"Elly Wamala, first of all, was my favorite musician... My father used to play his music... So, I grew up singing his songs though I didn't understand all the lyrics," said the crooner who in 2015 re-did his idol's 1975 song 'Violet'. Geosteady changed the title to ‘Viola’.
Singer George William Kigozi, better known by his stage name Geosteady, has said from a young age he was inspired by the late Elly Wamala because of his writing skill.
Geosteady and Elly Wamala
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"The other thing is that his music could move from generation to generation... And I also found myself in a generation where musicians were redoing old songs... Gravity Omutujju had done Walumbe Zaaya of Paul Kafeero, The Don Emcee and GNL Zamba had done Ani Yali Amanyi," he said.
"So, when I came, I did justice to the song... and people liked it."
When the R&B artiste was asked why modern artistes don't write songs that last for years, he said: "People have different targets... Some want people to dance... So, when that type of dance decays, the song dies with it... For me, sometimes I sing for the soul... Songs like Viola, like Tokendeza, like Wakyuka... Songs like Same Way, songs like Owooma... You might take it as a joke, but these songs are going to move from generation to generation... Simply because the target was to take over the soul."
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Geosteady
Pulse Live Uganda
He went on: "Every time it's played, it strikes you as new... It's not easy to understand. That's what I copied from Elly Wamala. That's what I liked. He had that writing... the kind that would produce long lasting content."
Elly Wamala, who died in 2004 from lung cancer, was one of Uganda's first musicians to release a recorded song and have it become a commercial hit in the 1950s when he released ‘Nabutono’.
