Obby Alpha Mwalupogo: I’ve every reason to thank God

He roamed Dar hawking cooking oil, which people hardly bought, so diversified to grilled octopus, a delicacy ubiquitous in Dar streets.

This, too, didn’t earn him much, so he changed strategy and acquired a motorbike on loan and ventured into the boda boda business. 

Still, he was struggling to repay the loan, let alone make enough to pay his bills. For most of the months, he struggled to raise the rent for his single room, where he slept on the floor. 

He recalls one time when he was kicked out and spent three cold nights in the streets.

As he dabbled in business, he continued to indulge in the profession his heart was in – music. Eighteen singles on, fame wasn’t beckoning.

On September 6, 2023, Obby Alpha released Bora Kumshukuru Mungu and it turned around his fortunes. Today, he rocks the latest fashion, his appetite for designer suits is evident, and drives some of the fanciest cars in Tanzania. 

“2023 began with a lot of challenges in my life. When I moved to Dar from the village in search for green pastures, I had no one to take me in. But it is also the year that my life changed for the better when I released Bora Kumshukuru Mungu," says the lastborn in a family of seven children.

The song has so far garnered 12 million views on YouTube and is currently his top song on Spotify, with over 450,000 streams. 

Obby Alpha is one of the best-selling gospel artistes in Tanzania with several hits under his belt, including a record featuring Kenyan gospel singer Guardian Angel 'Pigana na Mungu' with over seven million views on YouTube. He is arguably the most trending gospel artiste in Tanzania.

By the time Bora Kumshukuru Mungu hit the airwaves, Obby Alpha had recorded 29 singles, released 18, but none did well. A music producer in Dar had offered to help him record his songs free of charge after growing tired of the musician’s nagging. 

When Bora Kumshukuru Mungu dropped and went viral in Kenya and Tanzania, as it trended on TikTok and Instagram, the rising gospel star singer was still in the streets as a struggling boda boda.

On a good day, he would earn Tsh45,000 ($17) but most days he would go home with Tsh10,000 ($3.78) or less.

“When I released Bora Nikushukuru, I was still a broke boda boda. And as the song gained popularity it became increasingly difficult for me to continue with my boda boda business,” Obby Alpha says. He became famous despite his financial struggles and had to quit the business. 

“The circumstances couldn’t allow me to continue, even though I still desperately needed the money.  The song became popular and so did I. That posed a challenge for my boda boda hustle because every time I had a passenger, the questioning was intense. They were seing me on the screens, or trending on TikTok.” 

Although the song was an instant hit, the money didn’t start streaming immediately and the father of one had to continue to still fend for himself, which proved difficult.

“Every time a passenger got off my boda boda, they would ask to take a picture with me. I was popular but broke,” he recalls.
Then the shows started.

“I had show bookings every other weekend. I made enough money to offset my debts and buy my first TV. 2023 was also the year I boarded a plane for the first time in my life and the first time I left the country to Kenya. It was a first of many for me. This might not make sense to someone else, but it means so much to me,” he says. More was coming.

“With the ‘Bora Kumshukuru Mungu’ popularity, people also began streaming my other songs that were not popular. That helped raise my streaming numbers. I made $2,500 from YouTube streams alone in 2023, which isn’t much money but something to be grateful for, because I had never seen such kind of money before,” Obby Alpha says. 

Obby Alpha became born-again in 2022. When he hit the studio to record the song that has turned his life around, he says he just intended to document the hardships and obstacles he had encountered win the big city after moving from rural Mbeya. 

“I moved to Dar es Salaam to try and make ends meet. I knew no one in the city-I had no relatives to turn to,” he says.

After finishing high school education, Obby Alpha enrolled to study finance at the Institute of Finance Management in Dar but dropped out in 2021, after just a year, due to a lack of fees.

He returned to the village in Mbeya to try his luck in farming. In February 2022, he decided to run away from poverty in the village back to Dar.

Today, with fame and success, Obby Alpha says his latest challenge is dealing with public expectations.

“I would love to lead a humble life, as I was before, but it's not easy. For instance, when people see me hopping onto a boda boda, they start to question why I’m not rolling in a big car,” he says.

“Again, people come to me with all sorts of financial problems expecting me to bail them out of their situations because they believe I have made so much money when, in reality, that isn’t even the case.” There is also the issue of family.

“I say this respectfully. With the newfound fame, my family members, with whom I was once out of touch for a long time, have suddenly emerged and are now increasingly wanting to keep in touch. I have received calls even from distant relatives I had never heard of,” he says. It doesn’t end there.

“My siblings, too, now believe I have so much money that whenever one has a problem, they call and expect me to offer financial assistance at any given time, even though sometimes I may not have money.”

Women, too, slide into his DMs.

“It's my wish that I marry soon to avoid temptation because, the truth is, I am human, it's easy to get tempted and I can't deny that I have seen some who are very beautiful. Some have approached me with one-night-stand proposals. Some have sent me explicit videos of themselves to seduce me. Others want me to marry them, and others just want to be friends.”

Obby Alpha also says that he has had to deal with the backstabbing by peers in the gospel music industry.

“I have also faced hate and jealousy. Last year one gospel artiste was invited to perform at a show outside the country. Advance payment was made but, later on, the artiste became elusive.

"So the organisers replaced him with me. When he saw posters advertising the show bearing my image, he called the organisers asking them to drop me. He further went on to accuse my team of some disingenuous deed he claimed they did to him.

"So I lost the gig and, what is even worse, the artiste still never went to the show. Such things do happen and I have learnt to live with them,” he says.

On the lessons he has picked up in his short journey to stardom, Obby Alpha says he has learned to be grateful to God for every situation.

“Just a year ago, I was on the streets as a boda boda driver, then, at a time I was going through a very difficult phase in my life, I recorded a song that turned out to be a blessing and changed my life for good. We should learn to always be grateful in every situation.”