Musician Bebe Cool performs during the annual Enkuuka end of year party at Lubiri in Kampala on December 31, 2024. PHOTO/MICHEAL KAKUMRIZI
In December 2021, Omah Ley and Tems came to Uganda for a performance. Uganda was in lockdown, but parties of 200 people or less were allowed. When Omah Ley posted a photo of himself online with a throng of Ugandan fans, both the local artistes and their fanbase were furious. Why? Local artistes had not performed for more than a year.
With local artistes tweeting about the matter, calling out government, police and whoever could be called out, more news broke out that Tems and Omah ley had been arrested.
Besides the drama that surrounded this arrest, the two artistes, Tems and Omah Lay were some of the greatest Nigerian talents of the time. In fact, they were both nominated for MTV Mamas that were due to be held in Uganda.
With Ugandan artistes and the fanbase tweeting about the situation, one question that kept coming up from those that rarely follow new trends was, Who isTems? Who is Omah Lay?
And it was only fair for people to question who the two were. Tems had made waves with two or three songs and Omah Lay was bigger. But his biggest song was a collaboration with Olamide. In otherwords, these two artistes were just starting out.
And this is something many artistes commenting at the time did not take in good faith. New Nigerian artistes were in Uganda performing, when the industry was in a freeze mode.
But this was not the first time a Nigerian artiste’s longevity and ability to hold a Ugandan audience had been put under a microscope. In 2017, Mr Eazi and Tekno came to Uganda for a concert. The show sold out, but the artistes did not have what it took to satisfy the audience. Their performances were good, when they performed the songs people knew, but less than an hour into their acts, they started covering American and other Nigerian songs.
That was the time the narrative of Uganda being a taste market started making waves and show organisers did not do a lot to diffuse this. Between 2017 and 2025, Nigerian and Afrobeats artistes trying to find their footing have somehow ended up in Uganda for shows and have actually become a big deal.
Burna Boy’s second coming in 2019 to later becoming a phenomenon months later, Rema performing in 2020, when he was not a revered global star, Ayra Starr when she could not hold together a 45-minute performance at Blankets and Wine, Nanso Amadi, Joeboy to Qing Madi, in fact, Uganda gave Qing Madi her first concert.
“I strongly believe we are tastemakers,” says Sammy Wetala. Wetala is a media personality and a show promoter behind raves, where artistes such as Kranium and Joeboy have performed. “Our people are open-minded: if they like a song, they will vibe with it. Some of these songs from Nigeria have become hits in Uganda before they were big in Nigeria,” he says.
This, of course, has been proven by many Nigerian artistes. While visiting Uganda for his second concert last year, Joeboy said that in Nigeria, most people believed he was from East Africa because his song, Baby became big and made it to number one in Uganda before even making it to the charts in Nigeria.
“Uganda was the first place I came to perform outside Nigeria,” he said. This notion is the same with Tems, who revealed that her first time travelling abroad was to come for a performance in Uganda. For Chike, Ruger, Oladapo, all found their footing in Uganda before the big Naija. In fact, the way Ugandans consume music can be very confusing that currently, one of the most trending songs on TikTok is Pxy Drip by Naira Marley.
The song is, however, not catching on in Nigeria because the artiste is being cancelled. Wetala says Ugandans welcome different music sounds because local artistes are not offering a lot, especially to the streaming audience of the Gen-Zs.
“At the moment, more than 10 Nigerian artistes have released albums this year and many are still being released. They have been releasing most of their albums and singles on Fridays, but these days, they release music on Wednesday. But ask yourself, how many local artistes have released albums since this year started?”
He says in Uganda, the competition is not tight, there is little quality music coming through, which gives anyone with some money and a better sound the chance to penetrate the market.
For instance, Azawi released her last song in February and since then, Elijah Kitaka in July, their competition in Kenya, South Africa or Nigeria have released multiple songs in the same time frame.
“In Uganda, when we get a song, we maximise it. In Nigeria, they will not let Azawi dominate for two weeks. In Uganda, the competition is wide open, which gives room to for songs from elsewhere,” Wetala says.
But he also notes that TikTok plays a major role in promoting fresh music. With many people trying to trend online, Wetala says there are many Ugandans doing challenges not because Nigerians paid them, but because they expect Nigerians to share their videos which will get them likes.
While having a conversation with Adesope Olajide, Bebe Cool says P-Square sealed and made a statement about Nigerian music across the continent. “Our audience is a difficult one, even when I’m Bebe Cool, the audience expects me to be as good as Davido and Burna Boy. But how is it that it has been so difficult for any African artiste to break into Nigeria?” Bebe Cool asks.
