Music is timeless.
Also, music is subjective. A song can mean one thing in one situation, yet have a completely opposite meaning under different circumstances.
And there’s probably nobody that this truth resonates with at the moment more than singer Hillary Kiyaga aka Hilderman. You have probably come across a video of a joyous Amelia Kyambadde (NRM) grooving to Hilderman’s song Amelia during the recent parliamentary campaigns. Final results indicate she trounced the singer to regain her seat in Mawokota North county in Mpigi district.
A seat she lost to the singer in the 2021 elections that left Kyambadde reeling from what was then described as NUP-wave that swept across Central Uganda leaving even Ministers like Kyambadde in its wake.
If a typical GenZ, who was oblivious to the political climate let alone the musical temperature that prevailed in 2010, came across that video of Kyambadde, while doomscrolling election-related content on their TikTok, they probably wouldn’t raise an eyebrow.
Yet there is a fascinating irony around Amelia, the 2010 hit song. Today, Kyambadde can afford to gleefully groove to it, but in the wake of the 2021 election after that popular NUP wave submerged her, bruising her Cabinet-level clout, she loathed the lyrics.
For the uninitiated, Hilderman recorded the song Amelia in 2010 in what would later become a campaign anthem for Amelia Kyambadde (then Principal Private Secretary to the President) as she campaigned to represent Mawokota North in Parliament the following year. That was long before the singer picked interest in politics. It was seven years before Bobi Wine (Hilderman’s political role model) took an aim at elective politics as MP for Kyadondo East.
“He [Hilderman] really did a good job for me with that song. I would dance with Hilderman at every campaign spot. He would take to the stage and introduce the song with his hoarse voice. Then I would come right after clad in my gomesi,” Kyambadded has said in a previous interview.
She won the 2011 election, owing to among other reasons, the message in the song and the influence it had on not just the electorate in Mawokota North but across the country.
Produced by Sheddy, the song – a nominee in the 2010 PAM Awards for Song of the Year – combines the Ugadan pop sound with a lilting, mid-tempo groove. Its four-on-the-floor leaning Afropop drum pattern and percussive fills give it a light dancehall feel. For music lovers elsewhere in Uganda, it was another lovey-dovey song, thanks to Hilderman’s songwriting tact – the song had a strong love theme, generic chorus and warm melody.
“I went to the village only to discover there was an association called Twezimbe Development Foundation. I was told it was an initiative of the Principal Private Secretary to the President, a lady called Amelia Kyambadde. I got a sense this initiative was all a ploy aimed at promoting Amelia Kyambadde among the locals. But when I learnt she was the Principal Private Secretary to the President, what came to my mind was ‘Mawokota North shouldn’t miss out on such an opportunity,” Hilderman has said previously.
“Though, the idea that the locals would miss out on the message due to the wrong tactics employed was also a likelihood. That’s when I decided to write the song. She had no idea about it,” he added.
He would later meet Kyambadde’s personal assistant whom he requested a meeting with the former to pitch how he could effectively brand her in Mawokota North. Being the rising musician (with popular song titles like Double Bed and Campus Girl) Hilderman was, the first idea that flashed in his mind was recording a demo song which he did.
He was not ready to fumble this golden opportunity so much so that he sacrificed Ushs 400,000 to buy a radio cassette that he believed would give Kyambadde audio output good enough for her to appreciate the impact the song (Amelia) would create. It took just two months from when the music video was released, for the song to blow out. Never mind that Kyambadde had been hesitant to greenlight the project.
Hilderman says whereas their initial meeting had ended on a promising note, the principal’s subsequent consultations had left her with cold feet about the prospect of “working with uncouth people like musicians”.
“I was driving along Kampala Road when I received a call from her and she was excited about what she was hearing out there in the public,” Hilderman recollects.
In the song, he refers to Kyambadde as an “answered prayer” adding that if she was up for a vote, he would not hesitate to choose her. “Our development is only possible with you”.
“Now let me tell you what’s on my mind. Let’s go to Mawokota where I am born. They can’t wait to see you. What hurts me most is how long it took you to come, but now that you’re here, Mawokota is fired up,” goes a translation of the Luganda lyrics.
These are the lines that ring true today as Kyambadde basks in her latest electoral victory, as was the case back in 2011 and 2016.
In retrospect, however, the same song was as relevant when the odds were in Hilderman’s favour back in 2021. Hot on the heels of him dislodging then Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, he made reference to parts of the song where he warned Kyambadde that underperformance in Parliament would have consequences.
“Do not break my heart like all the others have done…. I have trusted you, stick to your promises. Beware that some people will mislead you,” goes parts of the song which at the peak of Hilderman’s 2021 vibrant campaign felt like a reflection of an electorate that felt abandoned.
In a concession with candidness that politicians rarely exhibit, Kyambadde who came third in the 2021 race admitted as much.
“People are tired of NRM’s long stay in power because they think we have not done enough to address their issues,” she said in a media interview in January of 2021, adding “Many people like me as a person but hate my party” as if manifesting the broken hearts Hilderman alluded to.
Analysts may read the sentiments that led voters to vote the way they did this last week as Hilderman stewing in his own juices. That promises were not kept.
Whichever side of the political aisle you are, one thing is undeniable: as a musician, Hilderman ably demonstrated the power of art in shaping perceptions within even spaces like politics where it (art) often feels like an intruder.
