Omega Bugembe Okello–Power Of Music

[World Music]

Ugandan songstress, Omega Bugembe Okello, is known as a world musical artist. It suits her just fine as it's a liberating label, allowing her to explore the many sides to her gifts that go beyond one genre of music.

Fresh off of her 2009 NAACP Image Award nomination for best album in the "World Music" category, Omega Bugembe Okello was previously best known for her Jazz-Fusion work where her vocal range and multi-lingual skills allowed her to move in and out of Western and Eastern sounds with an ease not many artists possess in their musical stylings.

It makes for a refreshing sound with standard musical influences in Jazz, Inspiration and Popular music.

Omega’s nominated album, “Kiwomera Emmeeme,” which means, "It Is Sweet To The Soul," introduced the world to her beautiful voice. One reviewer of Omega’s voice says that it “hauntingly seeps into one’s soul.” The album opened up her East African roots to an American listening audience like none of her previous works had ever done, and was an instant hit.

Now comes yet another genre of music in her latest record release, “Amazed,” a gospel album that mixes Eastern and Western traditions of music with Gospel for a unique and refreshing inspirational musical experience. Nowhere on the album is this blend of tradition and non-tradition mix more evident than on Omega’s cover of “Amazing Grace,” the old spiritual hymnal.

Using music has allowed Omega to bring a voice to causes that are near and dear to her in her homeland of Uganda specifically, and to all of Africa in general. After earning a Master’s degree in Health Advocacy in the U.S., Omega and some associates joined forces to start the Alpha and Omega School in Kampala, Uganda, a school which provides mostly scholarships to over 300 students to finish their education.

Additionally, Omega performed a benefit concert in Uganda recently to benefit Maternal Health-care where more surgical beds could be attained to lower the number of women dying during childbirth due to lack of proper beds. It is these types of concerns and efforts that Omega addresses through her music that has earned her the title, “The Singing Health Advocate.”

It is through her music, from the time she was a child prodigy at age four, singing with the internationally acclaimed “African Children’s Choir,” that Omega felt an anointing to bless people with her songs and allow that music to bring about change, empowerment and knowledge to Africans and to the world.

Currently living in Northern California with her manager husband, Richard Okello, and expecting their first child, Omega is an emerging artist that is making beautiful music and a difference in the lives of people both here in the States and in Africa.
That truly makes her a “World Music Artist;” more than just a musician, and a blessing for us all.


www.omegaworldmusic.com