From cars to bedrooms, Rema brought it all

Even when the economy demanded more, promoters and events organisers have consistently been charging Shs20,000 and Shs50,000 as cover charges for different concerts. However, artistes have been reinventing the wheel since about two years ago when concerts went as high as Shs 200,000 for ordinary tickets. Maurice Kirya’s Kirya Live concert last year charged Shs200,000 and Shs3m for tables. Sheebah Karungi’s two-day concert at Kampala Serena Hotel cost Shs150,000 and Shs3m for VIPs. Kenneth Mugabi and Aziz Azion, among others, have charged the same during their concerts.
Most of the concerts that have charged this much have delivered performances that were value for money.

Rema’s concert, Melodies of Love, at Sheraton Kampala Gardens on Friday was no different; she delivered everything a concert is intended to deliver – the music, performances and some surprises.

The show, organised by West Records Uganda Limited and sponsored by Nation Media Group, stayed true to the title from the production design and music. Rema made one believe that love was indeed a beautiful thing.
The concert was full of melodies and love, especially for Rema and her husband, Hamza Sebunya. The two were cosy, especially during Rema’s performance of Akafe Che, which she did in a bedroom setting that was set up at one corner of the stage.

Rema’s performance
There is no doubt Rema can sing and whoever came thinking otherwise, the joke was on them. The four hours were not even enough to sustain her big catalogue, but credit goes to whoever made her selection. All the songs were befitting of the occasion. In her three sessions, she performed songs such as Tonyt, Tikula, Ekyama, Yo Sweet, Lean on Me, Oli Wange, Sibyamukisa, Atuuse, Linda, and Loco, among others.

In the course of promoting this concert, many Ugandans got a chance to see a Rema they had not seen before; free-spirited, open and a bit spontaneous; she spoke more openly about her love life and her husband. This did not change at the concert; Rema was free with the audience and surprised them with a dance routine.

After one of her sessions, she broke into a dance routine that started with a playback of Rihanna’s Lift Me Up and ended with a high energy dance off to Tyla’s Water. And Rema was in the middle of it all, the thumping, locking, and twerking were out of Rema’s normal range.

In all three sessions, she offered something different; the second session was more intimate, speaking about her humble background and emotions about not growing up with her mother. In the third session, she sang less and most of the songs she did were collaborations. She did Gutujja with B2C, This Is Love with The Ben from Rwanda, and Juliana, with whom they did her Ampisawo jam.

The grand entrance
Unlike many Ugandan artistes, Rema had three grand entrances. In the first session, she came on stage in a black convertible. In the second set, she came right after three motorbikes were driven on stage, while in her final session, instrumentalists included a violinist, a trumpeter, a cellist and a drummer. The instrumentalists did an interesting piece, each showcasing their experience with their instruments.

The stage
ATS came big. The layout of the Sheraton gardens and a little bit of lighting somehow let them down despite mounting a sizable stage. From some parts of the ground, it was impossible to see a thing on stage; thus, for a large part of the show, many people only managed to listen but not see any of the performances.
Of course there were streaming screens, but again, since the place is uneven, most people had to stand on their chairs, which made the available screens hard to watch. But it was still an amazingly set show.