Music Review (Down Memory Lane): Mama Mbire – Bobi Wine & Juliana

You ever come across a song you simply couldn’t be bothered about, but could understand why it was such a hit?

Mama Mbire fit that category for me. The song was one disjointed, maniacal, bawling effort… but everybody loved it.

I think it was hugely popular because it was unapologetically praising the daylights out of that one person that everybody feels they should – their momma.

Songs about mothers actually work, almost universally. Maywood had one, Boys II Men had one, Tupac had one, heck, Brenda Fassie had one and even Judith Babirye had one.
https://youtu.be/3PPgZ5yq4q0

I could spend all day writing a list of popular momma songs, but you get the idea – momma songs work.

And these two artistes knew it. The song is allegedly written for the mother of Charles Mbire, a Kampala businessman who has a special love for music.

Mama Mbire after whom the song was sang

He told me once that he actually used to play the guitar and wanted to become a professional musician until his mother stepped in and told him to put these silly dreams aside and focus on his education and things of that nature.

Looking at him now, one would say this instruction paid off in the end, eh?

The song, therefore, wasn’t a surprise and neither was the fact that it was such a huge hit.

Dropping around 2005, the song also took advantage of the obvious chemistry that had been revealed when Juliana teamed up with Bobi Wine on Taata Wa Abaana, a much more musically relevant song, if you ask me.

If anything, the two were regarded as the least likely collaboration possible when they first dropped Taata Wa Abaana, so it was clever for them to go on and try another song again, catching fans of the two singers completely off-guard.

It is for this reason that I consider Mama Mbire a clever song, one that seized the day, an excellent example of musical opportunism.