Fare thee well Achieng Abura

What you need to know:

After the usual exchanges and introductions she delivered her message, she wanted me to cover the launch of the third edition of Tusker Project Fame at the company’s headquarters in Nairobi.

In late 2010 I received an anonymous call on Thursday evening, it turned out that it was from Teddy Mapunda, the then Director of Corporate affairs at Serengeti Breweries a subsidiary of East Africa Breweries in Tanzania.

After the usual exchanges and introductions she delivered her message, she wanted me to cover the launch of the third edition of Tusker Project Fame at the company’s headquarters in Nairobi.

“After careful considerations we have chosen you to represent us at the Tusker Project Fame for the opening ceremony,” she said.

It was rather some short notice ,but nevertheless I was thrilled!

The opportunity to see the judges, the contestants and the academy officials at their job first hand was not one I was about to miss.

Within the next one hour, I had received my air ticket plus a detailed travel itinerary that indicated that was required to travel to Nairobi with earliest flight.

The talent search show which drew contestants from across Africa had become one of the hottest programmes on Television and besides there were some hot Tanzanian talent on display.

The night of the launch was an eventful one at the Dome; here we rubbed shoulders with Kenyan celebrities of all types from Television, performing arts, corporate world to the politicians.

The pre event cocktail set the mood for what was yet to come at the academy where young artistes from Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya were waiting to show they were worth the selection.

That night Tanzanian artistes Peter Msechu, Aneth Kushaba plus another that I don’t seem to recall clearly were on stage.

Of the people I met that evening was Eric Wainaina, the vocal coach Achieng’ Abura, coach Kavutha and of course that judging panel that included Juliana Kanyomozi, Hermes Bariki and Ian Mbugua.

The little chat that I had with Achieng the most vocal of the coaches marked the beginning of a relationship that let me into the inside world of the reality talent search show.

That first visit marked the beginning of the many other visits that I made to the academy during that season and other seasons to follow including several press junkets that allowed me to sleep over at the academy before the launch of the 2013 season.

As a mentor, she helped many artistes discover their true talent and always stayed relevant to the music industry. She shaped stars while serving as principal at Tusker Project Fame (TPF), the young artistes after having suffered the tongue lashing from the judges especially Ian Mbugua they would on many occasions turn to her for guidance.

With time the reality show came under serious criticism especially on why most of its graduates including winners never made it to the big stage.

TPF was a winner takes it all contest and such was the reality of the show.

After a journey of eight weeks and surviving the evictions the other contestants would walk away with nothing apart from the few weeks in the limelight.

This hurt Achieng, she wished something more tangible would be done to carry the young lads through after the contest was over.

“The nature of the contest means that whoever comes second or goes all the way is not taken care of instead it is the winner that we end up talking about, “ she said.

Hers was a passion that exuded even when she was not on stage and when news broke of her ill health with a Facebook post early this month I was left spellbound.

Known by many as Kenya’s finest Afro-fusion artiste with a strong voice often decorated with ‘tremolo’ ‘conbrio’ ‘fuoco’ and ‘spirito’, her death has left the music industry poorer.

Should the Tusker project Fame ever return, it will just not feel the same again without the motherly vocal coach Lydia Achieng’ Abura.

She was 52 at the time when she met her death. Fare the well the gifted one!!!