For anyone who has been following Uganda's pop music scene, it goes without saying that Jackie Chandiru is no longer the musical goddess she used to be. Her dwindling entertaining skills and charisma were fully manifested at the pearl rhythm festival, held last Saturday at the national theatre.

Festival goers questioned why the festival organizers had invited Chandiru to perform and rightly so. Pearl rhythm is a very artistic event and yet the same can't be said for Chandiru.

After twenty minutes of doing renditions of other artistes' songs, Chandiru announced that she was performing where you are, a song by Good life and the now defunct Blu3.

It was a comic moment when one reveler, a one Godfrey Ssali, jokingly shouted to Jackie, “I will feature you".

Ssali got exactly what he wished for when Chandiru invited him to the stage. The third year journalism and communication student at Makerere University excitedly walked up the stage amidst noisy cheer by his friends.

Clad in a checkered red and black shirt, Ssali fidgeted with the microphone which initially was turned off. When it was turned on, he gambled with Radio's lyrics to the amusement of the revelers. His gambled words, however were well received by the audience which had been really bored with Chandiru's clearly damaged vocals.

After miserably failing at singing Radio's part, he tried out Weasel's rap. If Weasel's raps were incomprehensible to you, Ssali's version would have driven you insane. And of course he was trying his level best to get close to the star.

They say that even the best dancer leaves the floor but that did not apply to Ssali. He refused to leave even when the track that he was invited to feature on was done. He really loves the stage!

Chandiru then dived into the sounds of gold digger. Ssali, seeing he had no part to sing, this time broke into Luganda free style. Rapping with his own material was a better option since he now impressed the audience which energetically danced along. He did such a good job that Chandiru got weary of him and kindly let him know that his time was up. She asked for his name and offered him kisses on both of his cheeks. The smile that lit up his face clearly showed that Ssali had reached Heaven. It was a dream come true!

Like a true Makererean, the overjoyed Ssali shouted "weewe" and ran off the stage. He received a hero's welcome by his friends who seemed to now see him in a different light.

The youngster was so excited that early on Sunday, he took to Facebook and bragged about how Jackie Chandiru wanted him to replace her ex-boyfriend, city tycoon Caleb Alaka. Talk about dreamers!

Away from Ssali's stealing Chandiru's show, this year's pearl Rythm festival had an amazing artistes' line up. These included the Undercover brothers, the Magic Horns, Jovan Kiyingi, Fusion's band Lily Kadima and Clarissa Nabulume and was hosted by Sandy Soul, a budding soul artiste. Previous Pearl Rhythm festivals have been held at Alliance Francais.