Ssemitego: The Ugandan man driving ladies wild with social media videos

Thirty (30) seconds, is all it takes for him to tenderize his victims, mostly females on social media and some unsuspecting men. With in the time, his victim is rolling on the floor, yearning for more. The only tools to execute his operation are a cap, a smartphone, in a car ambiance with music in the background.

Ddumba Ssemitego, a Ugandan based in Canada, has made his mark. In 30 seconds he has taken the spots of many girls’ WhatsApp statuses and got men asking who he is.

Nile Post caught up with Ssemitego regarding his fast rise to stardom and his exceptional love for music and arts.

https://www.facebook.com/eddykenzoupdates1/videos/2425177637580366/

Who is he?

Ddumba Ssemitego was born to a Ugandan family in Mbarara District, the family would later shift to Masaka, Kampala, and Rwanda before finally relocating to Canada 15 years ago.

He has lived and worked in Canada for the biggest part of his life, where he stays with his family which includes two children and all his siblings.

How he developed the idea of song videos

Ddumba says that seeing girls making videos of themselves trying to move their lips to songs challenged him to make a difference.

“I would see these girls trying to slay in their social media videos but not saying anything. They would make me fall in love with the songs. But then I was like they would have made it better if they were actually singing and making actions.”

“I love lyrics; I love songs more when I am singing along. So I tried to do it and posted it on my Instagram just for fun.”

According to Ddumba, he continued doing this because he found happiness in it, but he had no idea it would be picked up soon to propel him to different social media channels.

That one video that got him the ‘name’

One day, Ddumba redid a song from Vinka dubbed Ndi Mulukubu, the artiste picked it up and shared it on her personal platform – that was it.

“People liked it. I got some followers from Vinka’s video. I was happy and I decided to do another one and this time, people did not like it. Even the next one too.”

However, he had started his mark. This was the first time people were seeing a man doing this. It has long been a ‘gig’ for the ladies.

How does he choose his songs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK63KZPYQsE

Ddumba says that his experience previously as a DJ has enabled him to quickly choose trendy nice songs that will easily be embraced by the people.

“The reasons people like my videos is because of the kind of songs I do. I have a very high music vocabulary having been a DJ before.”

He says on certain occasions; he has to contact the specific artistes to share their songs so he voices over them. This he says comes with some challenges as certain artistes who have no idea whom he is dismiss him until they come across these videos of their songs on social media.

“There is an artiste whom I sent a message to share his song. He wondered what strange stalker was making such a request. It was not until he saw the video of me singing the song that he returned to speak to me and we were friends later.”

He says other people contact him and request his services in promoting their songs.

How long does he need to learn the lyrics?

“It depends on the song,” he says. It all depends on the song as some take over 3 hours to grasp.

“The most a song has taken me is about 4 hours. However, the average is about 1 and half hours. I listen to the song about one time for easy ones while harder ones I have to listen for over 10 times.”

He says he doesn’t want to just pose in the song because he wants to sync with the song.

“I want people to choose to hear me or hear the artistes voice. There should be an appreciation that I put in much effort to produce this kind of work.”

But what has changed ever since he started this?

Ddumba says that his life has taken a direction where he appreciates honesty and loyal friendship, because with his kind of life now, it is hard to know who is doing you a genuine favor or who actually appreciates who you genuinely are.

“I am a generous person and I want other people to be smile and be happy. People were using me so much and I was fed up with being around fake people and I was tired of complaining, so I started doing what I like and this is it because it gives me positive energy and makes others happy as well.”

How about the many women he has earned himself?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBpfYCOsLiU

Ddumba acknowledges he has received massive reception amongst the women, but also maintains his personality besides the music is likeable as well.

“Yes I get a number of messages from the girls, but we talk mostly at a casual level and interact mostly on a generally friendly level except for some scenarios of overly obsessed people with peculiar interests.”

Does he watch his own videos?

“Yes, when I do a video I will watch it several times and delete it or post it depending on how I feel about it. Now after I post it and people like it, I watch the video again to criticize or appreciate myself.”

Was it that easy to start?

Well for Ddumba, his first videos returned with so much scorn, he says his colleagues kept calling him asking him to stop making a fool of himself.

“They kept asking me to stop making myself a fool, they would ask me what I thought I was trying to do. Some thought I was frustrated. Oh, the interesting is that they are now all my fans.”

He says self-esteem has helped him fight off naysayers. “I am a stubborn guy and I don’t let anyone offend me or put me down.”

Why does he choose a car as an environment for his songs?

“I use a phone to make my videos, and the car has more light to produce a better image. Natural light comes in from the windscreen and other rare windows to produce a quality image for the video.”

“The car also provides a confined space to boost the sound. To me, it feels like a studio to enable the song audio to come out properly. I also need fewer details in the video so as to keep the audience concentrated on the song which would not be the case if I did it at the mall. The car looks simple and less flashy and it is definitely the best venue for this.”

What else does he do apart from singing in videos?

Ddumba has a full-time job besides doing songs. He says he uses the time when free to shoot the videos and review comments.

“To achieve consistency, when I am free, I make a lot of videos and release them concurrently so that they can air while I am busy. Other than that, I am busy with my family and being father to my children.’

Any hobbies? Or Music is all?

“I like being around kids, playing around with them. I also play pool and soccer.”

And for the ladies, Ddumba also loves cooking and he does it well.