Musician John Blaq has opened up about one of the biggest challenges he believes is preventing Ugandan artistes from turning international collaborations into major career opportunities.
According to John Blaq, many local artistes manage to secure collaborations with established international stars but lack the financial resources needed to properly promote the resulting songs.
He says this leaves many promising collaborations struggling to gain traction beyond Uganda, with some eventually fading without reaching their full potential.
“International stars have a huge budget but are not willing to push the collaborations without effort from local stars. We are broke, local artistes are broke to push the collaborations, so they suffer natural deaths,” John Blaq said in an interview with a local television station.
The singer believes international collaborations can open doors for Ugandan artistes, but only if both sides invest in marketing, promotion and other efforts required to take the music to wider audiences.