By Tolberts Joseph Sibuta
Personal life of Eddy Kenzo
Initially, before taking stroll in active music, Eddy Kenzo aspired to be a great footballer. This prompted him to join Masaka local council football team at the age of nine.
Age
Edrisa musuuza was born on the 9th, April 1989 in Masaka district, situated in the central part of Uganda.
Education
Eddy Kenzo did not go far with school. After the death of his mother at 9 years old, life became difficult as he stormed the streets for survival. Good enough, Kenzo did not only love the game of football but was equally talented. Given his love for football, Kenzo was given a bursary at Lubiri Secondary School in Kampala. Unfortunately, he did not finish school.
Relationship
Kenzo started a relationship with Ugandan female music icon Remah Namakula. The couple was blessed with a bouncing baby girl Amaal musuuza and Kenzo acknowledged the fatherhood of the beautiful baby. Unfortunately, Kenzo and Remah separated in mid 2019 and Remah Namakula got engaged to her former doctor, Dr Hamza Ssebunya.
Family
The sitya loss singer divorced with his wife Remah Namakula, also a musician in 2019 with whom he had two beautiful daughters Amaal Musuuza and Maya Musuuza. Since then, Eddy Kenzo has been a single man and referred to as the President of Love Niggers (Bachelors)
The life and career of Eddy Kenzo.
Edrisa musuuza known popularly as Eddy Kenzo is an award winning Ugandan musician, and Chief Executive officer of Big Talent Entertainment. He is one of the most successful Ugandan based musicians
Music career
When one says music is an antidote for the soul, the assertion is right. The Ugandan music industry is blessed by one of her “golden stars”, Eddy Kenzo. He started his career way back in 2008, with a hit song dubbed “Yanimba” featuring Mickie Wine. Since then, Eddy Kenzo has become a “big fish” in Uganda’s music arena. Eddy Kenzo is a relentless upbeat Ugandan dancehall artist that overcame tragedy, more so after the death of his mother when he was only four years of age. He became homeless throughout his child hood thus the prevailing “wind of mercy” blew him towards the direction of music. Eddy Kenzo did not lose focus. He embarked on developing his talent. Musuuza established a solo career with the (2010) single Stamina. This song was used by many politicians such as President Museveni during the 2011 Uganda general election campaign trails. He continued building his fan base by releasing more new music like “Ogenda kunzisa” in 2012, “Akaserengeto” among others. Eddy Kenzo held his first concert at the ”Kyadondo Rugby play ground” while launching his track dubbed “Kamunguluze” in the year 2013. He received international recognition, attention and audience after the release of his 2014 single Sitya loss that was accompanied by a viral video that featured the Ghetto kids.
Kenzo’s first major international breakthrough came with 2014’s “Sitya Loss” and the accompanying album of the same name. A YouTube video featuring a group of Ugandan children known as the Ghetto Kids dancing to the song went viral after it was shared on social media by record executive, Sean Combs. Kenzo also started a petition to earn the children an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. As of 2019, the video has accumulated over 22 million views on YouTube. After the release of “Sitya Loss” and the album of the same name, Kenzo went on a brief United States tour with dancehall musician, DeMarco
In January 2015, Eddy Kenzo performed at the opening ceremonies of that year’s Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea alongside Akon. He also performed at the tournament final that very year. Around that time, he produced a remix to his 2014 single, “Jambole”, with a guest appearance from Nigerian singer, Kcee. In June 2015, Eddy Kenzo was honoured with the prestigious BET Award for “Viewer’s Choice Best New International Artist”. He was the first East African artist to win a BET Award of any kind. In July 2015, he performed at the Kigali up Music Festival in Rwanda’s capital. In October of that year, he released a remixed version of his song, “Mbilo Mbilo”, featuring Nigerian singer, Niniola. The original version of that song later appeared on the soundtrack for the 2016 film, Queen of Katwe.
In December 2015, Kenzo released the lead single, “Soraye”, off of his second album, Zero to Hero. In March 2016, he went on a tour Africa, with stops in Kenya, Ivory Coast, Mali, and others. Later that month, he released Zero to Hero. Throughout the remainder of 2016, Kenzo earned a writing credit on Jidenna’s “Little Bit More”, was featured on the Mi Casa single “Movie Star”, and won an All Africa Music Award for his “Mbilo Mbilo” remix. He also went on another US tour late in the year. In May 2017, Kenzo was named the ambassador of the Kenyan Tourism Board and was appointed to a similar role in Uganda the following year.
In July 2017, Kenzo went on a European tour ahead of the release of his third studio album, Biology, a month later. The album featured guest appearances from artists like Mani Martin, Werrason, and Mi Casa, among others. It also featured the single “Jubilation”, which had an accompanying music video that won the Best East African Music Video Award at the Zanzibar International Film Festival. He would go on to win two awards at that year’s All Africa Music Awards, including Best East African Male Artist. He would later donate that award along with his 2015 BET Award to the Uganda Museum in Kampala. In March 2018, Kenzo won a Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award as the “Favourite African Star.” In July 2018, he performed alongside Triplets Ghetto Kids at multiple African music festivals in Canada, including Afrofest in Toronto. He also performed at the One Africa Music Festival in Dubai later in the year. In October 2018, he released his fourth studio album, Roots, which featured the single “Body Language”. Kenzo also announced a 10-year anniversary concert in celebration of his time as a musical artist. The concert took place on 4 January 2019 in the Victoria conference room of the Serena Hotel in Kampala. Leading up to the concert, Kenzo released a new music video for a song from Roots each week for two months. In March 2019, it was announced that Kenzo would be featured alongside Triplets Ghetto Kids in an upcoming music video for American singer Chris Brown’s “Back to Love”. In April 2019, Kenzo released the single, “Signal” with an accompanying music video.
Taking on charity
The act of giving back to the community did not only stop in the biblical era with the story of the Good Samaritan. Eddy Kenzo has taken this act just beyond the bible, and he is known for his zeal to the less privileged. In mid 2015, the singer launched a charitable foundation and named it The Eddy Kenzo foundation. Given his love for football, he pointed out upcoming football stars such as Tony Mawejje, Vincent Kayizzi among others and supported them by donating football kits. He went on to give goods to the Masaka local hospital staff. As if that was not enough, Kenzo hosted charity matches in Masaka and Kampala that featured Kenyan and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Victor Wanyama. This was in a bid to raise funds for Ugandan children living with the HIV/AIDS virus. In March 2019, eddy Kenzo opened the big talent soccer academy in Kampala with a prime target of identifying local youth talent as well as providing education.
Awards and nominations
Yes, hard work pays, and Eddy Kenzo has a reason to smile for his hard work.
In 2011, he won the Pearl of Africa Music Awards (PAM) as best new artist
In 2004, Eddy Kenzo was nominated for Africa Muzik Awards as best newcomer
In 2014, He was nominated for the Channel O video music awards as most gifted East African artist with his Sitya Loss song
In 2015, Eddy Kenzo was nominated for two awards namely, Black Canadian Awards as best international artist, and Afroca Music Awards as best revelation artist.
In 2015, Eddy Kenzo won the prestigious BET Awards, Viewers choice new international artist. In the same year, he also won the HiPipo Music awards, as best use of social media artist.
In 2016, Eddy Kenzo was nominated for the MTV Africa Music Awards, best live act. In the same year, he won the All Africa Music Awards with his song, Mbilo Mbilo remix featuring Niniola. In the same year, he won the Best East African music video award for his song, Jubilation.
In 2017, Eddy Kenzo won the Tuma Music awards as artist of the year and best male artist respectively. Still in the same year, he won the All Africa music awards with his Shauri yako song as the song of the year. He as well scooped the Nickelodeon Kids choice award as African favorite star.
In 2018, Eddy Kenzo won the International Reggae and World music awards as best African entertainer as well as the Afrika Muzik Awards as the east African artist of the year.
Controversies
On gay practice in Uganda
Eddy Kenzo has not had a long spell of controversies. His first was an escalated romour that he (Kenzo) supported gay projects in Uganda. This was because of his association with Christopher Mubiru, also a football lover and former football coach who was nabbed in a hotel practicing gay love. It has taken Kenzo “decades” to clear that escalating romour that he could be part of the promoters of that practice in Uganda.
Reply to controversial Sheik Muzaata
At a local introduction ceremony of Kenzo’s former lover Remah Namakula, Sheik Muzaata made a very provocative statement that made rounds on social media. To wrap it all, Muzaata accused Kenzo of having wasted too much of Remah’s time by not committing himself to the relationship. In Muzaata’s message, he described Eddy Kenzo as a love “nigger”, and typical ”Ssemyekozo”, some of the words in Remah’s song Gutujja featuring the B2C boys. Muzaata went on to describe Remah as a very serious lady that deserved a serious guy, not the Eddy Kenzo type. Muzaata in a very demeaning statement said, “Genda owase nyoko” literally meaning Kenzo should go and marry his late mother, instead of wasting Remah’s time.
This did not sound well to the Stamina singer who was out of the country at that time.” It is my worst attack”, the hit maker lamented. Kenzo pointed out that “maybe” he would be in a much better place had his late mother been alive. Further, he demanded for an apology from Muzaata for having uttered such a statement. However, the Chaotic Sheik was not willing to take back his words.
Eddy Kenzo’s net worth
Estimated net worth in 2019, $1million
Estimated net worth in 2019, $1million -$1.5million
