Mr. & Miss Bukedde contest heats up

Last September, Bukedde’s Talent contest Miss and Mr Bukedde kicked off after over 1000 contestants subscribed for it.

It is a virtual edition where contestants submit their recorded content and is filter by judges; Phiona Nabitengero ( Fifi Da Queen), Bbosa Serunkuma, a Ugandan Movie director and actor, Annet Nandujja, a traditional singer and performer as well as Herbert  Kabanda Yawe, the Bukedde FM boss.

It started in episode format, each being showed every day at 8:30PM on Bukedde 1 but has now changed to entirely Sunday at 8:30PM and is expected to run up to January with the final winners bagging a land title from Kamoga Consultants and driving away with a brand new car.

Dorah Namaalaa, the organizer, told The Kampala Sun that the contest is not about beauty but talent, creativity, uniqueness and selection by the audience.

“It’s about how unique, talented and creative you are. The audience also matters alot because judges contribute 40% of the vote count and the public contributes 60%. Contestants are therefore urged to rally their fans and supporters into voting, nomatter how many times each of them does…,” said Namara.

Over 200 contestants have presented and only about 70 have managed to go through to the next level. Some of the most hailed contestants were; Sebwato, a drummer, Nakato, a model, Muwanguzi Brian an instrumentalist, Apul, a singer from Northern Uganda, Robinah from Kabale, now nicknamed as “Kyalisi ninkukunda” for her Lunyankole love ballad to a man named Charles and many others.

Judge Fifi Da Queen is perceived to be the Judge of death only that her role seems to have been taken over by Annet Nandujja whose comments are a bit similar to the “Muwunya” Judge, Alex Mukulu. Some of the worst common comments Annet made on the panel previously were,”ayiye omulimu omulala”, “agende alime” and “talina kyangamba” literally meaning “let him find another job”, “Let him try farming”, and “he has nothing to tell me”.

Judge Bbosa is the Mother Mary, if he says you are too bad, it means you are not just bad but even beyond worst. He hails and advises almost every contestant. Many have found their way through by his mercy.

Most of the contestants are singers, a few are instrumentalists and a few are models. There are exceptions like Nabukenya the news anchor and a 70 years old woman who came to challenge the “bazzukulu”.

Rappers were not good in general, perhaps because there is no one among the judges who understands the genre. Judge Fifi tries to get her books open for the genre but the rest have always had a “NO” for the rhymers. Only Da Achiever(contestant 0118) has got the three yeses for his lyrics but Irumba and the rest have fallen to Nandujja and Bbosa’s elimination sword.