Music Review: Ava Peace isn’t number one and "Kiro Kilamba” proves it

There’s a considerable amount of nonsense going on within the music industry today.

Part of the reason it is going on is because globally there is a lot of nonsense going on anyway. Another reason is that coming up with music is hard.

But in Uganda, part of the reason it our industry is defined by mediocrity is that we are an alarmingly polite country.

Well, we will keep it polite here, but we will also be alarmingly frank. Musically speaking, it is the only way to go about things, frankly.

There have been a couple of publications announcing Ava Peace as the next big thing in the land. One media house actually put together an award ceremony, and announced her as the number one artiste in Uganda (yes, we are looking at you, Galaxy Radio/TV/etc).
 

She might be the most photogenic; she might have the best abs. But let us be guided, people. Please. Number One artiste in the country on what grounds?

I mean, I am pretty sure it was not because of Kiro Kilamba. I would actually struggle to describe this song, because it is so bland, so non-consequential musically speaking that it barely registers.

The team behind Ava obviously has the resources to market her like mad and run her socials and take photoshoots and do music videos. How about investing in some song writing and better production teams? She was doing work with Mudra at one point, buts seems to have given up on that. Now she is investing in hair pieces, little skirts and knee length boots.

The eventual travesty is announcing her as the number one artiste in the land with some cooked up award. I would use a swear word to describe how nonsensical this is but this is a family publication. Invest in your artiste, people – get her to run through some voice training, pay some song writers to work up some material that works for her limited (they are limited) vocals, and get some talented producers to work with her.

And stop putting out soulless, empty gibberish like Kiro Kilamba, a song so distinctly hollow I cannot even be bothered to name its technical failings. It would be like explaining why a blank sheet of foolscap paper fails as a piece of art: there was no artistic attempt in the first place.

Do better, people.