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The singer and Secretary General of the Uganda Musicians Association (UMA) says Uganda is struggling and will continue to struggle to export music abroad because local artists are merely imitating fellow artists from Nigeria and other African countries.
Without naming any names, Mugerwa called on Ugandan artists, to stop duplicating foreign music and instead start looking for Uganda’s music brand.
“Right now, we are doing a lot of copying and pasting. If you are copying Nigerian artists, using his or her exact beat on your song, how do you expect to export your music to Nigeria?” she said.
“In the US, in Dubai, streets are full of Nigerian artists. Sadly, our Ugandans are simply lifting these successful Nigerian beats to use them in their own songs.
“We need to look for our own beats so that when one is listening, they are able to say, ‘That is a Ugandan song.’”
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Mugerwa, in an interview with the Diaspora Connect also lashed out at the poor quality of music coming out of Uganda.
She blamed it on the little time that artists put into writing and producing of their songs.
“You find that someone walks into a studio in the afternoon, and in the evening a song is ready for release!”
Mugerwa, 39, was one of the highly acclaimed female artists in the mid to late 2000s. At the peak of her career, she became known as the “Ugandan Shakira.”
Currently, she is one of the leading voices championing the rights and welfare of Ugandan musicians and artists.