Dube sets Kampala ablaze

Jul 31, 2003

After several months of preparation and anticipation, Lucky Dube is finally here. The South African raggae sensation arrived in Uganda on Wednesday morning for what is believed to be a climax in a successful music career that will see him launch his latest album, The Other Side on this historic sixt

After several months of preparation and anticipation, Lucky Dube is finally here. The South African raggae sensation arrived in Uganda on Wednesday morning for what is believed to be a climax in a successful music career that will see him launch his latest album, The Other Side on this historic sixth visit.

Judging from the hundreds of people who turned up at Entebbe International Airport to welcome him and hundreds more who lined the streets of Entebbe highway, Ugandans have got what they have been waiting for in almost three years when the star was last here.

The superstar with over 12 albums to his name will start with a VIP show on at Nile Hotel gardens today and on Sunday, he will perform at Nakivubo War Memorial Stadium. He will be fresh from Luweero where he is expected to attend the 10th coronation anniversary of the Kabaka of Buganda, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II.

Lucky Dube, 39, is believed to be the most popular musician in Uganda, pooling crowds across generations, rural and urban alike.

Lucky Dube who comes from a humble background was born in Ermelo, Eastern Transvaal, South Africa to a single mother who thought she could not have children. Her first child therefore was given the name ‘Lucky’. Dube (pronounced ‘Dobe’ or ‘Doo bay’) is a town in Johannesburg.

Dube had a tough upbringing and lived in turns with his mother, grandmother and an uncle. He began to sing in bars in his hometown and in Church. He and his comrades began drumming around and started a band, but they could not afford to buy instruments.

Dube wrote a play that the guys performed and this brought in money to purchase a guitar and they started the Skyway Band while still at school at the age of 18. After two years, Dube founded The Love Brothers with Thuthukani Cele and Chris Dlamini. Together, they released the album Mbaqanga. It was not long before he discovered what a goldmine he had been born with on his throat: His voice!

As a schoolboy library assistant, Dube discovered Rastafari in an encyclopaedia and has never looked back on a belief system based on the power and supremacy of blacks.

Believed to be the most outspoken South African singer, Dube’s move to reggae in 1984 was sparked off by his quest to express his anger against apartheid. The turning point in his music career was to come in 1985, when together with producer Richard Siluma, he recorded South Africa’s first reggae album, Rastas Never Die.

The album was banned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation, but Dube re-issued it three years later. His follow up Think About the Children went gold, and he formed his band, The Slaves, with which he has produced several albums.

Like has always happened when he comes to Uganda, Dube’s ascendant popularity can also be seen in the large audiences that he played to as early as the 1980s. In 1989, he played to a strong 80,000 crowd. In 1990, Dube released Prisoner, which took five days to achieve double platinum status (100,000).

By 2000, Prisoner had sold more than 1,000,000 copies internationally. Dube’s subsequent releases continue to sell in large numbers. According to music analysts, Dube’s international promotion has been an important part of his rapid ascendancy. From 1988, his albums began to be released on international labels (Celluloid and Shanachie) as well as on South Africa’s Gallo records.

He had his ‘baptism of fire’ as a reggae artist when he played at the Sunsplash Festival in Jamaica, before the world’s most critical reggae audiences, and was a success.

In 1996, Dube received the World Music Award for Best Selling African Artist. Somewhere in all this, Dube has also found time to act in two films: Getting Lucky and Voice in the Dark.

Although he is highly regarded in Rastafarian circles, Lucky Dube believes Jesus Christ is lord, another attribute that has won him acclamation across religions.

Many people especially Rastafarians agree that Dube has filled a void created by the deaths of Raggae legends Bob Marley and Michael Tosh (whom Lucky Dube says is his main inspiration).

Throughout his music, Dube makes a type of melodious, African reggae that slowly but surely has turned him into a superstar. He sings powerfully in English about social problems, the blacks’ struggle, and God’s greatness.

With the song, Together As One, he became the first black artist in South Africa to be played on a white radio station. Though Dube has had no formal musical education, he plays several instruments and arranges his own songs.

Today, Lucky Dube is one of Africa’s most sought after artists. Some music analysts believe that South African reggae superstar Lucky Dube has a distinctive sound. He has one melody – a big, unabashedly cathartic one and he has been singing it for over 18 years.

Luckily, it is a very good melody and he makes it work again and again on album after album with the aggressive rock-flavoured beats. But now watch him on The Other Side.

Ultimate Media

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