Katonda Alinawe is a 2011 Gospel song by Ugandan singer David SonJC, previously known as "Kenya Dance". Three seconds of the song was featured in a comedy YouTube video called "HOW TO PICK UP WOMEN IN 30 DIFFERENT CULTURES" by Filthy Frank/Joji on 14 Jan 2013. The search began two days later, and on 03 Dec 2023, the song was identified by damn peggy.

HISTORY

On 14 January 2013, comedy YouTuber Filthy Frank (now known as Joji) uploaded a video called "HOW TO PICK UP WOMEN IN 30 DIFFERENT CULTURES" to his DizastaMusic channel. The video, which was later deleted, covers different cultures, and the song plays in the three-second-long segment for Kenya. Almost immediately, people began asking what the song was, and on 16 January 2013, Jezus Beams uploaded the snippet to YouTube. Joji responded, placing an annotation on the video stating: “Don't know the song name, stop asking!”.

Despite the video alluding that the song was from Kenya, the language was later identified as Luganda from the snippet's lyrics:

Omwana atuzaliddwa

Omulenzi atuweleddwa

The lyrics are a direct quote from the Bible (Isaiah 9:6):

For unto us a child is born

Unto us a son is given

The lyrics led some to suggest that it came from a Christmas song.

On 21 December 2015, a YouTuber named TM2 uploaded a football video called "NEW African Cristiano Ronaldo - AMAZING Long Shot HD", which contained the same snippet that Joji had used in his video. When asked how they got the song, TM2 replied, "M8, I bought this song on deep web. It cost me £10". It is unclear if TM2 was joking, but most people at the time assumed he had just taken the audio directly from Joji's video.

On 03 December 2023, YouTuber nbduckman posted a video called "The Search for the Filthy Frank Kenya Song", outlining the search history, possible leads, and placing a $300 bounty for finding the song. Soon after, damn peggy saw the video and decided to search for the song. They searched YouTube for a few hours trying different search terms, and after searching "east ugandan gospel before:2013" they found Katonda Alinawe shortly after. The next day, nbduckman released a follow up video announcing the find, and awarded damn peggy the $300 bounty.

LINKS