Lydia Nabawanuka aka Lydia Jazmine is a Ugandan singer and performer born in Masaka City. According to Wikipedia, she was born in 1991 to Mr William Kasugi and Ms Scolar Nakanwagi. She is the only girl among four children.

Jazmine started singing in church at the Passover Harvest Centre before joining Watoto Church and after graduating from high school, she joined Gertnum Band where she worked hard to improve her vocals.

She, however, says she used to lead the church choir and also represented her schools in various school competitions but it was Juliana Kanyomozi and her cousin that inspired her.  

“Music is a talent I’m blessed with. I used to watch lots of music videos and seeing the journey Juliana went through, I promised myself to go ahead and achieve my dream of becoming a known musician as well. My cousin Lyton Namubiru, an artiste who was based in the United Kingdom also inspired me.”

Lydia Jazmine’s first professional song was titled Gwendota that she did in 2012 but due to lack of funds, she never pushed it. It was her second song two years later that changed everything.  

“I had gone to Badi Studios to record a track called You Know and the producer, Nessim, had another session with Rabadaba immediately after mine. When he heard the song, he asked if he could throw in a verse and since he was established already, I gladly accepted and in two minutes, he was done with his verse, thus the birth of the hit You Know,” she said.

The song was a commercial success and helped to launch her music career.

In 2017, Jazmine was selected to participate in “Coke Studio Africa 2017”, to represent Uganda. She was paired with Mozambican songstress Liloca, and they recorded the song “Waiting for Your Love”. The song was a hit and helped to boost Jazmine’s popularity in East Africa.

In her ten-year music career, Lydia Jazmine has released some of Uganda’s biggest songs including Masuuka, Nkubanja, Bintu Byange, Kapeesa among others. She has also collaborated with artistes on mega projects like Same Way with Geosteady, Silent Night with Kizz Daniel, Omuntu with Sheebah, No letting Go with Beenie Gunter and You and Me with Daddy Andre, among others.

Some of her other songs include Tukumbe, Guno Omukwano, You Know, Cherie, Ndaga, Mwagala Biriyo, Drum, Mega, This must be love, Kampala kyekyo, Sing for me, Oja kunzite and Olindaki among others.

Jazmine has won several awards, including the HiPipo Music Award for Best Female Artist in 2018.

Education background

She attended Victoria Nile School for her elementary school, St Mary’s School Namaliga, Mukono District and completed high school at City Land College Matugga. She graduated from Multitech Business School with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management.