Uganda's 'Supernatural Girl' wants P’Square, 2face
Top Ugandan singer, Angela Katatumba, yearns for a taste of the Nigerian entertainment industry, reports AKEEM LASISI
If it is only one foreign artiste that
desires a stake in the Nigerian entertainment industry, it is Ugandan
singer, Angela Katatumba. A leading musician and humanitarian worker in
the East African country, she is currently working on her third album
which she calls Supernatural Girl, whose title track was released
last year. Despite the fact that she is respected in her country –
onshore and online, especially on Facebook where she pulls a large
following – her heart is on the Nigeria’s entertainment arena.
She recently expressed her admiration
for Nigerian artistes in an interview with On Air Personality at the
Eko 89.7FM, Ayodele Olowo-Ake (Dfaizer), who was in Uganda for a
programme. For one, Angela has a lot of kind words for Nollywood and
other components of the Nigerian film industry.
She tells Nigerian film makers, “AlI I
want to say is, ‘Thank you so much for setting the trend in the world,
for displaying Africanism to Africans and people out there who think
Africa isn’t cool. Oh, I love Nigerian
movies a lot. I have loved them
just before the music, the music just came yesterday.
“They have put the African culture up
there. They have marketed Africa well. I love Nigerians for that because
they haven’t changed. They haven’t said, ‘Let’s be westerners; let’s be
fake; let’s copy ABCD’. Rather, they said, ‘This is who we are; you gotta take it or leave it.’ Thank you so much for that.”
Like many other African musicians,
Angela says she makes much of her money from shows and not from album
sale. Indeed, she laments that there are no well-structured record
labels in Uganda, which makes the job of distribution more tasking as
she has to be personally involved. Peeping at Nigeria from afar,
therefore, the ‘supernatural girl’ believes the Giant of Africa is the
next place she wants to explore. And, guess what, she wants to
collaborate with the top acts.
She says, “I would love to come for
shows and meet P-Square and Tuface. I would love to do a collabo with
P-Square. Yeah P-Square, but I don’t know how it’s going to happen:
Angela Katatumba featuring P-Square, it’s happening! P-Square! They were
here in Uganda, but I think I was abroad. I love the way they are
bringing Africa’s music on the world stage. I’m in love with these boys.
I love their music and I love the fact that they’re original. Oh, my
God!”
Born in Nairobi, Kenya, she had her
primary education at the Katatumba Academy, a family school. She later
attended high school in Canada after which she moved to Oxford Brooks
University in England, where she obtained degrees in Law and
Economics. She later bagged a Master’s Degree in International
Management. Her father, Dr. Bonny Katatumba, is the Consul of the
Republic of Pakistan in Uganda, while her mum is a Ugandan who owns a
beauty clinic in Kabalagala.
Although her talent was eventually honed
in Canada, Angela says she has always loved to sing since she was a
little girl. She loved listening to and mimicking the likes of Whitney
Houston and Tony Braxton. She later joined the school choir where she
was ironically kicked out because the leadership could not tame her
creative exuberance then.
She recalls, “At the time my voice was
everywhere. It was too loud. It was too strong. One minute I was singing
out, the other minute I was on tenor. Sometimes I was in bass and the
teacher was like, ‘Is that Angie everywhere? I have given you enough
warnings, out!’ Our teacher was that hard.
“But when I went to Canada and joined
the school, I did some talent shows there and won all of them and my
daddy was like, ‘It seems she has some talent.’ He paid $40 an hour for
me to go for some training only to find out that I am supposed to be a
soloist. I am supposed to be leading the choir because I had such a
huge range. So, in Uganda they didn’t know how to handle it and they
kicked me out. They nurtured it in Canada, from there I moved on to
start singing professionally in England.”
Angela notes that the idea of Supernatural Girl is
meant to reveal the religious aspect of her life and some personal
stories she is just sharing – including a failed and traumatic marriage
she had in Chicago.
In the course of her career, she, in her
Gulu Project, mobilised humanitarian support for Northern Uganda
during the 21-year war it fought. She has also been part of
enlightenment campaigns on the impact of climate change, especially in
Africa, where she believes awareness about it is dangerously low.
