Akon captures Jinja

ALL of a sudden, the music in the club changed to Akon’s songs. Two songs into the ‘Akon medley’ Mr Mosh, who was the DJ, informed us that we were into the Akon hour. This was during Celtel Uganda’s Akon promotion in Club Sombreros in Jinja last Friday.

By Sebidde Kiryowa

ALL of a sudden, the music in the club changed to Akon’s songs. Two songs into the ‘Akon medley’ Mr Mosh, who was the DJ, informed us that we were into the Akon hour. This was during Celtel Uganda’s Akon promotion in Club Sombreros in Jinja last Friday.

As Jamal Sultan, a marketing executive with Celtel, explained, this was one of the promotions to drum up interest in the Senegalese-American star’s music ahead of his performance at Lugogo Cricket Oval in Kampala, on May 2. The promotion moved to Club Rouge in Kampala on Saturday.

In the promotions, revellers win Celtel goodies and tickets to Akon’s show.

Of course, folks in Jinja were reminded that they could ‘Win and Live Like a Star (Akon)’, the promotion in which someone will walk home with sh100m while another will win an opportunity to be flown by helicopter to Serena Hotel and be driven to the concert in a limousine.

So when Mr Mosh leapt onto the dance floor and called upon revellers who wanted to participate in the promo, he got an overwhelming response. Revellers danced themselves lame over Akon’s music only to win T-shirts and scarfs. Then three lucky participants Harry Mitchel, a tourist on holiday from England; Bruhan Musoke and Martin Ogwal won tickets to the show.

Although all that was entertaining in a freaky kind of way, the real icing on the cake was an electrifying dance performance from the G-Force dancers to Akon’s songs. Those kids had everyone spellbound by their well choreographed routines.