Does Chameleone, East Africa's number 1 artist always court trouble wherever he goes?

Ali Balunywa in Amsterdam

The highly billed concert by East Africa’s best; Dr Jose Chameleone nearly flopped last Saturday 26 September 2009 in Amsterdam allegedly because of his refusal to refund previous promoter’s advances he received, but failed to turn up. Chameleone jetted in Amsterdam last Saturday from Switzerland where he had held some shows.

Jose Chameleone is a leading artist in Uganda in general and East Africa in particular. He is one of the artists who revolutionized Uganda’s music industry in the late 90s and saved music fans from the monotonous Congolese music. He is a respected name internationally and he has bagged a number of music awards. His shows are crowd pullers everywhere he performs.

Over the years he had been exchanging beefs with fellow artists, but lately he seems to be more of a uniter other than a divider. This is exhibited by his attending and singing at former rivals’ concerts and their partying together. Bobi Wine and Bebe Cool are his former nemeses. He has been a victim of several punches and other acts of violence sometimes landing him in hospital.

This time around, Dutch promoters led by Eddy Bukenya invited him to perform in the Netherlands. Eddy has in the past one year successfully promoted several Uganda artists in the Netherlands. He debuted with Mega Dee and Sweet Kid. These were closely followed by Uganda’s artist of the year, crooner Juliana Kanyomozi. Then end of May, HE Bobi Wine and his Fire Base Crew visited Amsterdam, the city of sin. That time I was not in the Netherlands, so I can’t tell whether they visited any of the famous Amsterdam Coffee Shops.

Last year several attempts were made to invite Chameleone to perform in Amsterdam. Steve, Mbaziira an Amsterdammer together with other Ugandans led the effort. However, always at the last minute, the shows flopped to the disappointment of show goers. I have seen documents where Chameleone indicated that he received some funds from promoters. Copies of air tickets were also showed to me. The promoters sued Chameleone in the Ugandan courts and hope the case will result in Chameleone being forced to refund the cash.

Last Saturday on the day of the show, Steve and 2 friends went to the place where the show would take place to find out from Chameleone whether and when he would refund their money. I was told he had accepted to enter their car for discussions until Sharif, a friend of Chameleone advised him not to enter the car. It is alleged that one of the people had a gun, but on asking Steve he denied. Sharif explained to me that he feared Chameleone was being kidnapped bin order to sabotage the show, an allegation that Steve also denied. The parties exchanged some blows during the sad incident.

That evening rumors were rampant in Amsterdam that the show had been cancelled. When I arrived at around 9.00pm at the venue, there were police cars surrounding the hall were the show was to be held. Many people were outside waiting to pay to enter only after seeing Chameleone. To convince them to enter Nkuutu and myself were the first to pay and enter the venue. It appeared frighteningly empty and quiet!

Ambassador Mirjam Blaak, Justice Julia Ssebutinde later came in too. And that was when the people outside started paying and entering. Being the chairman of the Uganda community I was invited to talk to the police, but we agreed that the dignitaries (Ambassador Blaak and Ssebutinde also attend). The police wanted reassurance that it was safe for the show to continue and that if we felt in any way threatened, then it should be cancelled. We all agreed in unison that the security inside the hall was good for the show to go ahead.

Chameleone came in late, and the number of people in attendance was not as high as had been anticipated. He belted out a few numbers and in about an hour or so he was done. His young brother AK47 backed him up (and yes, that is his name!). The revelers had fun, drinking, dancing and generally making merry. Such occasions are used to meet old friends and make new ones. If I were to award marks for dancing, Ambassador Blaak would have scored 100%. (Watch this space for the photos).

I had requested to have an interview with Chameleone after the show, but it was not possible as he was immediately whisked out of the country for security reasons. We hope he will one time tell us his side of the story, as he is the missing link. It is also a pity that all artists who come to the Netherlands are shielded from journalists who wish to talk to them. We are confident that next time around the organizers will set aside some time for the artists to meet and interact with the media.

Eddy is already arranging another contingent of artists to invade the city in what he has called “the Rumble in Amsterdam”. 4 artists: Phina Mugerwa (Masanyalaze), Lady Mariam (Tindatine), Dr Hilderman (Mazongoto) and DJ Michael will perform in Amsterdam on 17 October 2009.