Fast-rising Ugandan singer and songwriter Joshua Baraka, famous for his hit song “Wrong Places,” says he’s already living many of the dreams he had as a young boy.
“Most of the things I used to dream about, I’ve done them,” Baraka said in a recent YouTube interview. “I always wanted to fly — now I travel often. I wanted to meet certain people, and today, some of them are my friends.”
Baraka credited his success to teamwork, saying music is never a solo journey. “Music is not a one-man job. You need a team to help you with different things,” he explained.
Looking back on his journey, Baraka admitted that breaking through as a young artist wasn’t easy. He said limited access to affordable recording studios made it hard for many talented youths to pursue music seriously.
“When I was growing up, there were very few studios, and the ones available were expensive and of poor quality,” he said. “That’s why I want to support young artists by building a high-quality studio they can use for free.”
Baraka also highlighted a major challenge holding back Uganda’s music industry — underinvestment. He noted that artists in countries like Nigeria and South Africa spend far more money on their craft than their Ugandan counterparts.
“The amount of money our brothers from West Africa and South Africa invest in their music is on another level,” Baraka observed. “That’s why their industry keeps moving faster than ours.”
