CELEB CONFESSIONS: The gorgeous Cindy Sanyu on life after Blu 3

Ugandan dancehall musician Cindy Sanyu is a signee of Kenyan label Grandpa Records. PHOTO | FILE

What you need to know:

  • I needed a comeback because I had been away for about 10 months after giving birth and raising my baby, who is four years old now.
  • When you are away for such a long period, you’re bound to come back and find so much competition, so I had to fight hard to get back on my feet.
  • The idea for the song actually came from a time I was having fun at the club and Konshens’ “Gal a Bubble” came on.

Do you remember the once sensational East African girl band from Uganda, Blue 3? The group was active between 2004 and 2009, when it spilt. Blue 3 ruled the showbiz airwaves in the region with several hits like “Hitaji” and “Burn”. The group was made up of Lilian Mbabazi, Jackie Chandiru and Cinderella (Cindy) Sanyu, all of whom embarked on solo careers after the spilt. Of the three, only Cindy has managed to remain a top-tier female artiste in Uganda. She has several hits including “Selecta”, “Zalawo”, “Tempo Remix” featuring Kenyan artiste Dufla and “Yeye” featuring Wahu, among others. Nation.co.ke recently caught up with the gorgeous 31-year-old musician, who is currently signed to Grand Pa records, for a candid talk.

 

“Selecta” was arguably one of your biggest hits a few years ago since going solo, what was the inspiration behind the song?
I needed a comeback because I had been away for about 10 months after giving birth and raising my baby, who is four years old now. When you are away for such a long period, you’re bound to come back and find so much competition, so I had to fight hard to get back on my feet. The idea for the song actually came from a time I was having fun at the club and Konshens’ “Gal a Bubble” came on. I fell in love with the beats. I asked my assistant to request the DJ for the instrumental and wrote the lyrics as it was playing, while watching other people enjoy themselves. The next day I called my producer, went to the studio and that’s how “Selecta” came about.

 

Talking about the baby, how is the baby daddy doing?
(Smiling) Ako poa, ako poa ila sasa hivi (He is okay). We are not together but we do take care of our daughter (Amani), we divide time and co-parent.

 

Sorry about that. How long did you guys date or were you married?
It was a Come-we-stay kind of a thing and we were together for 10 years.

(Cindy’s’ baby daddy and ex, Mario Brunetti, is an American living in Uganda. The two split in 2013)

 

That’s quite a long time for a “come-we-stay”, isn’t it?
Yeah, I know, right? And that’s why I left because even after all that time, he was still not interested in marriage. There was nothing more I was doing in that kind of relationship.

 

Why is it that most talented and gifted musicians’ romantic relationships never stand the test of time? It’s always ‘we were’ and not ‘we are’.

As I said, we had been together for a while and I was interested in marriage but he wasn’t. I had no option but to leave.

 

How was your breakup like?
It was full of drama, I wish we had parted amicably.

What kind of drama?
We started fighting over the child’s custody. He ended up taking me to court, wasting both money and time when at the end of it all, we were granted joint custody.

(However, according to some Ugandan blogs, a judge ruled in Mario’s favour. The judge argued that the American had proven he was a responsible father and had the means to cater for the child’s needs, merits that Cindy supposedly did have.)  

 

After the breakup you made a song, “Sample Dat”, that was viewed by many as a diss track to your ex. Was that the case?
It’s true that I wrote the song after the breakup. This is because after we split and everyone now knew I was single, many guys started hitting on me, others wanting to date me as well as marry me. I was confused as to why I was receiving so much attention from men at that particular time. It got me thinking, do they want to sample me, like have a one-time thing then dump me? Or were are there any men serious about settling down? They will all tell you, ‘You’re beautiful’, ‘I love you’ and all kinds of flirting. So I sang about it in the song that some people want to “sample dat” and others want the real thing so one needs to be careful.

 

Are you currently dating anyone?

I’m not seeing anyone, though after the breakup, I dated another guy but we didn’t last.

 

Would you mind dating again soon?
For now I’m so busy raising my daughter and making music that my hands are already full.

 

Isn’t single life a little difficult, especially now that you got used to having a man around you all the time. What happens when “feelings” engulf you?
(Laughing) I’m a grown woman. I know how to take care of myself.

 

 

In Uganda the kind of “beef” artistes have seems to be so personal, unlike here. There are fights, witch-hunts and other sorts of ill-mannered intentions against each other.

Why is that?
People have this perception that for you to be successful you need to take away somebody who is already successful, which is not a cool thing because I believe the industry is big enough to accommodate us all. You don’t have to sweep up people’s positions so that you can take them up. You have to earn your position. However, such cases are few and not every artiste in Uganda is like that, just a fraction.

 

 

A few, you say, I doubt that, it’s become a norm in Uganda’s showbiz, no?
I think our big artistes, Bebe Cool, Bobi Wine and Jose Chameleone, The Big Three as we call them, started it and it worked for them. And because Ugandans love scandal, just like everyone else in the world, other upcoming artistes also try to imitate them, hoping it will also work out for them due to the wave.

 

So an artiste will start a beef with a famous musician just to try and be famous as well. Are you embroiled in such kind of beefs?

 No I’m not, but other artistes do have beefs with me.

 

Did Blue 3 have an impact in your career?
Yes, it helped me start. I gained a work ethic and learnt that, in the industry, even being a solo artiste needs team work. Have a good relationship with your manager, agencies and all other stakeholders.

  

What’s that one song that you feel you gave your all while in Blue 3?
(Singing “Hitaji”) “Machozi ninayo tupu aha! Mi naye jazwa nahitaji, hitaji la kuwa na wewe nikubali nikuweke moyoni...

That one.

 

Why that song?
Blue 3 loved RnB and that’s all we did, but I have always loved dancehall. So when we did the  “Hitaji” dancehall fusion, I was like ‘Yaaay’, I finally I get to do what I like.

 

 

Dancehall is not a very easy genre, as is evident with the few artistes doing it. How is it with you?
Dancehall is about the heart, any singer can chant. You can be given a song and you sing it but then there is that inner spirit that comes with dancehall. If you don’t have it, a dancehall crowd will not respond to you. They won’t like you because they can feel you’re not real. Dancehall has an attitude, it’s never about the voice, hitting notes ama nini, and it’s that attitude.

 

 

How did you link up with Dufla for “Tempo Remix”?
I had earlier on worked on some projects with video producer J Blessing that turned out to be very successful in terms of viewership, so I came back to work on more with him. At one time I was chilling in Club Tribeka and they played the song   “Tempo”.  I was there thinking, “Which song is this, it’s so nice”. At first I thought it was Patoranking but I felt the artiste sounded different, his style and even his voice. I could also feel his heart in the song. I started asking around and luckily enough my friend Reffigah was also in the club. He told me the artiste was signed to him and was called Dufla. I asked him to link us up and that’s how the hit remix came about.

 

 

Which international artiste would you like to work with?
If there was no criteria or boundaries, I would love to work with Lady Saw and Tanya Stephens. I have honestly looked up to these women for a very longtime. I would also love to do something with the legendary Beanie Man as well as Konshens.

 

How about Kenya?
I would love to work with the person who would bring back The Kleptomaniax. I really miss that group, they were an amazing, very incredible act. I also wanted to work with Nameless but he directed my video with Wahu so I feel like we already did. 

 

 

Who would you say is the biggest Kenya musician in Uganda?
That’s should be Wyre, he is amazing. In Uganda, Wyre is the Kenyan artiste we hear all the time, he is always in rotation on radio, TV stations and clubs. He is a good act and very interesting. For the longest time I thought Wyre was Tanzanian because of the East African Bashment Crew. I thought with Nazizi being Kenyan, Bebe Cool Ugandan, Wyre definitely would be the Tanzanian.

 

On a quick fire, what’s your favourite meal?
Rice and beans

 

Have you ever been “chips fungad” (had a one night stand)?
(Laughing out loud) Hahaha! Yes, but it only happened once.

 

How did it happen?
In Blu 3 we used to have these tours all over the place and sometimes we would be away from home up to three months. At one time we had a Western African tour and we were in Ghana. We had been there for three days and had to go to Nigeria the next day.  On the eve, I met this really cute guy. We went to the club together and just hit it off. It happened and in the morning I had to go.

 

Do you regret being “chips fungad”?
(Laughing) I don’t regret it. 

 

The interview was transcribed from QTV archives by Thomas Matiko from an interview by Rashid Abdallah.

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