Richard Lwanga a.k.a Vokal Omrich

Vokal Omrich turns to gospel
GOSPEL music was until recently, a genre dominanted by church choirs and a few bold and faithful artistes. Despite their meager returns from the recordings, they never gave up.

Today, the picture is different with new artistes springing up every now and then and secular artistes, too, joining the fray.

One such new artiste on the gospel scene is Richard Lwanga a.k.a. Vokal Omrich or ‘Uncle’, a name he adopted from South Africa, where he spent four years pursuing a music career.

While there, he participated in Sun City’s monthly Africa Nite, had weekly performances at the casino in Soweto and the annual Bloomfontein.

He says after a good show there, people said he was richly talented and had good vocals translated as Vokal Omrich. But the fact that he has not broken ground on the local music scene does not mean he is new in Uganda.

In fact, Vokal’s music career dates back to the late 1980s and early 1990s when he sang with the New Generation Africa Band that was based at Pride Theatre on Namirembe Road. It, however, disbanded when he left for the US.

Considering that he has been around for about seven years showcasing his work abroad, he is not entirely new.

In 1991 after Pastor Robert Kayanja’s crusade’s, he decided to ditch secular music for gospel. What makes Omrich new is that he was secular then and not solo.

Mambo, a 10-track album, is Omrich’s fifth album, having done others earlier. He will launch Mambo next month before embarking on a Scandinavia tour.
Mambo provides a repertoire of R‘n’B, Jazz, Latino, Reggae, Kwaito and what Omrich calls “chill music.”

His other tracks include I love You, Moving Forward and Weloze.
Omrich says he trained upcoming muscians to sing, including some ministries’ choirs in South Africa.

He has worked with one of South Africa’s leading gospel artistes, Benjamin Dube and Nigeria’s Pop Idol Eric Arubayi.
In Uganda, the dancer-cum-singer and producer has worked with Limit-X’s Isaac Rucci and Fiona Mukasa. His idols are Whitney Houston, Cece Winans, Angella and Veronica.

Omrich, who would fancy a duet with songbird Juliana Kanyomozi, says his life’s surroundings inspire him to write ‘touching’ songs as evidenced in Mambo and Show Me the Way.

He is planning to start a live music-band and also delve into contemporary music, besides doing gospel.

Omrich produced almost all the songs on the album, save for We’re Strangers, on which David Nsaiga, a rising artiste, lent his hand. Omrich’s next album will have Ngoni on board.

The 31-year-old burly artiste, a son of the late ex-Inspector General Of Police, Apollo Byekwaso, is married and has a five-month-old baby.

He looks forward to changing the face of music in uganda.