Run Down!!!

Info from the Past week or two:

9ice gets married to Toni Payne (they were actually on the cover and the main story of City People last week).

D'Banj Album Launch @ The Expo Centre, Oceanview - Friday 25th and Saturday 26th. Our governor and ex-governor attended the launch. Meanwhile, D'banj is such a good entertainer! It's Don Jazzy Again! Check out info on The Koko Foundation here.

Sound of Heaven

DStv and ONE Gospel recently hosted Nu Sound's Sound of Heaven Gospel event at the Muson Centre in Lagos, Nigeria. The incredibly successful event marked the first of many promotional partnerships between the Channel and the massive Nigerian Gospel industry.

Also speaking of the MUSON Centre, Opera-singing soprano, Chinwe Enu performed their last month. Read more about her here or visit her blog








J Factor Auditions

The 1st round of auditions were held this past weekend and the weekend before.The final round of auditions for entry is this coming Saturday, August2nd 2008. To find out more about J-Factor and to see last year's J-Factor competition check out the website and the video. Michelle Mckinney-Hammond is one of the judges btw.

Naeto-C Album signing at The Palms, Lekki on the 13th of July - a few other new rappers on the scene performed, not bad.

Nollywood: Games Men Play Reloaded and Where Oceans Touch Double Premier at The Civic Centre, July 13th

In the words of Emem Isong and Vivian Ejike, both top moviemakers and producers of the blockbusters entitled "When the heart lies" and "Games Men Play-Reloaded", the historic premiere took place in Lagos at The Civic Centre on Saturday the 13th of July with tickets at N10,000 each.

Imagine,two movies, sixteen super stars, one venue and one screen. This movie which stars Desmond Elliot, Ramsey Nuoah Jnr, Van Vicker, Monalisa Chinda, Ini Edo and a host of other stars was jointly produced by Emem Isong and Desmond Elliot. When the Heart Lies stars Desmond Elliot and Omotola Ekehinde who acts as a singing sensation. More here!

Music Week (2)

Asa Concert Review

The Asa concert in London was so much fun! She has a huge presence when she's on stage. It was also quite entertaining having our fellow Naijas there. Several times she had to ask them to allow her sing because they were basically shouting over her voice. It was a pleasant night out. After she had bowed out off the stage with her band, she returned for three more bonus tracks for the rest of us who hung about including Nina Simone's Feeling Good.

Check out a video clip of one of her songs here.

She also pulled a few members of the crowd to come and sing a few lines to her song. Tami was one of them who has a single Mama, released with her brother MC Baba. The song is dedicated to their late mum. Check out Tami's song in the video below:

Visit Asa's myspace and her website


Hip Hop World Award Winners

I never featured the awards as I had so much on the go at the time but there was a lot of publicity for this event. Nomination went on for quite a while and the public could nominate via the website and then................ the ceremony came. It was held at Planet One, Maryland on the 15th of March, 2008.

Winners

While Asa grabbed the awards for Recording of the Year (Bibanke), Album of the Year and Vocal Performance (Female), as well as her Producer, Cobhams Asuquo, emerging the Producer of the Year, 9ice emerged the best in two categories, winning the awards for Vocal Performance (Male) and the HHW Revelation of the Year. Wande Coal, however, won the star prize of the show, a Hyundai Sonata, as the Next Rated artist.

Other winners include, Olu Maintain for Song of the Year, D’banj for artiste of the year, DJ Tee (Stylee) Best music video, Timaya for Best Reggae/Dance hall, Tu face for Best R&B/Pop Album (Grass2Grace), Ruggedy Baba for Best Rap Album, Jimmy Jatt, 2face, Elajoe and Mode9 got the best collabo award for Stylee, M.I got the best rap single award for “Crowd Mentality”

Congrats to Asa, 9ice, Olu Maintan, D'banj, Wande Coal and everyone else.

See photos from the event below:

Resources: www.hiphopworldawards.com

Yellow Carpet pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24845048@N02/
Stars - 9ice (website) and (myspace)
- D'banj (website) and (myspace)
- Wande Coal (website) and (myspace)
- Olu Maintain (website) and (myspace)

NAYO at Jazz Cafe

Nayo will be performing as a special guest of Nate James at the legendary Jazz Cafe, Saturday May 31st. You may purchase your tickets on Nayo's website and you CAN WIN TWO TICKETS by viewing the Competitions page on: http://www.nayomusic.com

Read a review on NAYO in the UK Guardian here

Careers in Africa Recruitment Summit in London - May 23rd, 24th and 25th 2008

The Careers in Africa Recruitment Summits bring together world class business leaders and high calibre African talent from across the world to interview at unique invitation-only events. Career opportunities available range from entry-level graduate programmes to senior management positions and cover a wide variety of functions across all sectors. Click here to visit the website and apply.

Tuface and Armed Robbers Again and Other Showbiz

2Face and Armed Robbers Again

This time he was robbed and his Range Rover Sport thats not even 3 months old was taken from him. May God bless and protect him from all this. Amen

Read rest of the story here

Source: Bizzle

Anyway, he is doing fine and here is a videobyte with him and Beenie Man - Enjoy!

D'banj for Vals Day?

TOUCHING THE RIGHT SPOTS WITH D'BANJ

An unforgettable experience awaits you on every Virgin Nigeria flight. From in-flight services to entertainment and choice meals on board. Our services are crafted to touch you in the right spots. This Valentines, we are giving you the opportunity to choose the flight that you would want D'banj to operate as a cabin crew, and of course dressed in our cabin crew uniform if you are flying business class, you will not only get a copy of his latest CD but a huge goodie bag as well. Send a message to "Noble Igwe" on facebook. D'banj is already an ambassador for one of the Virgin Brands

Nigeria booted out of the Africa Nations Cup by Ghana 10

Very sad.....like someone said: To go down in the quarters is gutting, to go down in the quarters after scoring only 3 goals all tournament is quite irritating (only 2 from open play). To go down in the quarters to 10 men is humiliating to say the least.To go down to a 10 man Ghanaian team... nuf said.

Yep we we lost to Ghana yesterday with only 10 men playing in their own team. Let's hope we can redeem ourselves in future matches to come - but this was a big deal, a whole Nations Cup.

For those who don't know about 9ice, he is a fairly new artist with the new single Gongo Aso - listen to it on his myspace here and also check out his website.

If you want 9ice to perform in your city, click here

Final Videobyte

One of my favourite new Naija jams: Flex by Riz featuring Sauce Kid (enjoy)