Cinderella Sanyu: The Unfinished Duo with P Square

Continues from: Cinderella Sanyu: Cindy in Red Pepper

UGPulse Promo

Peter: W... w... what is your relationship now between you and Jackie... and you and Lillian?

Cindy: Kind of like Tupac and Notorious. (She laughs.)

Peter: Wha-a...? (Amused, I have this big grin on my face... almost laughing as she continues laughing out loud.) Tupac and Notorious... Really... Wow...

Bad Girl by the new Blu 3

Cindy: Its... Its... We... (The laughter is fading into almost what I can call a frustration.) We don't talk.

Peter: So you are fighting basically...

Cindy: (Passionately...)We... We don't fight. But we don't talk! (There is more frustration in her voice.)

We can't talk. (The frustration is not that far from desperation... Not that far from tears.) I... I don't hate them... And I KNOW they don't hate me. When I see them we look at each other. I don't see that they hate me. I just feel like they don't know what to say... They don't know whether they should believe... Cuz we were together for four years... They know me...

Peter: That's what they said... (I'm referring to the part in the Blu 3 interview when Lillian talks about growing up with Cindy from when they were seventeen.)

Cindy: Yeeeaah... I mean... Right now maybe they think they don't know me? But they do. We did. We shared so much together. I was so... I'm a really open person. My heart is out there. I'm not that kind of person who is reserved. So I feel like in a way they... maybe they wanna believe I really want to bring them down and all these things? But deep inside I'm sure they wanna find out the truth. I know one day when everything calms down we'll be able to sit down and talk. Because me and the girls have always been able to resolve... (Then with emphasis...) ANYTHING. Anything at all...

Peter: How would you describe... Lillian for example.

Cindy: She's a free spirit. If she was an animal she'd be a bird. (She laughs out loud... Its clear that she is talking about a friend.) Seriously... She's a free spirit. She never keeps anything inside of her.

Peter: Hmnn...

Cindy: She never keeps anger. She never keeps a grudge. If she is mad at you she will say, "Peter, I'm mad at you. You did this and I don't like it." (This is consistent with the Lillian I met a couple of days before this interview.) And two minutes later you are happy together...You know... That's her.

(Then abruptly...)

Jackie is different. She's gonna keep it in... keep it in... keep it... then one day she will just cry, (Mimicking a crying child...) "(Boo... hoo...) You hurt me... (sob... sob...)" (I laugh...)

None of them is the kind of person who will hate you and do something bad... to... to... you know... to show that they hate you. No... I don't know that about the girls... I don't... and... And I still don't believe it till this day. This whole thing has gotten bigger than I intended it to be. It became really big and it separated us. One day when everything calms down it will be ok.

Peter: Hmnn.

Cindy: I don't know a lot about Mya. I used to talk to her when she was our dancer... with the Combat dancers... A little quiet... But really sweet.

Peter: (Sigh... I'm trying to take it all in.) Ok... so lets talk about your music... You first came out with Mbikooye...

Cindy: Yes...

Peter: That was pretty quick after your split with Blu 3. How come so fast? And what led up to the song?

Cindy: To do the song... Even before there was Blu 3 there was Me. I was in a competition called Real Stars and I was... out of about three thousand, I was the third, and I was the best girl. The other two were boys. It was a competition like Pop Stars but this one was local... with just a few districts coming together from here and some western parts of Uganda. So I got to win a recording contract with Steve Jean...

Peter: Oh... Before Blu 3?

Cindy: Yeah... Before Blu 3.

Peter: Wow...

Cindy: So I got to do a single. And as it was beginning to work out, Pop Stars came along. And Steve felt like it was... Everybody felt like it was a good chance for me. So I went for that and I abandoned what I had done before. So after that...

Peter: Where you called Cindy then?

Cindy: Yeah... I was... No... I was more like Cinderella. They used all my names like Cinderella Sanyu. (She laughs.) Yeah I didn't call myself Cindy... I've never known that name until I joined Pop Stars... (She is still tickled by the fact.)Yeah I knew other Cindys... but I had never been called Cindy. It was the judges who started calling me, "Cindy... Cindy"... then everybody. Because it was on TV all the time. So people started calling me Cindy. I became Cindy with Blu 3.

So after that (i.e the split wih Blu 3) it felt like going back to Me. It was hard... yes... but I had been there before. Yeah... so it wasn't unfamiliar... Yeah... So it felt like just going back to me. I had written a lot of songs that I couldn't get to do with Blu 3...

Peter: (In shock...) Did you write Mbikooye?

Cindy: Ah... Yes... I did.

Peter: (Still in shock and almost whispering...) Oh you did...

Cindy: Yes... I did. (She admits...) I needed help with the Luganda man...(She laughs.) I needed a lot of help with the Luganda so I had Dennis, the producer, help me with... I wanted deep words...

Peter: What's his last name?

Cindy: Dennis Katooke... A lot of people know him from working with Okudi... George Okudi... the only Ugandan to win a KORA as Best African Artist some years ago. So I worked with him and we did Mbikooye.

Mbikooye

Peter: Was it... Was it in reference at all to your split with Blu 3?

Cindy: (Sighs) In a way... When I came back I was Mad! I was upset about everything that had been happening. About what the girls were saying... or how the story basically turned out... You know... Cuz I don't know what they said. But then everything just totally turned the other way. So I was mad when I went into the studio. So I... I... I wanted a topic that would totally reflect on what I feel. So even if you listen to the vocals you can tell that I was mad... (She starts to laugh as I am nodding agreeing with her that I could tell she was mad.)

Peter: Yeah... Yeah... You can tell.

Cindy: Yeah... Yes I was mad. So I put my feelings onto the track. Some... In some way I wanted to say what I felt about Blu 3... and in a lot of ways I REALLY wanted to talk about domestic violence. So it had a lot of hidden messages... yeah and also a lot of plain messages.

Peter: Your next song was with Wine...

Cindy: Mickey Wine... Number One...

Peter: Was that the next song? How were the reviews on that.

Cindy: In between I did a song called "Hot Like That"... which was Hip hop... It didn't really work out everywhere because this country does not have the market as yet. It's just growing. It plays a lot on one of the stations... (I believe she said Hot 100)

Then I met up with Mickey Wine. Mickey Wine actually called me and said he had a beautiful song. I was like... ok. I had a lot of free time by then. So I met him. He had written almost everything. And then he got this track from a Jamaican producer. When I heard the track I was like... Ok... I'm down. Lets do this. It was lovely...

Peter: Was it very different for you and how did your fans take it?

Cindy: It WAAS different. Very different... It was like hard core dancehall. So I was like an excited child. It was like running away from home... You wanna do everything. Because now you don't have parents to look at you and tell you what to do. So I didn't care what people thought. I just wanted to do...

Peter: Where you still mad?

Cindy: I wasn't mad... (Then passionately with excitement...) I was excited! You know... I was. So when he brought this song and I heard the beat... I was like... Let's do this... I don't care what happens... you know.

So we gave it to the studio and... and Paddy the producer just made me do things that I didn't think I could do... (Laughs.)

Peter: Oh yeah?

Cindy: Yeah... He just kept on like, "Stronger... Stronger... Stronger." So when you listen to it its like, "Is that Cindy?" I am shocked every time I see the video...

Number 1 by Cindy Sanyu and Mickey Wine

...because I can't believe I actually sang that. So we do the song and it works out... you know... (She has a big "Gosh! That was a lot of fun!" look on her face.) And Mickey Wine is a REALLY sweet person... very nice guy... apart from the BAD boy image he has put out there. So it was easy... a couple of hours... It was really great... and it worked out.

After that was the song in Swahili... Nawewe...

Peter: A very beautiful song.

Cindy: Yeah... I had written the song a year before...

Peter: While still with Blu 3?

Cindy: Yes... Yeah... So I tried to do it with Blu 3... But it wasn't their style. It wouldn't blend. But it was a song that I wrote with my heart. I wrote every word cuz I felt it. Yeah... It was a personal experience.

Peter: For some of us who don't speak Swahili... what is the song about?

Cindy: Its about a lost love... When you lose someone because it was your mistake. And then you love them and you want them to come back. You want to find a million ways of telling them, "Please come back to me." A lot of times, as women we get proud... Cuz we want the guy to call us back... You know... even if we are wrong. So for once I... I couldn't say like, "Sorry... Women... we don't like doing that." So I wanted to put it in a song. So I went into the studio and did it... Because it was in my heart... I had to take it out. Yeah... It's a very personal song. Till this day... When I sing it... I feel every word.

Nawewe by Cindy Sanyu

Peter: How successful has it been?

Cindy: Oh it has been successful... In Kenya... In Tanzania... In a lot of places outside (of Uganda)... in Burundi... In Rwanda. It works out. People love it. Here (in Uganda) people love the video... they like the song. Its not a song that works out like Mbikooye which went straight to the clubs. This is a song that just grows slowly... and becomes a classic. So I'm glad that people love it. Then I did the video and I love the video as well... It worked out.

P Square with No One Like You

Peter: Then there is this song with you and Nigerian artist P Square... I'm unable to get the complete song for some reason...

Cindy: Ok... Because... Because it was a mistake that that song got out of the studio. (She laughs.)

So it went out... and its out there and the quality is terrible. I don't like it. But there is nothing to do about it.

Peter: So you're going to release it at some point?

Cindy: Aww man... We don't know. We're thinking about it. We don't know if we should do a totally new thing? So that we totally forget about that one. (She laughs.) Or we should stick to the old one and just master it and finish everything. It just came out too early because there was so much noise about it. So somebody felt that they had to sneak it out of the studio and put it out there.

So yeah... I did a song with P Square... and it's a beautiful song. We just don't know what to do now.

You and Me by Cindy ft PSquare - Leaked version

Peter: You should finish it. We wanna hear it COMPLETE... Cuz even I feel its like an unfinished story.

Cindy: Yeah... It is unfinished... (She laughs.) When I have it I will give you a call.

Peter: Great... So what else have you worked on?

Cindy: Ummm... I'm working on this song called Ayokya.

Cinderella Sanyu aka Cindy.

(To be Continued) Next... In the final part of our interview, Cindy talks about her smash hit... "Ayokyayokya"... and she has one final message for the girls of Blu 3.

Continues at: Cindy Sanyu: A Cindy, Blu 3 Reunion?