Before The Last Gal became a name associated with Kampala’s electronic music scene, there was Kanyunyuzi Rachel Heyzo, a young woman learning how to make sense of music from behind the decks.
Her story began in 2022 at Gong Academy, where she started learning the art of DJing under Derrick Files. There was no dramatic battle, no overnight competition that announced her arrival. Instead, November 2022 was when she decided to unveil herself and begin taking the craft seriously.
The Last Gal has been around the industry and in some influential circles, there was a time many believed she alongside Etania would make a fantastic duo, probably it was because of their energy. With time, the two women took different musical paths. Etania found her place in Amapiano, becoming one of the genre’s recognisable faces in Uganda.
The Last Gal, meanwhile, gravitated towards electronic music, exploring sounds such as house and garage and slowly developing an identity that was distinctly hers. That separation of paths became important to The Last Gal’s story because it gave her the space to build without being defined by an association with another artist.
After unveiling herself in 2022, she took a deliberate step back in 2023 to concentrate on studying and improving her craft. In March of that year, she left the country to pursue further studies, using the time away to deepen her understanding of DJing and music.
When she returned to Uganda in February 2024, things began to move. She considers that return her breakthrough moment, the point at which the work she had put in away from the spotlight began to translate into a more defined presence on Kampala’s nightlife circuit.Her approach to DJing is deliberately unconventional.
The Last Gal says what makes her style unique is her ability to “think out of the box” and play in a manner she describes as “like a man.” It is less about trying to fit into an established idea of what a female DJ should sound like and more about asserting herself through selection, transitions and the ability to control a room.
Her choice of electronic sounds has helped her carve out that space. In a nightlife scene where Afrobeats, Amapiano, dancehall and Ugandan pop often dominate, house and garage give her sets a different texture, allowing her to build experiences around rhythm, movement and atmosphere. Even her stage name has a personal beginning. The Last Gal is inspired by the fact that she is the last-born in her family, a simple description that has since evolved into an identity of its own.
Today, The Last Gal is no longer simply a name that appears alongside someone else’s. It is the identity Kanyunyuzi Rachel Heyzo has built through study, experimentation and an increasingly distinctive sound. Her next step is perhaps the clearest statement of that evolution. On October 2, she is set to headline her first solo rave at Guvnor Street, a showcase that will bring together electronic music, audiovisual production, lighting and performance. It is a significant moment for an artist whose journey has been less about an instant breakthrough than finding the confidence to become her own act. The Last Gal did not need a duo to define her. She needed time to find her sound.
