Pulse logo
Pulse Region

He went to Nairobi because we tormented him - Chameleone's mother

Proscovia Musoke said that she and her husband, Gerald Mayanja didn't want Jose Chameleone to join the music industry
Jose Chameleone and his mother, Proscovia Musoke
Jose Chameleone and his mother, Proscovia Musoke

According to Musoke, when he started picking interest in music and focused less on formal education, they would cane him and at times report him to the police.

Chameleone, real name Joseph Mayanja, failed to raise points to join university, and his father wanted him to repeat Senior Six.

The crooner refused saying he had seen where the money is: music.

Under pressure from family, Chameleone traveled to Nairobi.

"We were angry when he left because he suffered from there and he used to ask for financial support from his father," said Proscovia Musoke while appearing on Kasuku Live.

After a while, they convinced him to return, but he still refused to back to school and instead went to Rwanda for about a month. He then returned to Kenya until he got a hit song Mama Mia.

Chameleone had gone to Nairobi following Bebe Cool and the latter helped him financially because he was already making some money by the time Chameleone arrived.

Cool had left because of gatekeeping in the local entertainment industry.

 "Bebe Cool joined the music industry before me. He started performing before me. We used to sing at Sabrina's Pub... One day he told me, I'm going to Nairobi. I asked him, what are you going to do in Nairobi? And he told me, here we have small studios. When you go to Kasiwukira... [Paul] Kafeero has already rented it, [Herman] Basudde... they've hired it for the whole year…” Chameleone has said in interviews.

“Hope Mukasa had a studio, but it was a home studio... Bebe Cool told me, there are many studios in Nairobi. And I told him, no problem. I thought he was joking... then after like three weeks, I was reading [Daily] Nation and I saw a headline, Uganda's Bebe Cool, the new star in Nairobi,... And I was like, this is possible... He showed me that there were more open opportunities on the other side... unfortunately, there were no phones to communicate... but I also went to Nairobi knowing that there is a backup... and when things got tough, It was him that I approached."

Proscovia Musoke said that at the time her son joined the music industry most people that were involved were struggling financially, so they they didn't see a future for their son in that world.

Next Article