that he is bed-ridden at Mulago Hospital.
“I have not been sick in about 20 years. I only have sinuses. I urge my fans, if there is any, to look out for Elinyo and I bet it is a beautiful song,” he added.
“I am shocked! My fans or anyone who doubts I am still living should come and watch me perform. I have a band called “The Family Band”.
Not that this singer has not come close to death.
In 2008, Kaye says he was shot at but he escaped unhurt and reported the case to police.
When this reporter asked him whether he had an idea of who was behind the shooting, he said he was unsure but cynically adds: “They are Ugandans kicking me. I bet they are doing a good job.”
Prior to the shooting, the 35-year-old singer says he was once beaten up by unknown people at the National Theatre.
“In fact one went on his knees with a knife and wanted to cut me. It was comedian Amooti (Alan Mujuni) who rescued me by alarming. I reported the case to police but of course the story carried in the tabloids was that I had been beaten for stealing a mobile phone,” he said.
The singer says he is surprised why tabloids or radio stations would go on to announce his death at a time when he is trying to get back on his feet with his music career.
On relationships, he says he is stable and not “sleeping around” as portrayed by different newspaper reports.
“I am not sleeping with any one’s woman. I know what it feels like when someone is sleeping with your woman, so I don’t and cannot. I come from a born-again family. Because I am a failed artiste, people are trying to do all they can to put me down.”
