With sweat dripping down his face, a swarm of cameramen clicking away, David Lutalo first asked for a moment alone.
With a white towel, he wiped off the sweat. He was at first left speechless, as tears rolled down his eyes.
Once again he had beaten the odds, launching a concert in January and having it sell out. Like Manya in 2016, the Onsaanuula concert last Friday at Hotel Africana People’s space was indeed a sellout.
“Even I was scared that I wouldn’t pull it off, because many things were different this time round, but my fans have constantly proven that they are with me and they love my work,” an excited Lutalo told The Observer.
A brief chat with the artiste makes you understand why he had tears in his eyes.
“I remember the days of Luweero, struggling with my family to make ends meet. Then doing my music and wearing those funny clothes, but I made it,” he says.
Lutalo grew up in Luweero and doesn’t want to talk about his education background. At his previous concert, so many things were amiss, including the sound, floor management and production. This time he made an improvement; Vibes Events handled the show and did a good job. Their sound was up to the mark and so was the lighting.
Africell Uganda, which sponsored the show to the tune of Shs 80m, ensured that their branding wasn’t just thrown in people’s faces. It was nicely- placed.
However, Dembe FM’s Kasuku, who was the night’s emcee, did a shoddy job. He didn’t work up the crowd well enough and came out as too plain, especially with his comments; he seemed more like an events manager than an emcee.
But David Lutalo’s performance more than made up for that. From the time he came on stage at around 9:30pm, he hit the ground running with his dancers and band, taking the crowd through most of his hits, including Kapaapaala, Gyetugenda, Yamba, Magumba and Manya.
The short-break segment made it even better with performances from Lydia Jasmine, Rema and Chris Evans doing Linda to cheers from the crowd. Gravity Omutujju then came on with Winner, followed by Bobi Wine and Nubian Lee and then Fred Sebatta. All gave their best.
The crowd then danced to the song of the night, Onsaanuula, wrapping up the concert.
feupal@observer.ug
