TAKEAWAYS

• Yiya Mozey says his biggest hits, Tebakulimba and Yankuba, brought him little financial benefit despite their popularity.
• He says he never got a concert or significant assets from the songs, only enough money for basic survival.
• The singer explained that artists at the time relied on third parties to upload music to YouTube, leaving them without control over their earnings.

Former Back2Life singer Yiya Mozey has opened up about the financial struggles behind some of his biggest career successes, revealing that he earned close to nothing from his hit songs Tebakulimba and Yankuba.

The two songs became household anthems around a decade ago and established him as one of the country’s promising artists who cropped up onto the musical scene with rapper Ziza Bafana. However, according to the singer, their popularity did not translate into meaningful financial rewards.

“Those were my best hit songs and they’re the same things I gained nothing from,” Yiya Mozey said, explaining that whatever income came from the songs was only enough to help him survive.

He added that the success of the records did not even earn him opportunities that many artists associate with hit songs, such as major concerts or valuable personal assets.

“It would make sense if I had gotten at least a TV out of these songs. I’d see it and get comforted that my music got me something,” he said.

The veteran artist also reflected on how music distribution worked during the early years of his career, saying artists had little control over their content online.

According to him, musicians did not own YouTube channels at the time. Instead, they had to send their music to an individual based in the United Kingdom who managed a YouTube channel dedicated to uploading Ugandan music.

“Artists now find things easier but back then we used to suffer. One would have to invest in music and video production but also look for money to pay the person who would upload it to their YouTube channel,” he explained.

He added that the arrangement was largely unprofitable because the revenue generated from YouTube views went to the channel owner rather than the artists who created the music.

Yiya Mozey noted that today’s artists have a much better environment, with direct access to platforms that allow them to own their channels, monetize their content, and benefit more fairly from their music.