Jimmy Katumba (1955 – 13 August 2006)
was a
Uganda
Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...
n popular music singer.
Starting out as a singer of
gospel music
Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music vary according to culture and social context. Gospel music is compo ...
in his early years, he rose to fame as the country's premier
pop star
A pop icon is a celebrity, character, or object whose exposure in popular culture is regarded as constituting a defining characteristic of a given society or era. The usage of the term is largely subjective since there are no definitively object ...
from late-1970s to the
1990s
File:1990s decade montage.png, From top left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope orbits the Earth after it was launched in 1990; American jets fly over burning oil fields in the 1991 Gulf War; the Oslo Accords on 13 September 1993; the World ...
. Jimmy Katumba helped shape popular music in Uganda and has earned a place among the country’s leading music artists. His band, ''The Ebonies'', dominated the Ugandan music scene in the 1980s and 1990s.
Early childhood
Katumba was born to Reverend Blasio Katumba and Alice Nakyagaba. His music career started in the numerous church choirs to which he belonged. He attended eight schools including
Makerere College School
Makerere College School is a co-educational government aided O and A Level school founded in 1945 by Makerere University. In 1945 Makerere University was still a constituent college of the University of London. The school is located on the main c ...
and
Lubiri Secondary School.
Music
Katumba started his music career as an eight-year-old singer in Mukono Church of Uganda where his father was a
preacher
A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who Open-air preaching, preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach com ...
. In 1977, he formed the ''Light Bearers'', which he renamed Jimmy Katumba and the Ebonies. Popularly known for his
baritone
A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...
voice, Katumba became celebrated for songs like "''Twalina Omukwano''," "''Drums of Africa''" and "Fa Kukyolina." He left for the
UK in 1990. He went to the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
in 1992 and returned in 1995.
Discography
*''Atalina Kigere''
*''Congratulations''
*''Usiuwe Tembo - 1990''
*''Queen of Love - 1981''
References
External links
"Jimmy Katumba Vs Jim Reeves"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Katumba, Jimmy
20th-century Ugandan male singers
1955 births
2006 deaths
Place of birth missing
Kumusha