The love The Ben was shown by Ugandan music enthusiasts at Friday’s ‘Best of Kampala’ concert at La Paroni in Kampala undoubtedly proves how much the singer’s music has grown its fan base in Uganda and in the region at large. In what stood out to be his best concert he has ever done in Uganda, the singer’s performance was highly anticipated by many Ugandans since he announced he was coming to entertain Kampala a fortnight ago. Born Benjamin Mugisha, The Ben knows millions of Ugandans love his music, but a huge turn up he witnessed at the venue, the atmosphere and the passion he witnessed at his concert was beyond the singer’s imagination. The singer, who calls Uganda his second home, had a long list of songs on his performance lineup but the way revelers were singing along each of them brought him to tears, describing the show as one of the best concerts he has had in years. “The joy of an artiste is performing at a concert and seeing your audience coming in big numbers to see your performance. You can imagine my feeling when I see people singing each of my songs word by word, and sometimes know the songs more than I do. It’s a beautiful feeling you can’t easily compete with anything else,” the singer told The New Times hours after his performance. “I am always humbled. It’s not the first time people cheered me on while performing but, whenever it happens, it’s always new to me. I got too emotional and I never take it for granted,” he added. The Ben spent an hour and a half on stage and made sure that every single second was worth it with electric performance of the best of his songs, from singles like ‘Vazi”, “Naremeye”, ‘Habibi’, “Ndaje” to collaborations which mostly involve Ugandan musicians like Sheebah Karungi in“Binkolera”, Rema Namakula in “This is Love and B2C in “No You No Life”. But it was ‘Why’, the singer’s collaboration with Diamond Platnumz, that left none to their seats to dance along as the song continues to dominate Ugandan radio airwaves. His performance was not just about entertaining Ugandans as he took the occasion to pay tribute to late Mowzey Radio who died back in 2018. He performed one of Good Lyfe’s songs “Neera” as a sign of respect to the legendary musician who remains, according to many, one of Uganda’s greatest musicians the country has ever witnessed. Before the Kampala show, the singer entertained his music lovers in Louisville, United States. But, according to his agenda, is not done with concerts yet as he now turns focus to another performance in Kenya in the next two or three weeks.
