Joshua Baraka Ushers in a New Wave with Recess
Joshua Baraka knew he was going to be a singer from childhood. “I started when I was 6,” he remembers. “I had a friend who started a group, and I joined. The first song I ever wrote was about my mother, but I never sung it to her, she never got to hear it! My dad is a pastor so I tried to learn drums in church- then when I was 12 they started teaching music at my school, and I was so fascinated by notes and music itself, there was so much I wanted to know…”
At 22 years old, singer-songwriter Baraka is the fastest rising star in his native Uganda, currently one of the most listened to artists in the country, enjoying sold out shows, chart topping hits and adoring fans. This wasn’t always a given. Born and raised in Bwaise in Kampala district, Joshua grew up in a place he describes as ‘the ghetto’, a ramshackle area defined by poverty and community that he has complex feelings towards. “It was tough but kind of cool. Houses are literally joined, there’s no gate, there’s nothing, just united suffering really -” aware that this paints an overly negative picture, he clarifies- “but you got to interact with everyone. You could look into the next person’s living room! There was no money around, it’s a poor people area, but there was a lot of life. My parents tried not to let us get too deep into the ghetto, and music kept me away from ghetto activities.”
Joshua’s parents recognised his precocious talent, and decided that they wouldn’t allow their humble background hold him back, fighting to get him the chances to shine, as he remembers with a laugh. “My mum took me to the music school and literally stayed there until they agreed to take me, because we weren’t going to pay! My dad used to get keyboard players to show me things. When I was 19 I didn’t do well in my A-Levels, I was studying to be a doctor, but at that time I also got into production, I was getting more gigs, the school was stressing me but music was my passion – so when I told my parents I was dropping out to pursue music, they took a couple of days to think about it, but then supported me.”
That support paid off in a remarkably rapid time. The teenaged Joshua was earning a living playing piano in bars and restaurants, honing his live skills with sets that would dance through a global songbook, switching from East and West African afrobeats hits, to the Jamaican dancehall beloved of Ugandans, to smooth jazz, to international RnB jams to end-of-the-night ballads. In this period he learnt how to read a crowd, how to develop a live dynamic, and how to play the right song at the right time – but singing covers was never going to be enough.
He started penning his own tunes, fusing together all the influences he’d drawn from his work as a gigging musician. When his friend (and now manager ) Lob asked him to perform an opening set at an industry launch party, the response was instant; people loved his music. Lob encouraged Joshua to record the tracks he’d been working on and the results were his first EP, Baby Steps, released in 2021 when he was just 20. This was followed by his first breakout hit Belinda in 2022, an example of his cinematic songwriting, yearning lyrics telling a story of a girl rising to influencer status, finding space to describe both how she seems from afar, and from inside her own feelings.
It turned out Belinda was a warm up. Joshua followed with his biggest hit to date, Nana. Dropped just after his 22nd birthday Nana’s tale of a secretive romance set to a dancehall beat exploded on social media, with hundreds of thousands of tiktok posts dedicated to the song’s addictive melodies.
“From when I recorded Nana, I knew it was the one – I felt it, but I didn’t know it would go this far! I knew it was taking off when I heard kids in my neighbourhood singing it, and local guys would start recognising me. But I never guessed it would put me on a plane and take me to the UK!”
This is, however, how it came to pass. The song grew and grew, hitting the top of the charts in Uganda and Kenya. UK based afrobeats label Moves Recordings became interested and signed the track up, creating a remix that saw Joshua collaborate with Joeboy in Nigeria, King Promise in Ghana and Bien in Kenya, with Joshua, from a family where no one had ever boarded a plane before, finding himself flying between Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana, before finally coming to the UK to tear down the house in the annual Ugandan independence showcase. With Nana and the remix streaming millions, Joshua knew he entered a new era, and felt himself rising to the challenge.
“I keep telling people that this year feels like it has three years in it! It feels like a million years ago when I released Nana… but it’s only months. My life has changed so much, its crazy! Travelling has given me confidence because it’s made me realise how similar we all are. I’ve interacted with a lot of people I looked up to; Bien, Ghetts, and realising they’re people like me has shown me I can do it. I got a lot of knowledge from them. There’s a saying; a good man learns from his mistakes but a wise man learns from other peoples – so listening to them and learning from them has helped me so much, seeing the cultures has shaped my scope of what I can write. If I write now, I’m writing for the world. I’ve seen how universal words are, they transcend everything.”
This love of language is a key point Joshua comes back to. With his songs perfectly self contained stories, infused with distinct characters and narratives, it’s obvious he isn’t writing typical love songs – and he enthuses about the power of literature at every chance he can get
“The melody alone without words, it stays in the head, it can portray motion, but the words give the melody purpose. We feel the melody and we paint with the words. I love reading so much, I love reading manga, reading poems – the same statement in different settings can mean so many things. The context can change everything, I’m really interested in flipping things; it’s like playing. Growing up I went through a lot of things, so many points that were really painful, and it’s the music that kept me going. If I’m sad I try and write from the perspective of a person that would know what to say to me at that time. I try to step out of the picture and write what I would want to hear.” Before he can get too serious, he undercuts himself, laughing “Even if I’m going to talk about bums, I’m trying to paint a picture…”
With Nana making many end-of-year best of lists, and a new EP rolling out in December, it’s clear Joshua isn’t planning on slowing down – even if he’s not exactly sure what’s coming next, he knows it’s going to be big.
“I’m not one to anticipate what’s going to happen, I just do what I have to do that day, I’ll just keep doing my best, putting out music, performing, producing and doing what I love, then seeing where it goes from there. I’m really excited about next year, Ive got my foot in the industry and next year Im going to come through. By the time I take my foot out it will have left an imprint on this world!”
