By Our Reporter
Johnnie Walker is stepping additional into Uganda’s music scene, asserting its partnership as headline sponsor of Joshua Baraka’s B’RAKA LAND East Africa Kampala finale, set for November 28 at Lugogo Hockey Grounds.
The partnership brings collectively a world model with one of many new voices shaping Uganda’s music and artistic scene, at a time when Baraka’s journey is more and more extending past the Kampala levels the place it started.
Baraka has spent the previous few years constructing a sound and id that journey simply, from his beginnings in Kawempe to changing into certainly one of Uganda’s most recognisable younger artists, and now taking his music to audiences throughout East Africa. It is that this sense of motion that has made him the face of Johnnie Walker’s new Keep Walking marketing campaign in East Africa.
The marketing campaign is constructed on a easy thought: progress will not be solely measured by the place you finally arrive, however by the journey, the dangers, setbacks, small wins and decisions that take you there.
For Johnnie Walker, partnering with Baraka at this level in his profession creates a possibility for that concept to exist past promoting, in music, reside efficiency and the experiences audiences are already selecting to be a part of.
“We see a variety of ourselves in Joshua’s journey. He is an artist who is continually shifting, experimenting and discovering new methods to attach with individuals. That is what makes this partnership thrilling for us. Keep Walking is a philosophy about progress, however it additionally offers us a technique to take part within the tales and areas which can be shaping the following technology of African creativity,” mentioned Christine Kyokunda, Brand Manager, Johnnie Walker Uganda. “B’RAKA LAND offers us the chance to try this in a method that feels real. We aren’t merely placing our identify behind a live performance. We are strolling with Joshua by means of the journey, throughout the nation, by means of completely different audiences and in the end onto the Kampala stage.”
That journey is already underway.
The B’RAKA LAND East Africa tour has been taking Baraka to audiences past Kampala, with stops in Gulu and Arua, adopted by Mbale over the weekend. The tour will subsequent head to Mbarara, earlier than returning to Kampala for the November 28 finale.
Each cease has introduced the artist into a distinct native music surroundings, whereas constructing anticipation for the Kampala present and increasing the story round B’RAKA LAND past a single live performance.
For Johnnie Walker, that motion issues.
Music has lengthy been one of many areas the place younger Africans specific id, ambition and their view of the world. Artists akin to Baraka are more and more shifting between native and continental audiences, taking Ugandan tales and sounds into wider conversations about African creativity.
It is inside that motion that Johnnie Walker is selecting to point out up.
The partnership is subsequently not merely concerning the remaining efficiency. The street to Kampala,the cities, the audiences, the music and the moments created alongside the best way, is a part of the expertise.
And Baraka’s personal story offers the partnership a human centre.
His rise has not adopted a straight line. It has concerned the regular work of releasing music, performing, constructing an viewers and discovering his place in an more and more aggressive African music business. With each new stage and viewers, the vacation spot has shifted additional forward.
That is the essence of Keep Walking.
“For us, progress is one thing you expertise alongside the best way. Joshua continues to be constructing, and that’s exactly why that is the precise second for us to stroll with him. We need individuals to see themselves in that journey,whether or not they’re taking their first step, altering route or just pushing in direction of no matter comes subsequent,” Kyokunda added.
The Kampala finale will deliver that journey to its largest Ugandan stage but.
On November 28, Lugogo Hockey Grounds will host B’RAKA LAND East Africa, with Baraka joined by different performers and entertainers for an evening that may deliver collectively his rising fanbase and the broader music group round his journey.
Tickets begin at UGX 75,000.
By the time Baraka takes the stage in Kampala, he could have travelled by means of a number of Ugandan cities, carried out for various audiences and added one other chapter to a profession that’s more and more crossing borders.
For Johnnie Walker, that’s exactly the purpose.
The model will not be ready for the vacation spot to rejoice the journey. It is selecting to stroll it with him, by means of the music, the individuals and the moments that make the journey price taking.