Rachel Magoola was born to two music teacher parents and started singing at an early age. She was involved in
music throughout her youth at school and within her local church. She later trained as a music teacher and on
qualifying, taught for eleven years at Namasagali College, a secondary school and Kaliro Primary teacher
training college. Her college choir represented the region several times at the national level music competitions.

From 1989 to 2001 Rachel performed professionally with Uganda’s top group, The Afrigo Band, before moving on to
a solo career. She is now a successful artiste in her own right, having produced four solo albums, Inhaife in 1997,
Tyenda Wundi in 1998, Tonyiiga in 2000 and Atwibembe 2001. These albums earned her much respect from her fellow
artists and amongst the Ugandan public. “Obangaina”, one of the tracks on her debut album Inhaife, was a smash
hit countrywide and arguably the biggest hit in the history of Ugandan popular music. For example, it was Number
One on Capital Radio’s Coca-Cola Hot 7 at 7 for 30 consecutive days, a record. The video promos for “Inhaife” and
“Vooto” were extensively played on national TV UTV [now UBS], on commercial stations such as WBS and other
terrestrial TV stations. 

Rachel later hosted radio shows like Kampala’s Top Twenty and The Morning Crew shows on Capital radio. Other radio
appearances include: Radio Simba’s Countdown Africa (on which “Obangaina” was voted number one); Radio Sanyu’s
African Express; Star FM’s Munakatemba; Dembe FM and BBC's Focus on Africa in March 2003. Magoola has been featured
numerous times in local Newspapers. In a New Vision poll, she was voted one of the 100 most influential women for
1998-90. She was also voted one of Uganda's top 25 celebrities 2001.

She wrote the awareness song “Take Me As I Am” for the Sickle Cell Association of Uganda (SAU). The song was first
performed at the British Council-hosted launch of SAU in 2002. “Take Me As I Am” has been greatly appreciated by
Emeritus Professor Graham Serjeant, the World's top authority on sickle cell disease. Another of Rachel's hits,
“Bakulimba”, was selected as one of the songs on a CD Flavours of Sound compiled by the Commonwealth Secretariat
for its warning messages about underage relationships and related risks among the youth. Rachel later wrote
“I am not a Toy” for the girl education movement and “Under the Sand” was Rachel's effort at creating more
awareness about HIV/AIDS and a call for behavior change among the youth. She has recently written yet another
HIV/AIDS awareness song “Treat for Life