Samantha Lillian Apio, commonly known by many as Apio Moro is a Ugandan musician who has been writing and singing Afro-soul music in her mother tongue with the touch of English and Luganda, telling stories from her society and life. Music in Africa has described her music as having "a touch of hip-hop, RnB, Soul, and a little rock".
In 2015, she took part in Urban TV's Coca-ColaRated Next, a talent search contest. With Sima Sabiti, Benon Mugumbya and Sharpe Ssewali who were the three judges. Her limited knowledge of luganda, affected her performance as most of the songs chosen for them to sing were in luganda hence it was to her disadvantage. Apio has been around the industry, however, participating in musical contests, joining a famous girl group before finally going solo. In 2017, she performed on Suzan Kerunen's Pearl RhythmStage Coach activations or Coutinho Kemiyondo's Aka Dope. This was the same period that she launched an EP titled “Chuny Adech” which simply means Half my Soul, where she performed most of the songs on her first album “Chuny”. She also collaborated with Multi-Grammy award winner Joss Stone during her Uganda stop of the "Joss Stone Total World Tour" on one of Apio's songs “Pariye”. Apio has gone on to perform in Kigali and Nairobi at The Music Weekender. In March 2019, Apio launched her new album “Choore” with a listening party at The Square to celebrate her re-discovered self. “Choore” features 8 tracks in a mixture of Japadhola, English, Luganda, and Kinyarwanda and was produced by Vincent Othieno based in Washington D.C. In May 2019, Apio performed at East African Performing Arts Market.
Other Consideration
Most of Apio's songs are inspired by her own personal experiences. Apio is a storyteller whose music is relatable. She sings about the things we all go through and one of them being her love life and addiction to alcohol. In one of her songs entitled, Obia, she sings about her ex-boyfriend, sending a warning to his new catch that men are greedy. She said that this boyfriend would use her and jump to another girl. On stage, she sings with her acoustic guitar. Apio calls the guitar her best friend and it's something she can't live without.
