Tina Turner revealed how she wanted to be remembered in an interview conducted just weeks before her death aged 83. It was announced on Wednesday that the Proud Mary singer had died “peacefully” at her home in Switzerland following a long illness. Celebrities, including Naomi Campbell and Gloria Gaynor, paid tribute to the icon on social media after hearing the ...

Uzor Maxim Uzoatu Sun Ra: Space. Music. Myth by Tam Fiofori; Published by SUN ARTS: BEP, Lagos, Nigeria; 2022; 416pp The American jazz musician Sun Ra was larger than life and death in his delivery of music during his time. He was at once a bandleader, vocalist, instrumentalist, composer, arranger, poet, and indeed an all-round artiste, a remarkable one. Born ...

The digital era contributed immensely to the growth of Nollywood, Nigeria’s film industry. Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images Samuel Samiai Andrews, University of Gondar Nigeria has finally updated its 2004 copyright law, bringing it into the digital era – where the entertainment industry has been for decades already. Before the late 1990s, it was difficult even to get telephone ...

Davido has gone back to work after the death of his young son. Jean Catuffe/Getty Images Garhe Osiebe, Rhodes University Nigerian Afrobeats star Davido (David Adeleke) has demonstrated himself to be a master of showboating. He is able to milk every situation to the maximum. And he did not disappoint with the recent trailer for his fourth studio album, Timeless, ...

Rema performing in the US. His hit Calm Down has gone viral – in part thanks to a choreographer named Loïc Reyel. Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images Ananya Jahanara Kabir, King’s College London On 8 March 2023, five teenage girls uploaded on social media a video of themselves performing the Calm Down Dance Challenge. This is the choreography for the first verse ...

Beyoncé performs in Dubai in 2023. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Atlantis The Royal James Chikomborero Paradza, University of Pretoria Beyoncé announced her highly anticipated Renaissance World Tour on the first day of Black History Month – an annual observance in the US that honours the African diaspora. Social media erupted and ticketing websites crashed briefly as fans worldwide rushed to ...

Nollywood actress, Mercy Johnson, has shared for the first time how she overcame cancer and had a procedure that changed her life. The actress made this known in a recent edition of her cooking show on YouTube when she was joined by Joke Silva as a special guest for a conversation. Mercy Johnson questioned Joke Silva about the health of ...

Uzor Maxim Uzoatu The Christmas season in Awka, the capital city of Anambra State, is being kicked into focus by a momentous art exhibition tagged “Clean Slate”. The ever innovative Awka Museum Foundation situated at 261 Zik’s Avenue, opposite Polaris Bank, Awka is opening its doors to the public for the Clean Slate group exhibition showcased as “A Sculptural Journey ...

Asake live in Atlanta in the US in 2022. Paras Griffin/Getty Images Sanya Osha, University of Cape Town Asake’s first commercial releases, beginning with the song Lady in 2020, didn’t really portend a seismic shift in Nigeria’s teeming Afrobeats scene. The 27-year-old genre-blending Nigerian singer and rapper has a tongue-in-cheek delivery and jocular persona. He writes nonsensical, self-deprecating rhymes with ...

Frans Schellekens/Redferns via Getty Images Garhe Osiebe, Rhodes University There can no longer be any doubt that Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, the legendary Nigerian musician, activist and father of Afrobeat music, has become an easy career booster for today’s Afrobeats artists who are undergoing creative droughts. Fela’s invention, Afrobeat, is an ensemble and performance-based category that blends jazz, funk, rock and traditional ...