First Ever MTV Africa Awards is a hit with Nigerians taking the lead

Africa has long featured a vibrant music scene, but artists have had difficulties breaking into overseas markets. With MTV’s Saturday night award show, African artists now have an opportunity to get more global exposure as well as celebrate the continent’s artistry.

The MTV first-ever music awards program for Africa took place in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja with acts from across the continent nominated for prizes on November 22nd 2008. Nigerian Artists were the big winners at Saturday’s 1st annual MTV music awards for Africa on their own turf, keeping 6 of the 10 awards given out.

There was a cameo appearance by US rapper The Game, who gave a brief medley of his hit songs. There were also performances by the rapper’s compatriots Flo-rida, and Kelly Rowland. The legend gong went to the late Fela Kuti, the Nigerian pioneer of Afrobeat. The award was received by the star’s children, Yemi and Seun.

Winners were selected by fans sending text messages except for the legend award.

There was also a tribute to “Mama Africa” Miriam Makeba, the South African singer who died just over a week before the award event.

Winners each received a Golden Microphone trophy, which has a futuristic microphone emerging from a globe of the world, with the African continent symbolically placed at the top of the world.

Even though this was an African event there were some non-African artists nominated in different categories, including Lil Wayne, The Game, Coldplay, and Keys.

The full list of nominees and winners for the 2008 MTV Africa Music Awards were:

Best Female Artist
Wahu (Kenya) – Winner
Asa (Nigeria)
Dama Do Bling (Mozambique)
Sasha (Nigeria)
Zonke (South Africa)

Best Male Artist
Jua Cali (Kenya)
2Face (Nigeria)
D’Banj (Nigeria) – Winner
DJ Cleo (South Africa)
HHP (South Africa)

Best Live Performer
Samini (Ghana)
D’Banj (Nigeria)
P-Square (Nigeria)
Cassette (South Africa)
Jozi (South Africa) – Winner

Best Group
P-Square (Nigeria) – Winner
Freshly Ground (South Africa)
Jozi (South Africa)
The Parlotones (South Africa)
East African Bashment Crew (Uganda) – Bebe Cool and Necessary Noize

Best Alternative
Buraka Som Sistema (Portugal)
Goldfish (South Africa)
Seether (South Africa) – Winner
The Parlotones (South Africa)
Coldplay (UK)

Best Hip-Hop Artist
9ice (Nigeria) – Winner
HHP (South Africa)
Professor Jay (Tanzania)
Lil Wayne (USA)
The Game (USA)

Best R&B
P-Square (Nigeria)
Akon (Senegal / USA)
Loyiso (South Africa)
Alicia Keys (USA) – Winner
Rihanna (USA)

Best Artist of the year
Asa (Nigeria)
D’Banj (Nigeria) – Winner
P-Square (Nigeria)
HHP (South Africa)
Seether (South Africa)

Best New Act
Kwaw Kese (Ghana)
Wahu (Kenya)
9ice (Nigeria)
Naeto C (Nigeria) – Winner
Da L.E.S. (South Africa)

Video of the Year
Movaizhaleine (Gabon) – Nous
Ikechukwu (Nigeria) – Wind Am Well – Winner
P-Square (Nigeria) – Roll It
Freshlyground (South Africa) – Pot Belly
Pro Kid (South Africa) – Uthini Ngo Pro

Listener’s Choice Award
- Jax Panik (South Africa) – ’Cigarettes and Cinnamon’
– D’Banj (Nigeria) – ’Why Me’ – Winner
- Naakaya (Tanzania) – ’Mr. Politician’
- JB Mpiana (DRC) – ’Zadio Kongolo’
- P Unit Featuring DNA (Kenya) – ’Una’
- Toniks (Uganda) ’Beera Nange’
- Ofori Amponsah Featuring Samini (Ghana) – ’Odwo’

MAMA LEGEND AWARD – Fela Kuti (Nigeria)
MY VIDEO AWARD – Jide Rotilu

This issue of gay marriage

When President Elect Obama stated that he personally considers marriage to be between a man and woman,and supports civil unions that confer comparable rights rather than gay marriage, I was in total agreement. At some point, I understood gay to be the exception not the rule but lately, not only is being gay a natural state of affairs, it is now on television, in movies and everywhere. Don’t get me wrong, I am not homophobic. I know my share of gay people and they are decent, loving people. Being gay is a sexual preference but I don’t think that preference should require me to redefine the natural state of things. So if someone decides to marry their dog (not that I am equating a gay person to a dog), should there be any opposition to that? If gay marriage is so right then why is polygamy wrong? I see this going beyond marriage to many other things. Once the rubicon has been crossed where do we stop? Polygamy? Man wanting to marry his dog? Any disagreement on my part is equated to wickedness and seen as a desire to deny others their civil rights and their right to be happy. But I refuse to cower.

Will I want my children to be taught in school that marriage is an institution between 2 individuals whether they are same sex or opposite sex? Not at all. I am not ready for that. And then there is the issue of adoption but I won’t open up that can of worms.

I am not some religious fanatic. I consider myself a liberal on so many issues but this is one issue that I simply cannot accept. I am still stomped that South Africans accept gay marriage. I did not learn about it until now. How did that happen? If it were not for the strong fight that some who share my beliefs on this issue had put up to protect the integrity of marriage as I have known it, I will still be in the dark. All of a sudden we have to defend what a marriage and family means? I know I am tolerant of people different from me. I do not sum up an individual and fit them in a box. I give everyone a chance but I refuse to minimize the importance of the union of the opposite sex and introducing a new kind of union as part of the status quo. I insist that anything same sex is the exception.

R.I.P Miriam Makeba 1932-2008

South African Miriam Makeba dies at 76

The 76 year old Singer and activist was found collapsed on stage Sunday night after singing one of her most famous hits “Pata Pata,” in a concert for Roberto Saviano, a writer threatened with death by the Mafia over his expose “Gomorrah.” Her last performance was a half-hour set alongside other singers and artists.The Pineta Grande clinic in Castel Volturno, near the southern city of Naples, said Makeba died early Monday of a heart attack. Her grandson, Nelson Lumumba Lee, was with her as well as her longtime friend, Italian promoter Roberto Meglioli, the Associated Press reports.

Makeba’s publicist, Cape Town-based Marc le Chat, has confirmed that the singer had been struggling with arthritis over the past years but had still been accepting key live dates.

“Whilst this great lady was alive she would say: ‘I will sing until the last day of my life’,” her family said in a statement.

“Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile and dislocation which she felt for 31 long years. At the same time, her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us,” Mandela said in a statement

Makeba was well known throughout the world as the Mama Africa and the Empress of African Song. The first African woman to win a Grammy award, Makeba started singing in Sophiatown as a featured vocalist with the Manhattan Brothers in 1954, a cosmopolitan neighborhood of Johannesburg that was a cultural hotspot in the 1950s before its black residents were forcibly removed by the apartheid government. She later formed her own group, the Skylarks while touring Southern Africa with Alf Herberts’ African Jazz and Variety. In 1959, Makeba’s incredible voice help win her the role of the female lead in the show, King Kong, a Broadway-inspired South African musical. That same year, she starred in the anti-apartheid documentary “Come Back, Africa,” which led to a meeting with Harry Belafonte, who helped Makeba gain entry to the United States. In 1963 she testified about apartheid before the United Nations. The South African government responded by banning her records, including hits like “Pata Pata,” “The Click Song” (“Qongqothwane” in Xhosa), and “Malaika” and revoking her citizship and right of return.

Her close relationship with Belafonte opened up new opportunities including a performance for President Kennedy at his birthday party in 1962. In 1966, Makeba received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording together with Belafonte for “An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba.” The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under apartheid. But she fell briefly out of favor when she married Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael — later known as Kwame Ture — and moved to Guinea in the late 1960s.

Makeba returned to world prominence when she performed with Paul Simon on the Graceland tour. After three decades abroad, she was invited back to South Africa as a free South African by Mandela, the anti-apartheid icon, shortly after his release from prison in 1990 as white racist rule crumbled. “It was like a revival,” she said about going home. “My music having been banned for so long, that people still felt the same way about me was too much for me. I just went home and I cried.”

In an interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper earlier this year she said “People think I consciously decided to tell the world what was happening in South Africa. No! I was singing about my life, and in South Africa we always sang about what was happening to us — especially the things that hurt us.”

Makeba announced her retirement three years ago, but despite a series of farewell concerts she never stopped performing. When she turned 75 last year, she said she would sing for as long as possible.

Makeba is survived by her grandchildren, Nelson Lumumba Lee and Zenzi Monique Lee, and her great-grandchildren Lindelani, Ayanda and Kwame.

Share your favorite Miriam Makeba song and memory.

Akon and Neyo give Lionel Richie a boost

Lionel Richie tries to go hip with chart topping singers and songwriters Akon and Ne-Yo in his corner on his new studio album, “Just Go,” due Feb. 17 2009 via Island. First single “Good Morning,” produced by the Movement, arrived at urban AC stations on November 3rd.

Both Akon and Ne-Yo share writing credits with Richie on the follow-up to 2006’s “Coming Home,” which has sold 444,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Is this collaboration a hit or miss? Rate the single and decide for your self.

 

Korto Momolu’s Project Runway Designs

Did Korto Momolu have the winning designs for Project Runway Season 5?

Korto won our hearts with endless creativity throughout Project Runway. The Liberia born designer pushed hard and came up with a grand finale as the season closed. Come elimination, she came in second and Designer LeAnn came out first. Do you think Korto had the winning designs or did she deserve to be second?

Will an Obama Presidency bring change to Africa and the lives of Africans?

DISCUSSION: From Kenya to South Africa, Nigeria to Egypt, Africans all over the continent and diaspora have embraced and claimed Obama as one of their own but will an Obama Presidency make a groundbreaking difference in Africa and the lives of Africans?

Obama’s maternal grandmother who he fondly calls “Toot” dies 2 days before the election

Barack Obama’s maternal grandmother lost the fight to Cancer on Sunday November 2nd. She shaped much of the life of the Democratic presidential contender. His grandmother, Madelyn Payne Dunham was 86. In a joint statement with his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng, Obama said Dunham died peacefully late Sunday night after a battle with cancer.

They said: “She was the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility. She was the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances.”

Obama learned of her death this morning while he was campaigning in Jacksonville, Fla. It is so unfortunate that she will not witness his historic victory in an event he wins the 2008 Presidential elections.