Mad Ice was born on 8 October 1980 in Masaka and moved to Kampala when he was one year old. At age 7, his family moved to
Tanzania coming back to Uganda when he was ten. His first experiences were with Dancehall/Ragga Muffin music in Uganda starting in 1995. In 1999 as a young 19-year-old, he relocated back to
Mwanza, Tanzania and eventually to
Dar es Salaam to pursue better opportunities as an MC and performer on various shows and venues. In his formative years in Tanzania, he was trained and supervised by Canadian musician Corry Morriarty and Tanzanian musician Richard Mloka and learned to play guitar. Influenced mostly by mid 1990s Caribbean sounds of
Chaka Demus &
Pliers,
Shaggy amongst others, his first recording was "Wanadamu" that found airplay time on some stations and was a hit in Tanzania. Encouraged by its success, he released the follow-up single "Baby Gal" that exploded throughout East Africa. His debut album
Baby Gal was published in 2003 with some further success. He says in an interview: "I was born in Uganda, but I spent some years in Tanzania. There my career as a singer really started. Since I sang mostly in Swahili, the majority has always taken me as a Tanzanian artist". The 2003 album was produced in Tanzania by Finnish record producer based in Tanzania called Miikka "Mwamba" Kari. It included soca beats, African rhythms, with touches of Ragga, Soul and Pop, and songs sung in
Swahili,
Luganda and English. He has toured East African countries to maintain his fan base despite his residency in Finland and writes almost all his songs using Swahili and Luganda most of the time. The following album was
Maneno in 2007 and included many of his successes in recent years like "Wange", "Malaika" and "Nionyeshe njia" and was released on the Finnish Recordhouse Music label and MadStylee.com online. In 2011, Mad Ice released his EP titled
Maisha. Recorded in Finnvox Studios, and produced by Oona Kapari, it was a great departure from earlier materials towards a softer soul sound. The EP resulted in release of title track "Maisha", "Te Amo" and a big hit "Mapenzi Sumu" spearheaded by a music video directed by Joseph Bitar in Helsinki, Finland in July 2011. ==Personal life==