The media loves her. In fact they loved her from the very beginning when they called her the "flamboyant" one back then when she was the youngest member of Uganda's top girl group Blu 3. Perhaps it was the fact that she was the tallest of the three girls, or the ever changing hairstyles, the seductive eyes, the smile... There was something about Cinderella Sanyu that made her stand out and become a favorite among her fans. But by then most of the attention was perhaps on Lillian Mbabazi and to Cindy's admission she was not very active in the group... at least when it came to the politics of the group. The appreciation and intrigue from the media and fans was subtle... almost quiet... and not something to dwell on. That was before "drama" entered the mix.
UGPulse Promo
First, a little history of Blu 3 taken from Wikipedia:
Blu*3 is a Ugandan all girl band formed in April 2004 after winning the TV show Coca Cola Popstars. The name is contrived to mean 3 Beautiful (or Black) Ladies from Uganda. Original members were Jackie Chandiru, Lillian Mbabazi and Cinderella Sanyu. After winning the contest, they went on to record 2 albums Hitaji (2004) and Burrn (2007). The Hitaji album spawned the hit singles, Hitaji, Frisky and the afro beat Tomalaako. The girls launched Hitaji at logogo Cricket stadium in December 2004 with thousands of fans. The Hitaji video went on to win the Pearl of Africa Music award for video of the year.
Hitaji by Blu*3
The group's name was later changed to Blu 3 having dropped the star.
In 2007, Blu 3 got back in the studio with their long time producer and manager Steve Jean and recorded the full-length album Burrn. The title track featured Navio from hip-hop group Klear Kut.
Burrn - Blu 3 ft Navio
Other hits on the album were the Silver Kyagulanyi penned songs, Nsanyuka Nawe, Ndibeera Nawe and Nkoye.
Nsanyuka Naawe by Blu 3 at PAM Awards
Blu 3 had it all by early 2008. But just as the girls' success was soaring to new heights... just as they were successfully promoting their new album Burrn... First came a change in management. Long time manager Steve Jean, who knew Cindy before the Coca Cola Pop Stars competition that gave birth to the group, supposedly quit the group. A Weekly Observer article Uganda: Blu*3 Bubble Bursts reports that Steve Jean had become too busy with Fenon Records to focus on the group. The new manager was now Club Rouge's Ally Alabhai. The fans did not pay much attention to that even when they knew Steve was a key factor in the group. It was what came afterwards that shocked the fans...
Blu*3 is headed to lose one of its original members. The most-approachable and friendly of all the girls, Cinderella Sanyu a.k.a Cindy has been 'forced' out of Blu*3.
Before Steve Jean quit, the girls had resolved to promote Burrn this year. And in January, they staged concerts in Ghana and Nigeria where they spent two weeks, before resolving to go for a one-month holiday.
Cindy decided to spend her holiday with her boyfriend, Mario Brunetti in Spain. But according to Cindy, a week into her holiday she received a call from her colleagues asking her to 'be back or else get replaced.' "I told them it wasn't possible because it was my holiday and yet I had registered with a vocal trainer.
They asked me if I had relocated and I told them no," said Cindy, who jets into the country this Sunday, in a phone interview with The Weekly Observer.
On February 25, Cindy says, she received another call from her colleagues telling her she had been permanently replaced.
Usually, whenever a member was absent, she was temporarily replaced.
The article continues...
The group's new manager, Ally Alabhai, confirmed to The Weekly Observer that Cindy will not be back in the group.
"Cindy is no longer with the group because she chose not to," Alabhai said.
But next in the article...
"This is a music group and you can't take so much time off the scene -otherwise you will not be felt. If a group doesn't perform in three months, it's forgotten", he added.
And with that we now begin UGPulse.com's interview with Cinderella Sanyu a.k.a Cindy.
Like everyone listening to the news in early 2008 I was shocked to hear that Cindy had left the group. We all just now recently read the Blu 3 interview and their version of events, but at that time in 2008, Cindy's version was what the media picked up. It was known around media circles that Cindy was more approachable and perhaps that served her well in her quest to defend herself in the whole situation.
But my shock was from a business sense rather than pity or anything for Cindy. I knew that Cindy had enough of what it takes for a solo career. She could sing... She was not only visually attractive but she was visually entertaining... be it her fashion and beauty sense or the unique energy she exuded, and definitely all Blu 3 girls exude some powerful energies (must be that selection process and training that made them be who they are... very smart and in-control women and very fluent in expressing themselves.)
So shortly after her first hit as a solo artist, I asked for her number from Julie at musicuganda.com. I only called her a year later while I was planning out African Women's Week 2009. This must have been around March or April 2009. And when I later decided to be in Uganda in June we both agreed to meet in person for the interview. The meeting took place about three days after my interview with Blu 3... and she had been informed that I had just met up with them... before meeting her.
Cinderella Sanyu aka Cindy is interviewed by UGPulse.com.
Peter: OK...(I am struggling with my tape recorder as it starts showing signs of retirement... But finally it starts responding.)...phew!
Cindy: (Quietly laughing...) I know... (Then laughs a little louder.)
Peter: Okay... So... Thank you for coming to the interview. Really appreciate it...
Cindy: You're welcome... I'm glad I came.
Peter: Ummm... (There is a big smile on my face.)Where should I start? (Are you kidding me? After my more-than-interesting interview with Blu 3 and the claims they made I know exactly where I want to go with this interview... I personally need some questions answered.)
I think you know where we want to start... right? Ummm...
Cindy: (She too has a smile. I get the sense that she urgently wants to set things straight but...) Like... Who am I?
Peter: OK... Lets p... The easy questions first.
Cindy: (She laughs.)
Peter: OK..(I play along)So... Who is Cindy?
Cindy: Aah... My real names are Cinderella Sanyu Muyonjo. I was born in Masindi and raised in Kampala. I have been with Blu 3 for the last 4 years... and I started my solo career last year.
Peter: Good landing point...(We both laugh) Blu 3... OK... So what is the story? How did you leave Blu 3?
Cindy: How did I leave?... OK... I'll make it really short.
Peter: (dismissingly) Nooo... No... We don't want it short.
Cindy: All right... Aaah... The last show we did together was the... umm... Goal Africa... I think it was the African Cup of Nations... We did that in Ghana... I think that's the last show we did together. So everybody said we needed a break. (The pace in her voice changes... She is reliving the pain...) So we go on holiday... all of us. Jackie stayed... Lillian went to Rwanda to see the parents... And I was ready to go to Spain... I had never been to Spain.
So I met up with my fianc�...
Peter: You have a Spanish boyfriend?
Cindy: No... no... my boyfriend is Italian. Yeah... So we always used to meet in Rome... in Italy. But then I wanted to see Spain. So we left and it was shortly after leaving that I got the phone call to return to perform. I didn't know about the shows before we left for the holiday... So I was like... "I... I can't come back." So they were like... "OK... Try to make it ten days."... you know... ten days to come back. I did everything I could... You know... I tried to change my flights... After five days they called to check on how far I had gone and I was like, "Its impossible... I can't do it." I kept trying but it was impossible to get a flight.
So they later called me and told me they were going to replace me. I thought it was going to be temporary. I didn't take it seriously until I heard on the 3rd of March... That's when it hit me that Blu 3 had actually... you know... gone on without me. So I was like... Looks like I've been fired.
It was sad. I was supposed to come back that week but I decided to stay for a month.
So I come back in the country a month later and then there is all this news that I had left the group. I wanted to start over... I wanted to forget about everything... But what the girls were saying about me wasn't helping me at all to start what I was doing. So I had to clear the ground for myself to start because there had to be life after Blu 3. I couldn't just give up on everything.
So I decided to tell the story to the people... my side of the story. So I tell everybody the story and then it ends up being such a big issue (emphasis on "big"). I mean... so many girl groups have broken up. And no body thought twice about it. It became such a big issue that after a while me and the girls stopped talking. So the friendship...
Peter: Had Mya ever replaced you before?
Cindy: Yeah... Yeah... She had... she did a show for us before when I was in Rome. I couldn't attend the show. I knew I wasn't going to be there and so I called her and gave her the costumes... the choreography... she's a really nice girl. So I allowed her to be in my place... I was OK with it. And the girls liked her as well. So she had replaced me once before. So since I had worked with her before, I guess it was easy for them to think of her as my replacement.
Peter: OK... Now... We... we did interview them...(My chuckles are to tell Cindy to brace herself and get ready to defend herself.)
Cindy: OK...(She calmly smiles) I know that...
Peter: ... to hear their side of the story and they... they... said that you were in Spain and you decided to pursue something and decided to call back and announce to them that you were leaving the group. Then whatever you were pursuing did not work out...
Cindy: (She interrupts.) Nothing didn't work out. (She breaks into a laughter.)
Peter: ... and so you decided to come back to Uganda to pursue a solo career... (She is amused.)Two questions here...
Cindy: Yes...
Peter: OK... First of all is that true... and secondly what are they talking about when they say you were trying to pursue other things in Spain?
Cindy: I don't know. (Then with emphasis.) Seriously I don't know. All I went to do is see my boyfriend and spend some time together. And then... we are still together... If something didn't work out...
Because there was this rumor that me and him broke up... and that that's when I had to come back to Uganda. But we are still together. So he had to come back and he actually moved here...
Ummm... I didn't want to pursue anything in Spain... After all... no one speaks English out there. I mean...(She laughs) What am I going to do there? Besides... I had a career in Uganda... I had a name... I had... Blu 3 was so big... you know... We were starting to actually win Africa!! H... How would I...? Why would I... leave the group? You know... I don't see a reason why. I met my boyfriend here... you know... We were here three years... So I would have left the group before if it was about my boyfriend.
So it isn't true that I pursued something that failed... and then when I came back the very first song I released became a hit... I mean it got me a lot of shows and put me on the map. I hadn't released anything before that that probably didn't work out... and then needing me to create a story to make something else workout. Nothing at all... It was my first song and it worked out. So I had nothing that forced me to say all these things about the group. I just did that to start my life.
There were rumors that I wanted to get married... In the long run it made me look like I'm not a serious person. Whatever I tried to do people thought I wasn't serious. They were like if she could leave her career for a man, then you know... this is not somebody you can work with. So it was like a small thing... like I would talk to a producer and would be like, "This is not what happened. This is what happened..." So that I could work!... with them. So it spread out and became a big story.
In the beginning Blu 3 didn't care because they did not think that anybody would listen to me. That's why they did not come out to offer their side of the story... because they didn't think anything would happen with "Cindy". In a way I feel like they under estimated me in the very beginning.
(Although calm, diplomatic and very fluent in expressing herself, Cindy is talking fast at this point... From one thing to the next... You can tell that she is mad!)
In the group I did not play an active role...
Peter: Visually perhaps...(Perhaps I'm trying to lighten things up...)From the hairstyles...
Cindy: (Nope... She is still serious and interrupts by raising her voice slightly.) Yes visually... But what really happened in the group... like indoors... like you know... in the studios... like decision making... and all these things... I didn't have a big role.
Peter: Where you as quiet as Mya?
Cindy: No... Nah... Not as quiet as Mya. (She softens up and laughs.) Anyway I don't know what happens in the inner circles but it looks like Mya is very quiet.
(She continues from where she left off...)
So in the group I wasn't so active. So I guess when I left they didn't think I would be a force to reckon with... Or like they would have to defend themselves... They didn't think so! So I gave out my story and people received it... And people had a way of knowing that it is the truth. I didn't have to go anywhere to say, "Pleeeease... believe me."... You know... So... this is how it worked out.
Cinderella Sanyu aka Cindy.
Peter: Wow...(She takes a breather and I almost feel like I need one too. I am not sure what to ask next after all of that.)Ummmm... So many questions...
(We both laugh.)
Peter: OK so... OK.(I hesitate.)
Before we get into the music... There is one other scandal... Right? The nude photos...
About the Author Peter Allen Kigonya is the founder and owner of UGPulse.com, BlackMenWomen.com and Freefufu.com. He can be reached at letters@ugpulse.com.
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