PAM awards take off in Fort Portal

Jun 01, 2008

THE Pearl of Africa Music (PAM) Awards 2008 kicked off in earnest with the first regional launch at St Andrews Gardens in Fort Portal town last Saturday. The launch in Fort Portal showed the fans’ continued support of the awards.

By Gilbert Mwijuke and Bizimungu Kisakye

THE Pearl of Africa Music (PAM) Awards 2008 kicked off in earnest with the first regional launch at St Andrews Gardens in Fort Portal town last Saturday. The launch in Fort Portal showed the fans’ continued support of the awards.

People from all walks of life, the young and old, were all packed into the elegant St Andrews Gardens, which has been the PAM Awards venue for the second year running.

Earlier rains had threatened to ruin the event, but still, as always, people lined up to get into this show, which provides an affirming and communal musical experience for the locals here.

It all started with performances from up-and-coming Fort Portal-based artistes, but most of them had a lot of enthusiasm than material.

Even those who had some potential sang in Luganda, which is unfortunately not representative of anything western Uganda.

Ambassador Sali thrilled the audience with two captivating tracks. Irene Kampikaho was equally engaging with a Kinyankore song, while another artiste, Kato Muhaba, won himself a standing ovation for his conversational Kitooro rap.

But it was the usual suspect, Moses Kigambo, who stole the show.
His performance kicked away Saturday night’s dullness and got the audience leap to their feet.

Performances were punctuated with Kampala-based artistes including Sarah Zawedde, Rocky Giant, Toolman and Artiste of The Year, Ronald Mayinja, whose performance capped a relatively memorable night.

Straka Mwezi, the WBS TV Late Show hostess and the night’s Mistress of Ceremonies spiced up the show as she emceed in Rutooro.

As the show ended, the crowd requested an encore of Mayinja’s Africa.
This kick started a series of regional launches that will take place weekly.
The next regional launch will be held this weekend in Mbale town, before the team heads off to Lira, Mbarara, Arua, Jinja and Mukono.

Also, this time round, Bell Lager takes over Uganda’s biggest musical event as the title sponsor, and will remain so for the next three years. This is the reason why the awards are have been renamed Bell PAM Awards.

The role of title sponsor will be alternating between Bell and Celtel, with the latter expected to take over in three years time.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});