R&B’s finest to usher in the festive season
Nov 20, 2008
YOU have probably heard that Boyz II Men, Joe Lewis Thomas, Tanya Stephens and Tanto Mentro & Devonte will be here on December 6, in which the organisers have dubbed: “the greatest concert in Ugandaâ€.
By Gilbert Mwijuke
YOU have probably heard that Boyz II Men, Joe Lewis Thomas, Tanya Stephens and Tanto Mentro & Devonte will be here on December 6, in which the organisers have dubbed: “the greatest concert in Ugandaâ€.
“It will cost sh1.2b to have these international artistes perform here,†says Hemdee Kiwanuka of No End Entertainment.
No End and model, Judith Heard’s JH Promotions are the organisers of the show, which is sponsored by new telecommunications company I-Telecom, Crown Beverages Limited, Capital Radio, Beat FM and Air Uganda.
The concert, which will be held at Lugogo Cricket Oval Grounds, will cost sh30,000 for general entrance, sh100,000 and sh200,000 for gold and platinum tickets respectively.
The artistes will jet in on December 2, for a “Meet and Greet†party.
Boyz II men
THEY are the most successful male Rhythm and Blues (R&B) vocal group in terms of sales. The group recorded five number one hits between 1992 and 1997 and has sold more than 60 million records.
Their 1994 album, II, spawned hit singles in US chart history—I’ll Make Love To You†(number one for 14 weeks), On Bended Knee (6 weeks) and One Sweet Day (featuring Mariah Carey), which was number one for 16 weeks. One Sweet Day still holds the record for the longest time a single was at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
According to www.wikipedia.com, the group started in 1986 at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts with Nathan Morris and Marc Nelson. Eventually, they recruited tenors Wanya Morris and Shawn Stockman and bass Michael McCary.
The boys idolised New Edition, a popular R&B group in the 1980s so much that they renamed the group Boyz II Men, after one of their songs.
Then Marc Nelson left. So, Boyz II Men found fame in the early 1990s as a quartet.
The year 1992 saw the release of End of the Road, the single which was co-written by Kenneth “Babyface†Edmonds.
The song was a record-breaker, remaining atop Billboard Hot 100 for 13 weeks, breaking the previous record of 11 weeks set by Elvis Presley’s Don’t Be Cruel/Hound Dog in 1956.
In 1994, Boyz II Men released their second album, II. Several songs off this album became hits, most notably On Bended Knee and I’ll Make Love to You and Water Runs Dry.
Water Runs Dry became number two and I’ll Make Love to You and On Bended Knee were number one hits. I’ll Make Love to You broke End of the Road’s three-week record at number one by spending 14 weeks at the top of the chart (a feat equalled earlier that year by Whitney Houston’s cover of I Will Always Love You).
On Bended Knee replaced I’ll Make Love to you at number one, making Boyz II Men the third act to replace themselves at number one, after Elvis Presley and The Beatles.
At the 1995 Grammy Awards, the group received four accolades. Two of them were for Best R&B Album (II) and Best R&B Performance by a Group with I’ll Make Love To You.
In 2003 Michael McCary left the group due to back problems caused by scoliosis (an excessive curvature of the human spine). In that same year, Boyz II Men released Full Circle.
In 2007, the group released the LP Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA, a covers album with songs by The Temptations (Just My Imagination) Marvin Gaye (Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing, Mercy Mercy Me), Smokey Robinson & the Miracles (The Tracks of My Tears) and Boyz II Men themselves (an acapella version of End of the Road).
Boyz II Men Hits
Water Runs Dry
On Bended Knee
I’ll Make Love to You
One Sweet Day (with Mariah Carey)
In The Still of the Night
End of the Road
Colour of Love
A Song For Mama
Tanto Metro & Devonte
YOU could have heard the duo’s biggest dancehall hits, Everyone Falls in Love and Give It to Her. The former is popular in most Kampala nightclubs.
The song earned them several major awards, including the Tamika and South Florida Reggae Soca Awards. It hit the top 40 R&B and US Billboard Charts.
Tanto Metro and Devonte tapped into the international mainstream markets at a time when it was unheard of for a Jamaican artiste to reach the charts outside their country.
Their talent led them beyond Jamaica and into the US Top 40 Billboard charts not once, but twice.
Their hits include Everyone Falls In Love, Wi Like It, Say Wooee (Code 3 Remix, Double Jeopardy and Thump It.
Joe (Lewis Thomas)
JOE’S ability to blend smooth, sultry vocals with songwriting has edified hearts with divine grace. He has captured the hearts of many women by singing the words they long to hear.
Joe released his debut album, Everything, in 1993, but became more popular in 1997 with All That I Am, which went platinum.
The album, which spawned the power ballads, The Love Scene, Good Girls, No One Else Comes Close and Don’t Wanna Be A Player, sold over a million copies in the US.
Joe’s soulful tenor reinvigorated R&B (Stutter, What If A Woman), dignified Pop (Mariah Carey’s Thank God I Found You featuring 98 Degrees, Through The Rain), and even sounded off in the streets through remixes with hip hop’s most influential rappers like Big Pun (Still Not A Player), Mariah Carey, Nas (Thank God I Found You (Remix) and G-Unit (Ride Wit U).
A preacher’ kid, Joe spent much time in church singing, playing the guitar and directing the choir. He was influenced by gospel stars like the Winans, Commissioned and Vanessa Bell Armstrong.
In the secular world, Joe grew to love soul legends Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, Bobby Brown and Keith Sweat.
After high school, Joe continued to sing and write music while doing odd jobs. His break came in the 1990s when he travelled to New Jersey, hoping to make connections in the music industry.
While working at a gospel record store and continuing his music education through a local church, he met producer Vincent Herbert and recorded a three-song demo tape. In 1993, he signed to Polygram and released his debut album, Everything.
But it was his 1997 album, All That I Am that made him a singer to reckon with. Don’t Wanna Be a Player, a single off this album, hit the Top 40.
In 1999, Joe featured on Mariah Carey’s Thank God I Found You, and caught yet another break from a soundtrack appearance, this time with I Wanna Know from The Wood, which was released as a single at the end of 1999.
Around early 2000, I Wanna Know caught fire, reaching the R&B Top Five in March. This set the stage for Joe’s next album, the multi-platinum, My Name Is Joe.
None of his subsequent albums — 2001’s, Better Days, 2003’s And Then..., and 2007’s Ain’t Nothin’ Like Me — have ever achieved that level of sales again. Joe’s latest album, Joe Thomas, New Man, arrived in music stores in September.
Joe's Top 10 Hits
All That I Am
The Love Scene
Don’t Wanna be a Player
I Believe In You (with Nsync)
I Wanna Know
No One Else Comes Close To You
Good Girls
Stutter
Thank God I Found you (featuring Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men)
All the Things (Your Man Won’t Do)
Tanya Stephens
Born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1973, Tanya Stephens is one of the most influential reggae artistes that emerged in the late 1990s.
Her first hit, Yuh Nuh Ready fi Dis Yet, came in 1995 and was featured on the Reggae Gold 1997 compilation album. Her subsequent hit, It’s a Pity, gave Tanya international recognition.
Tanya has six albums and her most recent, Rebelution, spawned the mega hit, These Streets, which was number one in the Caribbean, staying on Tempo’s Chart for more than a month.
Tanya's singles
It’s a Pity
Yuh Nuh Ready Fi Dis Yet
Draw fi Mi Finger
Freaky Type
Cry and Bawl
Boom Wuk
These Streets
Dance 4 Me (Mark Morrison featuring Tanya Stephens)
YOU have probably heard that Boyz II Men, Joe Lewis Thomas, Tanya Stephens and Tanto Mentro & Devonte will be here on December 6, in which the organisers have dubbed: “the greatest concert in Ugandaâ€.
“It will cost sh1.2b to have these international artistes perform here,†says Hemdee Kiwanuka of No End Entertainment.
No End and model, Judith Heard’s JH Promotions are the organisers of the show, which is sponsored by new telecommunications company I-Telecom, Crown Beverages Limited, Capital Radio, Beat FM and Air Uganda.
The concert, which will be held at Lugogo Cricket Oval Grounds, will cost sh30,000 for general entrance, sh100,000 and sh200,000 for gold and platinum tickets respectively.
The artistes will jet in on December 2, for a “Meet and Greet†party.
Boyz II men
THEY are the most successful male Rhythm and Blues (R&B) vocal group in terms of sales. The group recorded five number one hits between 1992 and 1997 and has sold more than 60 million records.
Their 1994 album, II, spawned hit singles in US chart history—I’ll Make Love To You†(number one for 14 weeks), On Bended Knee (6 weeks) and One Sweet Day (featuring Mariah Carey), which was number one for 16 weeks. One Sweet Day still holds the record for the longest time a single was at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
According to www.wikipedia.com, the group started in 1986 at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts with Nathan Morris and Marc Nelson. Eventually, they recruited tenors Wanya Morris and Shawn Stockman and bass Michael McCary.
The boys idolised New Edition, a popular R&B group in the 1980s so much that they renamed the group Boyz II Men, after one of their songs.
Then Marc Nelson left. So, Boyz II Men found fame in the early 1990s as a quartet.
The year 1992 saw the release of End of the Road, the single which was co-written by Kenneth “Babyface†Edmonds.
The song was a record-breaker, remaining atop Billboard Hot 100 for 13 weeks, breaking the previous record of 11 weeks set by Elvis Presley’s Don’t Be Cruel/Hound Dog in 1956.
In 1994, Boyz II Men released their second album, II. Several songs off this album became hits, most notably On Bended Knee and I’ll Make Love to You and Water Runs Dry.
Water Runs Dry became number two and I’ll Make Love to You and On Bended Knee were number one hits. I’ll Make Love to You broke End of the Road’s three-week record at number one by spending 14 weeks at the top of the chart (a feat equalled earlier that year by Whitney Houston’s cover of I Will Always Love You).
On Bended Knee replaced I’ll Make Love to you at number one, making Boyz II Men the third act to replace themselves at number one, after Elvis Presley and The Beatles.
At the 1995 Grammy Awards, the group received four accolades. Two of them were for Best R&B Album (II) and Best R&B Performance by a Group with I’ll Make Love To You.
In 2003 Michael McCary left the group due to back problems caused by scoliosis (an excessive curvature of the human spine). In that same year, Boyz II Men released Full Circle.
In 2007, the group released the LP Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA, a covers album with songs by The Temptations (Just My Imagination) Marvin Gaye (Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing, Mercy Mercy Me), Smokey Robinson & the Miracles (The Tracks of My Tears) and Boyz II Men themselves (an acapella version of End of the Road).
Boyz II Men Hits
Water Runs Dry
On Bended Knee
I’ll Make Love to You
One Sweet Day (with Mariah Carey)
In The Still of the Night
End of the Road
Colour of Love
A Song For Mama
Tanto Metro & Devonte
YOU could have heard the duo’s biggest dancehall hits, Everyone Falls in Love and Give It to Her. The former is popular in most Kampala nightclubs.
The song earned them several major awards, including the Tamika and South Florida Reggae Soca Awards. It hit the top 40 R&B and US Billboard Charts.
Tanto Metro and Devonte tapped into the international mainstream markets at a time when it was unheard of for a Jamaican artiste to reach the charts outside their country.
Their talent led them beyond Jamaica and into the US Top 40 Billboard charts not once, but twice.
Their hits include Everyone Falls In Love, Wi Like It, Say Wooee (Code 3 Remix, Double Jeopardy and Thump It.
Joe (Lewis Thomas)
JOE’S ability to blend smooth, sultry vocals with songwriting has edified hearts with divine grace. He has captured the hearts of many women by singing the words they long to hear.
Joe released his debut album, Everything, in 1993, but became more popular in 1997 with All That I Am, which went platinum.
The album, which spawned the power ballads, The Love Scene, Good Girls, No One Else Comes Close and Don’t Wanna Be A Player, sold over a million copies in the US.
Joe’s soulful tenor reinvigorated R&B (Stutter, What If A Woman), dignified Pop (Mariah Carey’s Thank God I Found You featuring 98 Degrees, Through The Rain), and even sounded off in the streets through remixes with hip hop’s most influential rappers like Big Pun (Still Not A Player), Mariah Carey, Nas (Thank God I Found You (Remix) and G-Unit (Ride Wit U).
A preacher’ kid, Joe spent much time in church singing, playing the guitar and directing the choir. He was influenced by gospel stars like the Winans, Commissioned and Vanessa Bell Armstrong.
In the secular world, Joe grew to love soul legends Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, Bobby Brown and Keith Sweat.
After high school, Joe continued to sing and write music while doing odd jobs. His break came in the 1990s when he travelled to New Jersey, hoping to make connections in the music industry.
While working at a gospel record store and continuing his music education through a local church, he met producer Vincent Herbert and recorded a three-song demo tape. In 1993, he signed to Polygram and released his debut album, Everything.
But it was his 1997 album, All That I Am that made him a singer to reckon with. Don’t Wanna Be a Player, a single off this album, hit the Top 40.
In 1999, Joe featured on Mariah Carey’s Thank God I Found You, and caught yet another break from a soundtrack appearance, this time with I Wanna Know from The Wood, which was released as a single at the end of 1999.
Around early 2000, I Wanna Know caught fire, reaching the R&B Top Five in March. This set the stage for Joe’s next album, the multi-platinum, My Name Is Joe.
None of his subsequent albums — 2001’s, Better Days, 2003’s And Then..., and 2007’s Ain’t Nothin’ Like Me — have ever achieved that level of sales again. Joe’s latest album, Joe Thomas, New Man, arrived in music stores in September.
Joe's Top 10 Hits
All That I Am
The Love Scene
Don’t Wanna be a Player
I Believe In You (with Nsync)
I Wanna Know
No One Else Comes Close To You
Good Girls
Stutter
Thank God I Found you (featuring Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men)
All the Things (Your Man Won’t Do)
Tanya Stephens
Born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1973, Tanya Stephens is one of the most influential reggae artistes that emerged in the late 1990s.
Her first hit, Yuh Nuh Ready fi Dis Yet, came in 1995 and was featured on the Reggae Gold 1997 compilation album. Her subsequent hit, It’s a Pity, gave Tanya international recognition.
Tanya has six albums and her most recent, Rebelution, spawned the mega hit, These Streets, which was number one in the Caribbean, staying on Tempo’s Chart for more than a month.
Tanya's singles
It’s a Pity
Yuh Nuh Ready Fi Dis Yet
Draw fi Mi Finger
Freaky Type
Cry and Bawl
Boom Wuk
These Streets
Dance 4 Me (Mark Morrison featuring Tanya Stephens)