• Shena Skies says songwriters in Uganda are often underpaid despite creating chart-topping hit songs.
• She reveals receiving as little as Shs20,000 for successful songs while artists publicly claim to pay millions.
• Despite exploitation, Shena remains committed to songwriting, driven by passion and belief in her God-given talent.

Ugandan singer and songwriter Shena Skies has opened up about what she describes as the unfair and often painful treatment of songwriters in the local music industry, shedding light on the realities behind some of Uganda’s biggest hit songs.

Shena, who has quietly built an impressive catalog, has written and co-written music across Afrobeat, Dancehall and R&B for some of the country’s top artists, including Spice Diana, Rema Namakula, Navio and Beenie Gunter. Many of her songs have gone on to dominate clubs and become fan favorites at concerts, yet the rewards behind the scenes tell a very different story.

One of her most notable works is More of This by Rema Namakula featuring Slick Stuart and Roja, a song that took over airwaves and dance floors in 2020. Despite its massive success, Shena says her compensation was shockingly low. According to her, she was given just Shs20,000, money that was framed as “fuel” rather than proper payment for her work.

What hurts even more, she explains, is the gap between what artists say publicly and what actually happens. Shena claims some musicians go on television and boast about paying her millions of shillings, portraying her as an “expensive” songwriter, while the reality is far from that. “An artist will say they paid me Shs5 million on TV, then quietly hand me Shs500,000 with promises that the balance will come later,” she said. “That balance never comes.”

For Shena, songwriting is not just a job. She describes it as a calling and believes her talent is a gift from God that deserves respect and fair compensation. Music, she says, is all she knows and all she loves.