A Good Hogmananny to all. The following story is from one of today's Uganda newspapers. Yoseveni Museveni is the Ugandan President. Shs40 million is a little over £10,000.


Museveni to bag millions from song
When National Resistance Movement presidential candidate, Mr Museveni, decided to do a song to win votes from youths, little did he know that it would turn into a big hit and become the talk of town.

Analysts project that Mr Museveni might earn about Shs40 million by the first quarter of 2011 from radio stations and people who use his song "Mpenkoni" as caller ringing tones on mobile phones.

Speaking at a two-day Diaspora summit in Kampala on Thursday, the Uganda Performing Rights Society (UPRS) general secretary, Mr James Wasula, said Mr Museveni's lawyers registered the song last month and he is expected to earn millions of shillings by end of March.

"We have started collecting money for Mr Museveni from his song now commonly known as "Another Rap". His lawyers approached us late last month and registered the song. Whatever we shall have collected will be handed over to him by end of first quarter," Mr Wasula said.

He said the amount an artiste gets depends on the popularity. Mr Museveni was inspired to record the track by a group of musicians from Entebbe, who explained to him the poetical nature of the hip-hop music genre to the Ugandan president.

The song's copyright raised protest from members of the public who argued that it was improper for the President to patent a traditional Kinyankore folk song.

However, Mr Wasula said there is no law that protects traditional folk songs from copyright.