Justine Nabbosa speaks emotions on hearing ‘Oli Katonda’ playing in night clubs, secular concerts

Gospel singer Justin Nabbosa reflects and wonders to this date, what a big success her song “Oli Katonda’ turned out to be.

Over 5 years since it was released, Nabbosa says she is still amazed at how the song “touched hearts” not just in Church, but also in the secular world.

The song, she says, came to her randomly, and shortly after she released the audio back in 2018, she recounts how he she felt emotional as it quickly spread like wildfire across the globe.

“My friends were sending me videos of white people in America, in Canada, even Chinese people singing Oli Katonda,” Nabbosa said in a documentary which aired this week.

“But how I got to know that this was a special song, was when people in the secular world picked it up. Suddenly it was paying in night clubs, artists were performing it in their concerts,” she recalls

“I remember one time, Rema (Namakula) was on stage and when she sang the song, she started crying; real tears rolling down her face; that’s when I knew God had given me a powerful song.”

Nabbosa says she conceived the song spontaneously during a women’s conference.

“I was just sitting in a chair praying when I heard the song coming up in my head as someone was playing the piano,” she says.

“Earlier during his concert in Kampala, Don Moen had taught us that whenever you have that kind of a song which randomly comes up in your head while you are showering or walking, sometimes we ignore them but they are powerful songs that God sends to us. He told us to always record them, so I got my phone and started recording it. When I played it back it sounded even better.”

At this time, Nabbosa says, she called her friend and composer Florence who patched it up with the verses, and they hit the studio.