Born in Uganda [in 1993], as an offshoot of a schools’ mission program at KampalaPentecostal Church, First Love has twice toured East, Central, and Southern Africa where they held successful concerts outdoors, in churches, and in nightclubs.
Now based in the United Kingdom they’ve had the privilege of being finalists on Channel 4’s Gospel Singer of the Year Awards, 2002 and have so far toured Sweden, Switzerland and the United States, performing their unique blend of motivational, spiritually uplifting African melodies to the acclaim of diverse audiences in churches, prisons, schools, youth summer camps, and Juvenile detention homes.
It is this crossover appeal that has seen First Love work with organizations such as the PMU Interlife, a Swedish organization of about 273 Pentecostal Churches dedicated to Emergency humanitarian interventions in disaster-struck or armed conflict areas, healthcare and education development, and the Haringey Peace Alliance which is an initiative countering drug abuse and gun crime in London’s north Borough of Haringey, Tottenham.
Among other things, First Love is also designed to do the following:
1. Be a support team to a church congregation handling the music department. This includes leading worship and playing the music.
2. Speak and preach.
3. Write, produce, and perform music for diverse occasions and different forums with an emphasis on healthy and wholesome lifestyles.
4. Teach music and art in schools and communities.
5. Train and mentor musicians in their chosen genre.
First Love is attached to Liberty Christian Fellowship in London under the leadership of Pastors Lincoln and Grace Serwanga.
The Name First Love is taken from the book if Revelations 2:4. It is also the title of the first track the group penned and sang together back in 1993.
First Love is: Paul Kim [team leader], Nicholas Mayanja, James Ddamba, Fred Walusimbi, and Sharpe Ssewali II