Mesach Semakula urges artistes to make educative music

Singer Mesach Semakula has urged young artistes to prioritise songs with educational messages to ensure long-term benefits from their music.

He was speaking during a TV interview following his recent recognition from the Katikkiro of Buganda, Charles Peter Mayiga, over his new song Emirembe Ngalo, during this week’s Buganda parliamentary session (Lukiiko).

Semakula emphasised that songs with meaningful content endure through generations and garner recognition from influential figures, which can significantly impact an artistes career.

“Musicians need to evolve. Songs that convey educative messages not only persist, but also prove profitable. Although these songs might not yield immediate financial returns, they tend to offer greater rewards over time,"  he said.

Semakula also highlighted that today's artistes often focus solely on producing hit songs, a trend he believes has led to a decline in educational and informative content in music.

"In the past, we didn't chase hits because hits are easy to make. Our goal was always to create meaningful songs that touch people’s lives. It didn't matter if the song became a hit as long as the message was delivered,” he added.

This statement comes amid complaints from many Ugandans about the superficial content in songs released by new artistes, criticising them for focusing predominantly on romance or producing overtly sexual music

 Echoing this sentiment, Lil Pazo recently revealed that his latest song Enkudi, inspired by Gravity Omutujju's success, contains lyrics that even he does not fully understand, but which have been perceived as obscene.

Historically, Ugandan artistes have faced criticism for such content, prompting government action, including the banning of songs like Master Blaster's Embooko in 2007 and Captain Dollar's Emmese.

More recently, in 2017, three artists from Kasese - Lola Loyce, Joshua Kule, and Nico Baluku - were arrested for releasing Obusihe, a song explicitly describing sexual acts using vulgar language.

It is worth noting that previous generations also explored sexual themes in music, but this was done in a very special way.

Songs like Fred Ssebatta's Ddole Y'omwana used nuanced language that often went over the heads of younger listeners, only to be understood by them years later.