Allan Hendrick Uganda’s rising dance hall king

Allan after rebranding

Many times, Ugandans want to use ‘technical know who’ to get to where they want to be. People say it is a trend of life. Not so for Allan Hendrick Ssali, a reggae and dance hall star, also son to Uganda’s music icon and Gagamel CEO Moses Ssali aka Bebe Cool. This young man feels otherwise. He prefers taking his own life struggles and detests being addressed as Bebe Cool’s son.

Sunrise’s Fahad Kasibante had a one on one with him.

Born to Moses Ssali on 16th-october, Allan prefers not to reveal his mother’s identity claiming the media will snatch her peace.

He attended Rukungiri modern for his primary, Kawempe Muslim and Kitante hill school for his A-level education. He is currently in his third year at the University Of East Africa pursuing a soft ware engineering course.

When asked on whether he will drop music for his profession, Hendrick says music is his passion and there is no way he is dropping any for the other.

‘This industry is a very difficult place to be if you are not learned. One thing disturbing many people in Uganda is because they are not educated.’

‘I have always wanted things to do with IT and technology. On the other hand, I love music and I can take them all so I said why not! I also have siblings who look up to me so I have to show them the right way.’

His first time to studio was five years ago in his senior four at Kitante hill school when he joined a group of friends ‘Rappers’ and collaborated on a song about HIV/AIDS. He however says the song was never released due to poor standards of the studio and the equipment used.  It is from then that he became inspired and later released his first dance hall ‘Bundu’ that led him into the lime light as an artiste.

His love for being a versatile artiste has led him to song writers like Eddy Z, St Andrew, Final, Brian among others.

The undying passion for reggae inspires him to keep in the industry and the love for a better earning drives him to do dance hall.

‘I am a lover of reggae and Tarrus Riley is my greatest inspiration. I do dance hall for business. I blend in the two genres for both love and money.

When pressed, his opinion on artistes yearning to join the politics and represent their fans in a different fora, the ‘Ononya’ star revealed that he is not a lover of politics and doesn’t care who takes what position.

‘Politics is not my thing so I have nothing to comment about it. I don’t care who seconds who in a position. I spend most of my time following reggae artistes on you tube. Politics is not my strength.’

Allan Ssali believes that just like any other institution, Uganda’s entertainment industry needs regulations to follow though he also thinks it is better for the industry to be laid on a table for all the artistes to know how they benefit from policies .

Allan Hendrick Ssali aka paper daddy

To all the dance hall and reggae fanatics, the ‘Tebakutambala’ assured that 2019 is his year since he is now fully conversant on how the entertainment industry operates.

‘I have taken my time to learn and know what it takes to prosper in this industry. So this I plan to release a song every month. Tebakutambala is already out. Just wait for more and more from Hendrick.’

Hendrick says the only reason some artistes make appearances like shooting stars is because they don’t make enough research and are not guided.

‘These guys are making mistakes. Someone joins the industry minus making enough research and after two years, he feels the burden is too heavy.’

He urged his fans to review his interview at the end of 2019 just to make sure they don’t wonder about his successful career.

‘2019 is my year. This interview should be reviewed by the end of this year so that people can refer to it. 2019 is not any one’s year but mine.’ He assured.

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