Uganda: Henry Tigan Headed for International Stardom

Uganda: Henry Tigan Headed for International Stardom

The Monitor (Kampala)

COLUMN
19 June 2008
Posted to the web 20 June 2008

Darius Mugisha

Brotherhood is when local musicians turn up to support a colleague at a concert or an album launch, but it's a sign of love and heart-felt support when internationally acclaimed names in the industry decide to fly thousands of miles to share a stage with a not so globally recognised artiste like Henry Tigan.

According to Tigan's US-based manager Suudi Lukwago, several international entertainers like Chaka Demus & Pliers, Brick & Lace, Marlon Asher, Patra and Morgan Heritage will sing alongside our very own Tigan come September 5 this year.

"I'm an international promoter, and my dream is not to see Tigan top local charts, but rather to introduce him to the world as a talented musician," Lukwago said.

Tigan, a Kyambogo University-finalist, won US-based promoter Lukwago's confidence to become the first musician to be officially signed under Suudi Entertainment after several vocal and studio trials with his former allies Denis Lama and Mr Hush in 2006.

Lukwago embarked on making his dream come true mid last year when he distributed Tigan's music to several record labels in US. Despite appreciating Tigan's vocal abilities, they all refused to sign up the upcoming singer because he only had a few songs, moreover with Luganda lyrics.

Two weeks later Lukwago met with Jamaican-reggae star Marlon Asher and having undergone a similar experience like Tigan, the musician warmly welcomed the idea of recording a duet.

Being on different continents was the only limitation, but that was soon overcome. The duo released a song titled My Country, which is probably one of the biggest in Ugandan reggae right now.

Asher flew in and graced Tigan's debut album launch last August, a move that sparked off fury from musician Bebe Cool who had earlier booked Asher to perform at his album launch that was only days away.

The song marked the beginning of Tigan's duets with international music stars.

In a few weeks, Tigan went ahead and released another duet titled Pretty Gal with US-based dancehall singer Mighty Mystic, and since then, Lukwago has linked Tigan to other reggae and dancehall stars, especially those from Jamaica.

Lukwago is remembered for having brought many international musicians for concerts to Uganda in 2007, but besides the money, he always worked towards getting each of the musicians to meet and do something with his "boy", Tigan.

"I made sure all musicians I've flown to Uganda and those I've toured with in different countries, listened to Tigan's songs, and I always got a ray of hope with the positive compliments they dropped about Tigan's style," Lukwago said.

Just last year alone, Lukwago managed to introduce Tigan to musicians like Brick & Lace, Kevin Lyttle, and Asher. Lukwago says Tigan has duets with all the above mentioned musicians, "He has up to six songs with Marlon Asher though we've only released two, My Country and World of Scandals. His duet with Brick & Lace is titled Don't Cry while the one with Kevin Lyttle will be released before Tigan's launch in September," Lukwago added.

Lukwago says that he decided to take some time off his artiste booking business for the whole of this year, and to concentrate on bettering Tigan's position on the international scene. He says that he has been up and down meeting several other big names on the global music scene to make duets with Tigan and it's paid off.

So far, Tigan has a duet titled Woman of My Life, with dancehall maestro Shaggy's official back-up vocalist Rayvon as well as a remix of the same song featuring reggae legendary Bob Marley's son, Damian Marley.

Tigan the 2007 Pam Award New Artiste of the year recorded songs in the UK-based Abbey Road Studios, as his prize for winning the award. He has duets undergoing final touches with pioneer reggae and dancehall musicians like Morgan Heritage as well as one titled Out of Control with 80s and 90s global-music-charts topping duo Chaka Demus and Pliers.

He has recorded a song with 80s and 90s dancehall superstar Patra that is yet to be named and released. Lukwago says that besides the duets, he wants Tigan to make history as the musician to ever hold the biggest album launch concert ever in East Africa or even Africa.

"I want Tigan to be like all international musicians, so he will not have an album launch but rather a record-release party. It's a tradition in the US that all musicians that have a duet with the celebrant on his CD, perform at his/ her record-release party for free. And that's exactly what will happen at Tigan's party," Lukwago said.

Tigan's record-release party is slated for September 5, at a venue yet to be communicated. Before the concert, Tigan is set to embark on a country tour code-named "Muzudde Tour", during which he will introduce his latest local album titled Muzudde to his fans across the nation.

And after the concert, Tigan alongside Rayvon and Asher will embark on a world tour to be named after Tigan and Asher's duet World of Scandals, aimed at introducing the former to the world. The tour kicks off in Japan towards the end of September.

With so much to his name within just a very short period of time, Tigan has continued to maintain a low profile. Meanwhile, Lukwago says he has received over five offers from top international record labels such as Interscope, EMI, Kotch Entertainment and Sony seeking to distribute Tigan's music but he says he is still studying the contracts and will soon announce the company that will sign Tigan up.