By Jeff Andrew Lule
As Eddy Kenzo’s festival dissolves in peoples’ mouths, the big debate is now on Sheebah Karungi’s anticipated concert come early December.
Unlike other concerts we have witnessed, Sheebah’s concert is to run for two consecutive nights on December 9 and 10 at the Kampala Serena Hotel.
This concert will be the first of its kind in the country, which her fans might be eager to experience.
During a radio interview, the Queen Karma, as Sheebah is commonly known, said this is going to be a new experience for Ugandans.
“I wanted to test myself after many years in the music industry. When I talked to my team about this idea, they picked it. I called KT Events because we had advertised for one show and he bought the idea, but told me, it calls for hard work,” she revealed.
Immediately, they went and booked for the second day. Since then, the dancehall queen has been working restlessly to challenge herself out of her comfort zone.
“I did this not out of competition, but I did it as a musician to challenge myself. As Sheebah Karungi, what can I do that pushes me to another level?” she said.
Having been a solo artiste for the past 12 years, she says she wanted to do something she hasn’t done.
“I just left the old management! What can I do that cements Sheebah Karungi as an individual artiste? I work closely with my promoter and my team, with back-to-back meetings, because we must plan,” Sheebah added.
She revealed that because of hard work with her entire team, tickets for the Friday tables have sold out, with only a few ordinary tickets left.
“Now people are booking for December 10. All this calls for hard work. I have been rehearsing for two months, which is also a big investment,” she noted.
The tickets go sh100,000 (early bird); sh150,000 (ordinary) and sh3m (table).
Sheebah explained that after the Friday show, everything will be pulled down to reset for the Saturday night show with a different setting and music.
I am a hustler
Sheebah said she has been a hustler even when she was working with her former management of Team No Sleep (TNS).
“I was not pampered. I used to do my things. Jeff Kiwa would just tell me that we have a studio on Monday and I will pick you at this time. But he was not going to tell me what to wear or work out. He would tell me, ‘Don’t you see you have put on weight?’ I used to pay my trainer, they never paid my salon, never paid my rent and everyone knows it. If it’s a video, I would always meet the videographer even after they have talked to the manager to know the concept, because creatively, I had to be involved. My management did their job, but I am also hands on,” she noted.
Sheebah boasts of having always been a hands-on musician to understand how things are done, stressing that musicians work hard day and night, but fail to understand many things because they are fully managed.
“There are many things that people we work with don’t want us to understand. As musicians, they keep us naïve in the shallowness, especially those who are fully managed. You will not know anything because everything is done for you right from rent, buying for you a car and you pay indirectly,” she noted.
Sheebah revealed that in her case, she bought her first car after her first song Twesana when she was still using a bodaboda.
