Swahili Nation Music Awards (SWANMA) launched

Brian Kasoma’s face lights up when he talks about the music industry. There is real passion here and it is fitting that the 30 year old, who has been living in UK for the last 14 years, is spearheading the new music awards, Swahili Nation Music Awards (SWANMA).

The awards will trade under the motto: “Let’s go global.” Kasoma says: “Everyone just talks of Uganda, nobody talks of going global.”

With support from UK’s largest production houses, Kasoma believes he will take Uganda’s music to the international market. Talk Back Thames Television, the sponsors of X-Factor, have already expressed interest in supporting the awards, which are intended to become regional awards for the Swahili speaking nations.

“There is opportunity for Ugandan music in Europe, which we are not exploiting. Uganda is rated zero on the world music market. There is nothing on the market out there,” Kasoma said.

He added: “We intend to package Uganda’s music and sell it to the outside market. We are looking at the selling points, which we can capitalize on to penetrate the world market.”
Kasoma explains that Ugandan artistes will not penetrate the international market as long as they continue pretending to be what they are not.

“You need originality. A lot of artistes are copying others, they are not themselves. If we can change this and people become themselves, it will be much easier to market our music,” Kasoma noted.

According to Kasoma, the emphasis for SWANMA will be on promoting music done in English, which he looks at as a marketable language. But has he forgotten that music has no boundaries? That is why musicians like Oliver Mtukudzi, Salif Keita still sell despite the fact that they do music in their local languages.

“How can I get a Luganda artiste and take them to Jamaica? What will they offer? English is everyone’s market. 2face [Idibia] used to perform in Yoruba but it was when he started singing in English that he sold,” he said.

But again the awards are called Swahili Awards yet hinged on promoting music in English.
“We want to get all the artistes in the region to do one thing as English speaking nations,” he said.
SWANMA comes at the time when the future of the Pearl of Africa Music Awards remains uncertain.
Many other awards have tried to fill the space but always find it hard.

But Kasoma says, “They have no passion for the industry. Most of them are business people who have no background in music. As for me, I have the passion and the knowledge of the industry.” Kasoma has a diploma in Music, Electronics and Sound Engineering from the UK.

His parents (Katantazi Nickmare and Mary Nambasa Kabali) are said to have been the first family to open up a nightclub in Kampala called Susana Nightclub in Nankulabye.

Kasoma’s initial career path had nothing to do with music. He was into many things abroad. He once worked as a ticket salesman for Fulham Football Club. He then worked as a shop attendant and for a courier company before moving into his profession with Talk Back Thame Television where he worked in the production department.

But due to the recession, he lost his job forcing him to move to Japan where he burnt his fingers organizing a beauty contest called Miss Africa Japan.

“It wasn’t that successful because there were few Africans living there. This affected our attendance,” he said. With SWANMA, Kasoma hopes to move East African music to another level. The awards have 28 categories and are scheduled for December.

 

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