Allowed: Jackie Chandiru ponders Quitting Music Citing Unrivaled Maturity and 100s of New Talent

Singer Jackie Chandiru of the ‘Gold digger’ song fame who went into near oblivion when she re-located to Nairobi Kenya, over drug and alcohol addiction has returned home, sober but with little hope to restart her music career.

Jackie, who has been away for a couple of years and had turned Nairobi into her new home, with lots of friends and romantic acquaintances, had eventually decided to come back home and reignite her career.

However, it was a rude welcome for the now sober and focused sexy singer, who has confessed to being wrong on finding things as they were when she left the country.

Jackie, told all and sundry at a famous studio in industrial area, where she had gone to book for a recording session, that she has been taken aback by the enormous raw talent in Uganda now, and how the business has evolved which pits her as a stranger in a world she only knew too well before she left.

‘Everything is so fast and streamlined and now I have to spend over UGX50m to make an impact in the industry. Radios, Tvs and social media are awash with new music at every click, I will try my luck but God help me’ she said.

In 2002, at the age of 18, Jackie Chandiru joined the Coca-Cola Pop Star Competition on a whim. She was surprised when she won the competition, with Lilian Mbabazi and Cindy Sanyu. Jackie Chandiru had written melodies of Hitajji and Bad Gal when she was still at university.

The trio then formed Blu*3, where She found musical success with the group winning the Best Artist/Group from Uganda & Best Music Video from Uganda in the 2005 Kisima Music Awards, Video of the Year (“Hitaji”) in the 2005 Pearl of Africa Music Awards.

In 2007, she won in the Video of the Year category with “Burrn” at that year’s Pearl of Africa Music Awards. In 2005, Blue*3 was nominated for best East African Group in the 2005 Kora Awards.

Best East African Album (Hitaji) in the 2005 Tanzania Music Awards. In 2006, Blue*3 was nominated for the Best East African video (“Frisky”). In 2009 they were nominated for Best Group & Best Performer in that year’s MTV Africa Music Awards and for the Best East African Song (Where You Are with Radio & Weasel) in the 2010 Tanzania music awards.

In 2008, after five years of working together, one of the founding members of Blu*3, Cinderella Sanyu, suddenly left the group, to launch a solo career. The remaining two group founders, Jackie Chandiru and Lilian Mbabazi, recruited a new singer, Mya Baganda, and changed the name of the group to Blu 3 without them.

Jackie, was booked four years ago into Bunnamwaya Rehabilitation Centre in Uganda for drug misuse, threateningly suicidal and was placed under suicide watch at the time. She later recovered, embarking on a much publicized campaign on how she had successfully beaten the habit, only to sadly relapse.

At about that time, her family hoarded her to Nairobi for more specialized care and rehabilitation, from where she has returned as a better person in charge of her life and future.