Bebe Cool is an African reggae and ragga musician from Uganda. He started his career around 1997 in Nairobi, Kenya, but moved back to his native country a few years later. Bebe Cool was one of the first artists affiliated with Ogopa DJs, a production house and record label in Kenya.
Early life
Bebe Cool attended Aga Khan Primary School, in Kampala, Kitante Hill School, and Makerere College School, where he attended school studies, but dropped out of school one year prior to completion. At high school, he studied Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Mathematics. Bebe Cool started his music career right from high school when he was acting as an entertainment prefect.
Music career
Bebe Cool is a three-time winner of the Artist of The Year Award at the Prestigious HiPipo Music Awards and won several accolades at Pearl of Africa Music Awards. He was nominated for the Kora All-African Awards in 2003 and 2005. He has toured in the United Kingdom and the United States. Two of his popular singles are "Fitina" and "Mambo Mingi". He also collaborated with Halima Namakula, a Ugandan veteran woman musician, on their crossover track "Sambagala". He released two solo albums, Maisha and Senta. His lyrics are in Luganda, Swahili, and English. Together with Kenyan duo Necessary Noize, Bebe Cool has formed a reggae group known as the East African Bashment Crew. They have released one album, Fire, and two hit singles, "Africa Unite" and "Fire". The group was nominated at the MTV Africa Music Awards 2008. In 2013, Bebe Cool had a music battle with one of Nigeria's top artists D'banj in a neutral place, Glamis Arena Harare Zimbabwe. The show was organized under the theme "Battle for Africa". Bebe Cool put up a great performance at the battle. In 2014, Bebe Cool’s remade Born in Africa remix song, a remake of the late Philly Lutaaya's song was voted among Africa’s greatest songs of all time. The song came at number 15 in Fifty anthems for the African continent. BBC World Service listeners suggested the African songs that summed up the continent to them. This was to mark the 50th anniversary of the African Union – formerly the Organization of African Unity, From the suggestions, the BBC’s DJ Edu, who hosts a weekly African music show on BBC radio, compiled them into a special five-minute mix of 50 songs from 50 countries. Bebe Cool has performed in the Big Brother house twice. From 2016 to 2018, there was rising controversy against Bebe Cool for being a chief organizer for Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the then-president of Uganda who had been described by international media outlets as dictatorial. Ugandans at one time chased him off the stage in a show before he could sing. Bebe Cool won one Afrima award for the best East African male artist in 2018.
Personal life
In January 2010, he was injured when a policeman shot him in the leg. On 11 July 2010, Bebe Cool was performing at the Kyadondo Rugby Club when a bomb set by Somali Islamist terrorist group al-Shabaab exploded. According to Cool, "Most people who died were just in front of me. The blast was so loud—the next thing I saw were body parts flying over."
