Entertainment
Exploits Of Nigerian Artistes On Global Stage
The word music means different thing to different people, but the Cambridge Dictionary defines music as “a pattern of sounds made by musical instruments, voices or computers or a combination of these intended to give pleasure to people listening to it”. While the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary sees music as “ sound that are arranged in a way that is pleasant or exciting to listen to”.
Duke Orsino in William Shakespeare Twelfth Night declare: “if music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it”. This is exactly what the Nigerian musicians have been giving to the world since the colonial era.
The unprecedented achievements recorded in the Nigerian music industry so far could be attributed to Technological development which has brought about several changes in the industry and launched the Nigerian artistes into the global platform. For instance Vinyl cassette tape dominated the industry for the first 90 years of its existence but in the 1980s a new challenger appeared not only to the cassette but all analogue formats.
In 1982, the compact disc ushered in the digital age, for two decades, the CD ruled and the record industry boomed with popular artistes pushing millions of units, artistes got rich and major labels got richer. Nigerian artistes were not left out of the new trend as the industry has rarely been a stranger to change.
After the end of the 1990s, the next form of digital music went mainstream. mp3 was the first recorded music format,the files were completely digital, stored in either on a computer hard drive or one of the primitive devices invented to playback the new format.
For the first few years of 2000, mp3 was on epithet used to summarize all that was wrong with the millennium, the perceived favouring of quantity over quality and art’s dominated value. But in 2001 Apple launched iTunes, a programme designed to organize and play digital audio files.
The inexorable progress of technology brought about a new digital format even easier than downloads. In October 2018, Swedish entrepreneur, Daniel Ek launched Spotify and with it the music streaming revolution.
At the beginning of the 2010s, streaming was mostly associated with videos on YouTube and Netflix, by the end of 2010 major companies like Apple, Amazon and Google had launched their own on demand music streaming services to compete with Spotify, a signal that the format is here to stay.
The Nigeria music industry has gone through these changes hence the increasing appetite for Nigerian music across the world and the importance of investing in the industry. The update on the Nigerian music industry has become even more interesting with their global exploits.
The likes of Wizkid who had already penned a deal in 2017 had began to collaborate with more A-List artistes like Ty Dollar $ign, Chris Brown, Gold Link, Swae Lee, Metro Bromine and Offset( from the Migos). Wizkid also played a huge part in the recent Lion King album by Beyonce which showcased and celebrated an impressive array of mind blowing Afrobeat.
He went ahead to win many award which include:MTV Europe Music Award for Best African Act (2016), The Headies Award for Artiste of the year 2016, Bet Award for Best International Act African 2017 and Headies award for best collabo 2018. Others are Echo Award for song of the year 2017 (One Dance), Billboard Music Award for Billboard music Award for Top RnB collabo and City People Entertainment Award for pop artiste of the year, own a record label, Starboy Entertainment, Etc.
Another Nigerian music great Davido also went ahead to do major things in Diaspora. His songs ‘If’ and ‘ Fall’ which were released in 2017 became very trendy amongst the American audience recently. In fact these songs are still constantly played on U.S radio’ daily.
Apart from these two singles,he also collaborated with foreign artistes like Casanova, 2x, ROC Nation and RnB crooner Chris Brown. He was also “ brought out” to perform at a recent musical outing with the rapper, 50 cent in New York.
He is recipient of two Bet Awards, a KORA Award, a Channel O Music Video Award, a Ghana Music Award and the first African to perform at the MOBO Awards. Sold out global concert venues in UK and South Africa, his music tops New York music charts and he owns a music label, Davido Music Worldwide (DMW), among other achievements.
Rivers State born artiste, Burna Boy has also achieved global acclaim as he has signed with Atlantic Record and released two album that have greatly boosted his reputation in the Diaspora. Earlier in 2020, Burna Boy’s ‘African Giant’ album lost the Grammy nomination for the World Best Album to Angelique Kidjo’s reimagination or Celia Cruz’s music on the eponymous.
On November 24,2020, the Nigerian Super Star got his second Grammy Nomination in the Best Global music category. He has various awards to his credit such as Best International Act at Bet Awards (2019), Best African Act MTV Europe Music Awards (2019), Apple Music up Next artiste (2019), owns a Record Label Spaceship Records.
Tiwa Savage recently inked a management deal with Jay Z’s Roc Nation Company she won the Best African Act, MTV Europe Music Award becoming the first woman to win that category in 2019, she has a record deal with universal music group among other musical exploits globally.
Yemi Alade is the first African female artiste to reach one million views on YouTube for her ground breaking single Johnny. Currently, Johnny holds the You Tube record for the most watched African female music video of all times. She was nominated for a Grammy award in 2019 for the fact that she had acquired over a million global streams in addition to several awards.
She has been listed as one of the most influential people in African in 2018 and is been introduced as Mama Africa.
Other Nigerian artistes have not been left out in this list, Teckno has produced for the likes of Swae Lee and Drake, Mr Eazy has began to to collabo with foreign artistes like J Balvin and Bad Bunny. The defunct P-Square, Timaya, Don Jazzy, D’bang and a host of others have equally excelled globally with various awards and mouth watering endorsement deals.
The surge of the Nigerian music industry has been very impressive over the years, however, the issue of intellectual property remains a problem for artistes and foreign investors due to constant piracy of content.
By: Jacob Obinna
Entertainment
“French Up Your Career” PH, 2025 :Consul General Of France Harps On Proficiency In French
The Consul, General of France in Nigeria, Laurent Favier has encouraged French Learners to improve their skills on the language, as there are lots of opportunities up for grabs on the job market with fluency in French Language, saying that there are many other career paths which are often less well known to learners of French.
Participants at the “French Up Your Career” event held in Port Harcourt.
Favier who disclosed this during the just concluded third edition of the seminar tagged “French Up Your Career” organized by Alliance
Française, Port Harcourt explained that learning French doesn’t mean adding a language to your resume. It rather provides learners with new opportunities. Irrespective of their area of interest, be it diplomatic and International relations, international development, translation and Interpretation or journalism.
According to the Consul General, it was important to create awareness for young Nigerians in Port Harcourt who desire to have better understanding of how been fluent in French can create diverse career opportunities for users of the languages in Nigeria and the world at large, emphasizing that proficiency in French could possibly make learner a bridge between Nigeria and fast-developing regions.
“You previously heard this morning about how you can improve your French skills. This afternoon you will discover how being fluent in French can provide a significant edge on the job market and lead to professional careers that you may not have even considered before,”
“This event comes at the right time, as it launches the celebration of the richness and diversity of French-speaking cultures, which will mobilize us for more than a month throughout Nigeria and alongside other French-speaking countries,” Favier added.
He further highlighted that French is spoken by over 300 million people across the world, saying that, it’s one of the official languages of the United Nations, the European Union, and the African Union.
“There are many neighbouring African countries to Nigeria ,who have French as one of their primary languages of communication including Cameroon, Chad, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. So, what does this mean for you as students here in Nigeria?” He asked
“These sectors in which the French Embassy is often mobilized are the business and marketing field for example, as French is often the preferred language in many multinational companies, particularly those in the energy, oil and telecommunications sectors. I’m thinking as well in technology and IT,” he said
He noted that French-speaking countries in Africa are investing heavily in tech, innovation, and infrastructure, revealing that companies in Tech are looking for bilingual professionals to assist with software localization, customer support, and managing projects in French-speaking regions.
“The French embassy is not only mobilized to help learners discover promising sectors. We are also providing our support and expertise in
training teachers and optimizing university programs,” he summed up
Also, the linguistics cooperation attaché, French Embassy in Nigeria, Magaly Losange, who also gave a lecture at the seminar, in an interview with Newsmen said that the main purpose of the seminar was to be more informative and supportive to those who want to make a skill out of French Language,saying that as the linguistics cooperation attaché of the French Embassy it is her duty to promote French language through culture.
She cited traditional stereotypes as a major challenge affecting the growth and development of French in Nigeria, as school, teachers at the primary and secondary level in most cases teach French using the traditional way, where students learn French, but could not put words and grammar together as a skill for communicate.
“French is important. I don’t see French as colonization, l see French as a key to embrace globalization, l hope that learners will be inspired and ready to embrace the global village,” Losange said.
She however said that the French Embassy is working to ensure that equipments to facilitate the learning of French is put in place to enable learners improve their skills fast, which in two to three years learners should be able to communicate with French, advising learners to be intentional with learning the language, through social media and other workable devices to advance their skills for certification and better opportunities.
Highlight of the event which had about 250 participants in attendance was the eloquence award ceremony where students were awarded for their eloquence in French language by the Director, Alliance Française Port Harcourt, Mrs.Marina Lacal alongside the Linguistics cooperation attaché of the French Embassy in Nigeria, Magaly Losange.
After two edition of the seminar it was the turn of the Alliance Française, Port Harcourt to host the Third edition.
It would be recalled that the first edition of ” “French Up Your Career” event was organized at the Alliance Française Lagos on October 23, the second one at UNILAG on November 24, 2024 respectfully.
Popular Nigerian comedienne, Tomama has revealed how she waited for Afrobeats superstar, Wizkid outside the bathroom.
She shared this while recounting her encounter with the singer at a recent event with heavy security.
In a video posted on her Instagram page, Tomama explained that she waited by the bathroom in an attempt to have a one-on-one conversation with Wizkid.
She stated that she positioned herself near the restroom, hoping Wizkid would eventually use it, giving her the perfect opportunity to speak with him.
“Wizkid, I saw you, and I waited for you to pee, but you didn’t even stand up from where you were sitting. You just stayed there. All your crew members standing around got up to go pee. I was standing by the bathroom, waiting for you to come pee so that you would notice me,” she said.
Content creator and actor, Mr Macaroni has opened up about his financial struggles, saying he was both a victim of a scam and a failed investment in 2021.
He revealed that after losing all his savings, he resorted to borrowing to settle pending commitments and slipped into N500 million in debt.
He admitted that he is financially reckless and generous, impacting his financial stability negatively.
In lengthy post shared via his X handle yesterday, Mr Macaroni wrote, “Sometime around 2020/2022, I was a victim of a scam and simultaneously a failed investment that cost me all I had saved at the time. It shook me deeply but I told no one about it. If you know me well enough, you would know I do not like to share my problems. I could be going through the worst and at the same time helping others solve their own problems but I just would never share mine.”
“After I lost all the money I had then, Trouble started when I had to borrow money from different sources to settle all pending commitments and also fulfill certain responsibilities I have always believed were mine to fulfill. I make money in millions so I never thought borrowing money to pay back with interest could ever be a problem. But I got too comfortable and it took me a long time to realise that I was using the money I was earning to pay back interests. Also, my financial recklessness did not help. Please don’t borrow money! But if you must, please be responsible.”
The actor stated that 2024 marked a pivotal moment in his acting career but it was also the most challenging year for him as he faced over half a billion naira in debt.
Mr Macaroni revealed that his frustration grew worse after he was betrayed by someone he considered “a friend and sister.”
He added that with the support of family and friends who stood by him during his trying times, he now “feels better than I have felt in the last three years!”
The comedian stated that he decided to finally share his story to encourage others who are going through challenges.