Dancehall singer Cindy Sanyu has opened up on how her music career as a solo artist was delayed when she refused to give in to sexual harassment.
In 2008, Cindy parted ways with the then-popular trio, Blu*3, just as the group had cemented its place as a dominant force across East Africa. She officially started her solo career, but revealed that it was not an easy journey to get to where she was.
During a TV interview, Cindy revealed that her career took a long time to pick up, mainly because she refused to have sexual relations with some of the stakeholders in the industry. She noted that many times she released her music but was denied airplay by radio presenters who had first wanted to have their way with her.
And because she didn’t give in, they kept blacklisting her music, and this went on for over a year, thus delaying her breakthrough for over a year.
“The fact that I refused people to sleep with me for power play, it slowed me down for like two years. Just because at every radio station I went to, they kept asking who I thought I was that I didn’t allow to sleep with them. They kept telling me about the people they had blacklisted, and they did the same for me. For like a year on both TV and radio, they never played my music because I refused to have sex with them,” Cindy said.
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Cindy further stressed that when it happened, she sat back, worked hard in order to earn enough money to pay for all the studio sessions, so as not to put herself in a position that would have people taking advantage of her.
“But somehow, I had to slow down. I knew I first had to work hard to get money for the producer before going there. Instead of going without money and pleading with them, in that process, they can easily try to push their other agenda. I decided to sit down and protect my image as a woman,” Cindy said.
@sparktvuganda Obuteegabangula bwanziza nnyo emabega kuba buli wenagendanga nga ndaba bankuba ekibatu, nga mbivaako. Batuuka nebanteeka mu ‘blacklist’ kumpi okumala omwaka mulamba kuba nali ndi ‘principled.’ – Cindy Sanyu #DailySoup
