Posts

Showing posts from November 1, 2015

We prefer real success, not fake -Bracket

Popular music duo, Bracket, have said that they prefer to be really successful, not fake, as is the case basically in the entertainment industry. Speaking on how relevant or not they are in the industry, they said, “People say they don’t really feel our presence that much in Lagos, but we’re doing very well here in Lagos. One thing about the Lagos market, though, is that it’s more about fame than fortune, and we’ll rather stick to the fortune. “We know certain things we can do that some of the popular artists cannot do. Realistically, we would rather have little media hype and know where we belong, than make all the noise and fail to live up to the expectations. “We’ll rather be in the middle and make more money than be in front and make less. We are doing well in Lagos and we are still very big in other parts of Nigeria and abroad, show promoters testify to that. And we are glad to be where we are today because it is not easy to remain relevant for six years.”

Where is Muna?

One question that has to be asked is ‘Where is Muna?’ Muna, or Muna Abii, is not an entertainment personality who needs a lot of introduction. She shot to fame as a winner of Nigeria’s current most prestigious beauty pageant, Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria, and then shocked everyone by becoming a rapper after her relinquishing her MBGN crown. Because of her MBGN fame, she made quick progress in music, getting featured by superstars like Waje, and dropping her own singles that became notable, so it was believed that it was only a matter of time before she would attain major music success. That’s not the case right now, though, and we’re not hearing much about her again musically. So where is Muna, musically? That’s the question oh.

Yemi Alade launches jewellry line and mentorship programme

Saying that Johnny singer, Yemi Alade, is really flying high nowadays is not an understatement. Since the release of the aforementioned Johnny, her life has taken a real turn for the better with local and international shows coming her way, and awards too. Despite her considerable success, that many of her colleagues are still aspiring to, she’s not slowing down but is in fact stepping, or rather stepped up to the next level by launching a jewelry line in conjunction with Bland2Glam, an online retail jewelry store. According to Seyi Banigbe, B2G’s creative director, “Yemi Alade is the perfect superstar for us to work with on a jewelry collection fronted by a superstar. She’s been our ambassador for over a year and has proven herself a consummate professional and a hard worker who always keeps to her word. If she says she’s coming for a photo shoot, she does, even if she didn’t sleep the night before.” Speaking further, she said that it took B2G and Alade several meetings to come up wit

Wande Coal blasts Don Jazzy ... 'You are not God'

It seems all is not really well between the erstwhile close duo of Wande Coal and Don Jazzy. Coal used to be signed on to Jazzy’s labels, Mo’ Hits initially, and Mavin afterwards, but he split from Jazzy totally about a couple of years ago, and since then it’s been alleged that there’s bad blood between them and that Jazzy is not happy that Coal quit their working relationship. All along, it has been widely believed and accepted that Jazzy and his former partner, D’Banj, were the ones who made Coal into a success. And while he was working with them, Coal used to sing their praises to high heavens that without them he was nothing. But with his sophomore album, Wanted, finally out, after it failed to come out on both Mo’ Hits and Mavin Records, Coal has been like an open tap, gushing and gushing out his innermost feelings that are telling us the way he actually feels. For instance, when he released the artwork and tracklist of Wanted prior to its official release this week, he said that

Bez holds Gbagyi Child listening party

It’s a good year for African music going by the sounds heard and felt at the Gbagyi Child album listening by Bez Idakula in Lagos recently at the Fuse Lounge, Victoria Island, Lagos. Letting friends and the media sample his new album, the alternative soul singer hosted the album listening party where tracks on his sophomore album, Gbagyi Child, were played and performed live by him and his band. The listening showcase was attended by a host of stars and media personalities including Seyi Shay, Falz The Bahd Guy, Olisa Adibua, Audu Maikori, Toke Makinwa, Timi Dakolo, Kunbi Oyelese, Tito Idakula, Kaylah Oniwo, Makida Moka, OC Ukeje, Ozzy Agu, Lala Akindoju and many more. Produced by Cobhams Asuquo, the Gbagyi Child album features diverse sounds with different origins and stories which Bez explained. H also revealed that the creation of the album began two years ago, and ended just a couple of weeks ago. Featured tracks on the project include Hold You Down, If To Say, You Suppose Know,

I can't drive in Lagos -Jeffrey, Project Fame winner

The latest winner of the highly successful music talent hunt, Project Fame West Africa, Jeffrey, has said that PF has made his dreams come true. Speaking after he was officially presented with the Hyundai SUV that comes with being PF’s winner, he said, “My life after Project Fame has been wonderful. I get calls, messages, and my social media followership has increased by like 100%. It has really been a wonderful experience because I never knew it would turn out to be this huge and I am very grateful to God for this pleasant change in my status. “For instance, something happened to me two years ago and I told myself I must get my car before age 20, even though I had no idea of how it would come. I am going to turn 19 in some days from now and I now have not just any car, but a luxury car. I feel truly blessed and grateful that this has been achieved through Project Fame.” But he then added that he won’t be able to drive the SUV in Lagos because “truth is I can drive but I will get a dri

I'm under pressure -Imanse

American returnee singer, Imanse, has revealed that she’s under immense pressure in the Nigerian music industry that she’s aspiring to make an impact in. According to the sexy singer, the pressure is basically about her style of music which she’s expected to change. “There is pressure to do the kind of music that is popular,” she confessed. “Pressure to play it safe and conform to what everyone else is doing, not doing love songs and expressing yourself. A lot of pressure to go ‘commercial.’ You know when they are doing the big shows, they don’t usually call those who are pouring their hearts out talking about love and all.” Explaining her music, she said its focus is love. “My music focuses on love. You know they say ‘love is the greatest,’ ‘love makes the world go round’ and all that. Well, love seems to cover everything. Within its context, you will find everything else. Love for family, friends of both sexes, God, country and other people. It’s not just portraying or lamenting ab

Don't compare Nollywood with Hollywood -Akin-Tijani Balogun

Movie producer and director, Akin-Tijani Balogun, has said that it’s unfair to compare Nollywood to Hollywood. He made the statement when E-News asked him his financial status, considering that American movie producer-directors like Steven Spielberg and James Cameron are billionaires. Replying, he said, “If you look at the financial angle, that juxtaposition, that analogy you made, of comparing America to Nigeria is farfetched. The kind of marketing structure they have over there is much more different when you look at the structure of our own industry. Let me just say we are living the Nigerian way. What we are doing at least enables us to live and live well in Nigeria. Of course we know that if we do it outside, we’ll make much more.” And speaking on his plans, he said, “My own plan is to have a film village, a place that’s structured, designed to be a film village for complete productions, because movie is just one out of the several things we do. So I want to have a film village,

My first client was Eedris Abdulkareem -Cornell Udofia

Cornell Udofia is one of the entertainment industry’s most riveting personalities. He isn’t an actor neither is a singer. He’s however someone whom entertainers can’t do without. He’s a publicist, and a very successful one at that, having been a publicist for several big names that include Oge Okoye, Faze and Jim Iyke. And speaking with E-News recently on why he became a publicist and who his very first client was, Udofia didn’t hold back. “I became a publicist because I was not happy with the level of publicity and projection artists were given by the press and media players so we decided to exploit the vacuum by going into it,” he explained. “Moreover, the gladiators themselves were not helping matters either by not understanding the fact that without packaging, an artist is incomplete. Most of them find it very strange and uncalled-for to engage the services of a publicist, image maker, manager and even designer who should handle their affairs, thereby making them able to concentrat

Why I won't sing -Judith Audu

Acting and singing are two professions that complement each other. In fact, back in the day, most actors had to know how to sing mandatorily. Nowadays, it’s mostly the live theatre actors who still bother to sing a little bit. However, Nigerians are very resourceful and try their hands at more than one profession, so many Nollywood actresses have tried their best to sing and failed woefully. Some of them who took on singing are Genevieve, Omotola, Dayo Amusa, Gabriel Afolayan and Jim Iyke and we have to commend them for even trying. But while some actors have tried it and many more are willing to try it, respected actress Judith Audu, who’s currently wrapping up the post-production of her maiden full-length movie, Just Not Married, has declared emphatically that she’ll never sing because she can’t sing. According to her: “I can’t sing to save my life! That’s how bad my singing voice is. So it’s a no for me. But most of my colleagues are blessed with very lovely voice to sing, so why no

Why my friend called me a beast -Jojo Body Beats

Jojo Body Beats is one of Nigeria’s most unique performers because his style of performance is virtually unique to him. OSEYIZA OOGBODO BLOG met him and he revealed how he discovered his extremely unique talent. You beat your body to make entertaining sounds and music and you call it bodiophone. Is this term coined by you or bodiophone is a recognised entertainment genre like comedy, rapping, etc? Well, I actually coined the word, bodiophone, by myself as the name for what I do which is beating my body to produce sounds to entertain people and I therefore call myself a bodiophonist. I derived bodiophone from the music instrument, xylophone, and I had to do so because beating the human body to make music is not common so I had to come up with a unique name for it so people can make reference to it in future for academic studies and research. Although for laymen, I call it Jojo body beat but for corporate shows, I call it bodiophony. Why don’t you just call yourself a musician? What I d

I'm not a dropout, saysT-Code

T-Code became famous with the song, Hotter Than Fire. Since then, he has been waxing stronger and in this interview by OSEYIZA OOGBODO BLOG, he doesn’t beat about the bush as he declares that he’s the originator of fuji hip-hop, not LKT. He also explains why he and his Hotter Than Fire co-singers, Sheyman and Dr Pat, parted ways. Why did you choose T-Code as your professional name? Well, in this industry, you need a name that will make people want to know who you are and is simple and easy to pronounce and remember at the same time. And most times, we choose our artist name from our original name and that’s what I did too. My name is Taiwo Korodo so I combined the first alphabets of the two to make T–Code because I’m a coded guy. You are popular for your fuji hip-hop style. How did it happen for you? Well, I began singing professionally in the year 2000 with a full fuji music band. Later, I delved into hip-hop. I felt it was time to step up as an educated guy. As a matter of fact, sin

Cynthia Morgan insults Burna Boy

Image
Burna Boy Simanitiya, the latest music video of I’m Taken singer, Cynthia Morgan, is one that just might get her in

Road To Yesterday to close AFRIFF 2015

The Entertainment Network (T.E.N.) is delighted to announce that its feature film debut, Road To Yesterday, starring Genevieve Nnaji and Oris Erhuerho has been selected as this year's Closing Night Film at the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF). RTY is an epic love story ABOUT a couple desperate to mend a broken marriage on a road trip to a relative's funeral. However, the journey itself throws up secrets from a distant past, imperiling a lot more than just the marriage. AFRIF will also screen Bazzi Gete’s Red Leaves, Jonas Carpignano’s Meditteranea, Akin Omotoso’s Tell Me Something Sweet, Desmond Elliot’s Reflections, and many other movies. Earlier in October, the festival announced plans for its Best Feature Film, Documentary, Short and Animation Competition Screenings. Selected entries will compete to win more than $5,000 in cash and prizes. RTY was written and directed by Ishaya Bako, a London Film School Alumni, and creator of a series of highly acclaimed f

Female rapper wins D'Banj's competition

D'Banj has announced the winners of his The King Is Here rap competition. The competition began on August 1 and has finally come to a close after an estimate of 8,000 entries were registered while the competition ran. Last month, D'Banj shortlisted 5 finalists in what he described as a very close challenge. The finalists were announced on social media and D'Banj then announced that he would let the people decide and opened voting on his Instagram page so that the finalists with the most likes would eventually be crowned as the winners. Today, D'Banj announced that rather than choosing one winner which he originally planned, he decided to pick three. The top 3 finalists @itseme_itse, @ola_dips and @officialbils will go home with a Lenovo A500 courtesy of Slot Nigeria, while the contestant with the most likes on D'Banj's Instagram page who turns out to be female rapper @iteme_itse wins $1000 dollars.

Trey Songz to headline Pepsi Rhythm Unplugged 2015

Flytime Promotions and Rhythm 93.7 present Nigeria's #1 concert, Pepsi Rhythm Unplugged 2015 featuring multiple award-winning artist Trey Songz. This year, Pepsi Rhythm Unplugged is hosted by Basketmouth and Bovi and will feature high voltage performances by Nigeria's finest musicians and comedians. The 11th edition of Nigeria's biggest music event takes center stage again on Friday, December 18, 2015, 7pm at the Eko Convention Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria. Doing what it does best, Pepsi Rhythm Unplugged is power packed with surprises to delight exuberant fans. To further thrill fans, Flytime Promotions will launch its Anything Can Happen campaign - a series of 'off the stage' activations targeted at surprising and delighting fans. This includes a best cover singing competition of Trey Songz' music and an opportunity for the winner to meet him. For ticketing and table booking enquiries, kindly call 08174565603 or email info@flytimeltd.com F

Ebola survivor, Dr Ada Igonoh, gives birth

First Consultant Medical Centre has officially announced that resident staff and Ebola survivor, Dr Ada Igonoh, has given birth to a baby girl.The baby girl weighing 9 pounds 1 ounce was born at the Greater El-Monte Community Hospital, California. Igonoh is the only female medical doctor to have survived the deadly disease. Since her conception, she has been placed under medical surveillance to ensure that her child is Ebola-free. The baby, upon birth, has been certified Ebola-free. The World Health Organization, in concert with the Centre for Disease Control, formally declared Nigeria Ebola-free on October 20, 2014.

MuitiChoice Africa refreshes BET channel offerings

MultiChoice Africa has announced that from 1 December 2015, general entertainment channel, BET, will launch on DStv Compact Plus and Compact bouquets. DStv Compact Plus and Compact subscribers will now have access to BET’s compelling general entertainment content that celebrates African and African-American culture with a rich mix of contemporary and classic reality shows, drama, family friendly sitcoms, entertainment news, comedy, and more. The new channels windfall hit a high in September with the addition of TCM to Compact Plus and BBC Brit, CBeebies, BBC Lifestyle, MTV, Vuzu and M-Net Family to the Compact and Compact Plus bouquets. To mark the expansion to DStv Compact and Compact Plus, BET has compiled an exciting new schedule that will kick off in December with first-run entertainment shows such as Season 4 of Real Husbands of Hollywood (spoof reality), Punk’d (BET’s reworking of the classic MTV prank show), documentary strand The BET Life of…, Series 3 of Being Mary Jane (dr

IDFA Bertha Fund documentaries included in IDFA 2015 selection

Image
The IDFA 2015 selection contains twelve new documentaries made with financial support from the