As other artistes who have been actively performing for more than a decade are opting for Kampala Serena Hotel for their concerts, Cindy is not in a hurry. Her first concert was held in one of the halls at Imperial Royale Hotel before she took on Lugogo Cricket Oval – perhaps the best attended concert by a local artiste pre-Covid-19. Having conquered the biggest venue, many believed Serena would be the next assignment. But not for Cinderella Sanyu. She chose to stage another outdoor concert and this time, she went for Millenium Grounds Lugogo, which has become the new venue for events in Kampala courtesy of Talent Africa Group.
The Royal Experience show had a lot of mixed reactions. It came on a busy weekend. Just a few metres away, at UMA show grounds, Dax Vibez was having his debut concert and right across town at Sheraton Gardens, the World of Sound event featuring Craig David was happening. This, however, did not stop the Cyndicates (Cindy’s fans) from attending in droves. They stood with the King throughout the entire show. Not even the hiccups during the show stopped them from giving her a standing ovation. Cindy came on stage at 10:23pm after a dance routine by dancers. With her big catalogue and time limit on outdoor events, two hours were not enough for her showcase.
Three songs into her first session, a sound glitch happened, leaving Cindy and the dancers exposed on stage for about five minutes. She freestyled and sang along with the audience as she bought time for the sound to be rectified but all in vain. She occasionally asked the deejay what was happening but did not get any reply, which forced her to abandon the stage, ending her first session prematurely. Fifteen minutes later, Cindy returned, but this time in a different format. She came with her band, contrary to the first set that was entirely CD playback.
Composed and putting the hiccup behind her, she took the audience through a marathon of hits; Mateeka, Sunset, Total Satisfaction, Run The City and Nkooye with an addition of Salsa to it. Zalawo climaxed her second set. She returned for her third set with One and Only, Dilemma perfectly executing Mr G and Bobi Wine’s verses with ease, Onina, Gyptian’s Hold Ya and Boom Party. All this time, Cindy was in sync with the dancers, pulling off every stroke they exhibited. She did not lose her voice at any single moment.
The former Blu*3 singer further proved her talent by doing Pastor Okudi’s Wipolo and Brenda Fassie’s The Lord is My Shepherd in a gospel session.
She was also joined by Lilian Mbabazi and Jackie Chandiru, reminiscing their Blu*3 days doing Nsanyuka Nawe shortly after she called on Ziza Bafana to do Sample Dat, then Mwoto with Karole Kasita and Tebimala with Vyper Ranking. Nawewe, Selecta and Copy Cat were some of the other songs she did before calling on Omega 256 to do their latest hit, See You Tonight, as the last song.
