Lyton Namubiru; about the future

The night is warm and there is an air of expectancy all around. The MC, Ssali has just announced the next star on stage and after seeing her; it is understandable why everyone seems to be waiting breathlessly. Regulars at the Jam Session on Monday at the National Theatre know Lyton Namubiru and they have come to expect only the best from her.

This time, she steps on stage in blue skin hugging jeans and a brownish top. She’s smart, alright. But it is not really about her attire the fans are swaying to; she is singing a soulful ballad that gets those who have drifted off to search for alternative entertainment elsewhere to come back and see this sensation.

Lyton Namubiru has been coming here for years. Even after a brief hiatus, she always regarded this as her home. She is a singer who immediately gets you curious; what makes her tick? She was born on February 14th, 1978 and she has one son, Robert Benjamin Balamaze Lwanga. The way she says all his names, slowly and with relish tells tales. She is very much attached to family, even without saying it.

She says she is not tied down to any style. “I wont say I sing specifically RnB or Afro Pop,” she explains. “In this day and age, I think it is wise to be flexible, given the rate at which things change in the industry.” But then we know that many artistes just cannot switch from one style to the other with ease, so we can put it down to her skill.

Lyton has two songs out, the latest of the many she has done. They are enjoying good airplay and one of them, the one that seems to be closest to her heart is Mutima. “This song brings out the sentimentality in me,” she tells me and displays one side that could be laughable if one got to know her; for a moment, she looks shy!

The concept for Mutima came to her one day after a tiff with her boyfriend. It was raining outside and she was lying on her bed thinking. “I wrote that song from the bottom of my heart because that moment was really distressing,” she recalls.

This bombshell has come a long way since the first time we heard her sing on Gwe Wekka, her first major single. The Afro-beat tinged ballad came out after her self-affirmation, which she could not have managed without the exposure she got with Bakayimbira Dramactors.

Back in 2001, she had been with the drama group for three years and that is when she realised that she had it in herself to produce such beautiful music. She had tried out her luck doing Karaoke at difference places in town and she had got compliments but to go into studio was another thing for her, seeing as she never went out to consciously make music her career. In fact, she had different dreams altogether. “ I started out doing music mainly just for the love of the game, nothing serious. When I was entrusted with the soundtrack to Kigenya Agenya (the TV drama on WBS), I realised that there was more to this than I was admitting,” she tells me.

So how does she see her self? “ I am very ambitious, have always been. Probably something that was planted way back when I was a child,” she asserts. When she was little, she lived in Jinja with her mother while her dad was in Kampala. Her strong character could also be attributed to the fact that she was always very close to her grandmother, a strong willed woman.

In Jinja, she went to Narambhai primary school and then to St. James Senior Secondary School. She moved to Kampala briefly but when her dad passed on when she was thirteen, she moved back to Jinja where she was till her S.6 finals.

She joined Bakayimbira in her vacation, a group that has natured her till now. That exposure was good enough to give her the impetus to move on into TV. “My first stint in TV was with centre 4, the health drama in which I acted as the nurse.”

In December 2003, she auditioned for the Rwanda genocide movie, Sometime in April, which was launched in January 2004. “This project opened my eyes to the fact that there are many talented artistes in this country,” she reflects. “We were there with Abby Mukiibi and he was doing really well.” At this point, she reveals that though she would like to go into music and modelling, her first priority is to be an international actress. This far from her first dream of being an airhostess. And she says she is working tirelessly towards this objective; to be celebrated all over the world.

n_lyton@yahoo.com