Desire Luzinda too sexy to settle down

By Isaac Baligema and Alex Balimwikungu

When musician Desire Luzinda happened upon Kampala’s social scene, it wasn’t on a mountain of hype and swagger.

In her, many music critics saw someone struggling to be Juliana Kanyomozi. She had a semblance of a good musical voice, a body to match and was high maintenance.

Unlike Juliana, Desire Luzinda has over the years put great e­ffort into looking great, and it has paid off. While a good number simply thought that she was someone who popped up to give Juliana some competition, Desire had other plans. She was out to create a brand as one of the  most lusted over high-maintenance women in town.

She is a far cry from the girl who started off­ her celeb career as a lowly side kick of the Chopa Chopa show on WBS TV. She is sex appeal personified. Her body has greatly paid her dividends you feel she doesn’t need to hit the studio to churn out songs as to make ends meet. She is sexy and her rise to the top is unmistakably due to the fact that she has a great body.

High  flying men worth their salt are lining up with wads of cash just to have a piece of her. Just to prove her body is her biggest earner, she recently insured her booty and her breasts while on a trip to Florida, USA.

She has been linked to several city businessmen, artists, foreign musicians among many others but the single mother of one has never come out publicly to clearly deny or confirm the allegations.

Among them are Al-Hajji Nasser Ssebaggala, Elvis Sekyanzi, Ken Ntaro, John Kaddu, (father of her 10 year old daughter- different from Kaddu of Kika troupe), Mesach Ssemakula, Demarco (Jamaican musician), D-Black (Ghanaian musician), Chris Kassami of Water Front beach, Jasper Aligawesa of National Council of Sports and a Nigerian only identified as Tunde .

Now that she is touted among the front runners to represent in this year’s Big Brother Africa house, you can only imagine her continental appeal when she dons her ill‑fitting dresses and exposes her full body.

Last week, she threw the biggest hint about her prospects when she wrote: “For the past four years I’ve been a BBA contender as per tabloids. Today it’s gonna be history as we prove coz I am ready  for the game. Lol”

Desire is wise

A close friend says that Desire, whose level of academic qualification was a U.A.C.E (A’Level) certificate from Makerere High School (2003) who never bothered pursuing further education after completing A ‘level at Makerere High School in 2003, is one lady who knows her worth and she will stop at nothing to cash in on it.

“She will not give a broke guy a second chance even though they look like Brad Pitt. The last guy she dated who perhaps paid for the sex with hugs and sweet endearments was Kaddu, the father of her daughter, a pupil at Namagunga Boarding Primary School.

Even then, they hardly bond and each parent their separate moments with the child.” The friend says, adding that since Desire is always away, the kid’s father is always the one present in her life. Desire however lives with her daughter in a pearly mansion in Naalya.

A 64-inch flat TV screen, expensive furniture and a hi-tech double door refrigerator, the kind advertised for sh6m at Game Stores dot her living room. Her parking yard is dotted with expensive cars, including two Mercedes Benz and a monster Granvia.

The friend says that Desire realizes that her strongest charm (the body) is perishable and fluctuates; she has thrown herself at business and is in the initial stages of building a beach resort in Kalangala, thanks to the financial taps from her British lover.

She also owns Dizzy Shuttle vans, which boasts of at least 15 cars on top of that is a boutique in town that supplies trendy clothing from UK and Dubai, where she flies fortnightly.

She maintains that Desire, at the moment is dating a Briton after breaking up with Ghanaian musician D-Black, whom she dated for six months after meeting in the UK. The two even shot a video together before inexplicably splitting. If there is a recurrent trait Desire has shown over the years, she is humble, sweet, submissive and manipulative.

The friend maintains that Desire must have been trained by the best when it comes to charming men out of their wallets. “She was trained by the best detoothers in town. If you are broke and Desire is your friend, she is likely to be your financial redeemer. She has no qualms bailing out a friend with as much as sh2m,” the friend says.

Unapologetic material girl

As far as Desire claims, she is single and turns down the chance to clarify on the numerous relationships. She however emphasizes. “When I’m through with something, I’m through. I’m just pushing on with life right now. I’m okay and have no other plans to jump into another relationship,” she says.

“It is important when something fails to accept that it has failed and move on. Don’t force it. I’m over with a relationship when I don’t feel their absence,” she says in relation to her relationships with her daughter’s father and Ken Ntaro. In her love repertoire, she doesn’t know about heartbreaks. She however gives a bigger hint into her materialistic world.

“I am young and not married and yet there are men who are capable of buying me a Benz. If a man buys me a car, that means he cares. Who am I to turn down such an offer?”

She relishes the perks that come with being single, saying it gives her time to savour the freedom. She proclaims, “I don’t have to report to anyone where I am. If I’m feeling stressed with this place (Kampala), I can just take two or three days off and book a ticket to fly to Dubai and relax a bit.”

Luzinda reckons the Ugandan media has been very harsh on her by carrying baseless stories. “I have been treated like a foreigner by the Ugandan media. They publish stories without even contacting me but I think I am used to that now because I do not have control over what one wants to write about me,” says Luzinda. She adds that;

“All those men that have been linked to me are either my friends or business partners; for example Hajji Ssebaggala (Seya) is a close family friend and I am so close to him. It will always be like that. My family was shocked when some paper wrote that I was dating him in 2009 because it can never and will never happen,”.

However, a source privy to the affair says that they indeed dated and this came after Seya, a family friend to Desire’s dad, Hajji Jamada Luzinda, deemed her ripe.

Their closeness prompted Seya’s first wife, Gera Mosha to leave the home and Desire was sighted leaving Seya’s Bugolobi mansion on a couple of occasions.

She also denies a 2011 incident where Seya allegedly expensively shopped unique furniture for Desire at Nakumatt Shopping Center. It was estimated he spent millions. But the singer denies the rumour saying she has been to Nakumatt only four times and has never shopped for furniture there.

“Does Nakumatt sell furniture? I did not know. Maybe I need to check it out one of these days, those are baseless rumours,” said Luzinda. She was hesitant to expound more on why she was beaten last year after a litany of abusive and threatening messages, which prompted her to report a case at Kira Road Police Station.

“But that is the way it is with me! When I do a song with any male artist, I am in love with them. When I am snapped with a man, he is my new catch; I do not know how to counter wrong publicity so I let it be. I have never dated any of those men,” said Luzinda. She said that she cannot date a Ugandan musician and she has never and will never do it though she never gave a specific reason.

 She also confirmed that when she met Mesach Semakula in 2009 in the US for a show, they shared a house but not a bed. She maintains that the US is like her home because she started going there in 2007 and her daughter used to stay there until she was three.

“Semakula has never taken me for any show in the US, I always go there for my holidays and have lots of friends there, it is like my home,”  said Luzinda.

I am looking for an intelligent man

Though Luzinda rarely stages concerts and hardly appears on various music shows, she seems to be doing well ­ financially. She however prices herself so highly, she performs for sh1.5m for very close friends and yet she isn’t the type yearning for a music gig.

When we asked her where she gets all the money yet she is not very active musically, she said; “I do not feel comfortable putting all my private stuff out there because some people will work hard to put me down, I prefer to remain private but I am a very hardworking woman.”

Some music critics believe that Luzinda would be musically more successful than she is now because she has got an appealing body, which is a plus for any successful diva. However, she says that such people should not look at her as a musician but at the components that total her up.

“So many things lead to success, good management, good music, marketing and a bit of luck. So people should not judge me. I might not be the best, but I have worked so hard to be where I am,” said Luzinda.

Though some people argue that she is more popular because of her body rather than her music, she believes she is not just a Ugandan woman with a perfect body and thinks that her music has made her.

“If it was my body that has made a name for me then we would be so many celebrities in Uganda courtesy of our bodies. I sometimes go to a club and see so many young women with great bodies that awe me! I think I have proved my worth musically.  I think I have a substantial fan base that love my music; the body is just a supplement,” said Luzinda.

She denies rumours that she uses hip enhancement creams among other body creams to achieve her looks stressing that her body is natural. 

“Why would I do that? I have pictures ever since I was a teenage girl and that has always been my body, I do not use any enhancements,” stressed Luzinda. She however admits to sparing no expense in maintaining her body.

“I cannot tell you the actual amount of money I spend on my body every week or month because I do not keep track of it but I spend as much as possible because my looks matter not only to me but my fans as well; I do my own nails every two days depending on the colours of my dress. I change my hair every week when I am not so busy and every two weeks when I am too busy,” said Luzinda.

Luzinda said that her ideal man above all has to like what she does, has to have interest in music. “That is the most important thing because if you do not like what I do then you do not like me,” said Luzinda. She said that her ideal man has to be God-fearing because she is also God-fearing. He has to be very bright.

“I love bright men, intelligence means a lot to me because I would not like to give birth to dim-witted children. He also has to be very respectable and must at all times have a handkerchief. He must be clean,” said Luzinda.

But she was quick to conclude that: “I am seeing someone though we have reached to that high level. But at the moment I am not complaining and I am not searching,” We hasten to add that one obvious quality she missed out is that the man should have shares  with Bank of Uganda (of course you know that is a joke). May be then, she will ­ finally settle.

The Kampala Sun