Meet Azawi, Uganda’s Rising Star

“Quinamino,” the track that catapulted Azawi to fame, was written in 40 minutes at a studio in Kampala, Uganda. She had written the love song not as a musician but as a songwriter intending to sell it to another artist. Today, “Quinamino” has gained over 1.2 million combined views on Youtube and is part of an EP which has received nearly 500,000 organic streams on Apple Music and Spotify. Born Priscilla Zawedde, Azawi grew up in a Kampala suburb and has towered above her lower middle-class background to becoming a popular musician in Uganda and beyond, barely a year since she started singing professionally. “I didn’t expect to move this far,” she says adding that she’s proud of herself. “If I’m here today, that means there’s something special about me. And that counts.” Perhaps the most interesting thing about Azawi is her refusal to be boxed into any genre or any labels at all. She describes her sound as a fusion of many things, combining influences from her time singing Reggae with the band and just anything that feels good.

SOURCE: OKAYAFRICA