How Kataleya met Kandle to form Uganda’s most sought after music female duo

Kandle’s real name is Rebecca Robins Nabatuusa, while Kataleya was born Hadiijah Namakula. They met through a mutual friend at Kataleya’s birthday.

Kataleya went to Noah’s Ark S.S. in Lubaga and Kandle was at Kyambogo College School.  Before they met, Kandle was selling men’s clothes while Kateleya was working in a restaurant.

They later teamed up to sell clothes as they moved around auditioning to music promoters and labels to help them launch their careers.

One day they met a guy who took them to a mall in Naalya and he made them audition in a public space. Nothing came out of it.

Eventually, they gathered 300k and Producer Ronnie on Dis One accepted to do for them a song. He wanted more than that but they pleaded and he reduced.

They came with a written song and he edited it and cut out most of the content and encouraged them to do more writing. They did and he produced it and they’d sample it whenever they would go to other studios.

However, it was never released for public listening. It’s the very song that they took to Theron Music for auditioning and impressed them.

Their first hit song was ‘Do Me’ which was a hit. But it didn’t become one until after a month. Before it, while at Theron, they had released ‘Muzira wa Love’ followed by ‘Tonafuya’.

By Slightly Reckless via Substack