Entertainment
Beyonce Buys Church For $850,000
Beyonce has reportedly purchased a church in New Orleans that is more than 100 years old. The 36-year old is now the new owner of a stone structured 7,500 square foot House of God in New Orleans listed at $850,000. However, it is unknown how much the entertainer coughed out for her latest investment.
A celebrity gossip site revealed that the church was built in the early 1900s but had been out of commission as a place of worship for some time due to its members passing away. Beyonce’s younger sister, fellow singer, Solange Knowles lives nearby.
Beyonce is hardly the first celebrity to buy a religious site. Katty Perry has been involved in a contentious law suit with nuns over an eight- acre convent she purchased. Beyoncé’s reported purchase comes just weeks after a San Francisco church held a mass devoted to the music and accomplishments of Beyoncé.
“Come to Vine SF to sing your Beyonce favourites and discover how her art opens a window into the lives of the marginalised and forgotten, particularly black women”, the Grace Cathedral announced on its site. The Rev. Yolanda Norton, Assistant Professor of Old Testament at San Francisco Theological Seminary who created the Beyonce and the Hebrew Bible”, Class at SFTs will be preaching.
“The Vine is a service offered by the episcopal cathedral that provides contemporary worship and progressive theology”. In this year where there’s been so much conversation about the role of women and communities of colour, we felt a need to lift up the voices that the church has traditionally suppressed”, Rev Jude Harmon, the Vine’s founding pastor told the San Francisco Gate in April.
The beauty of Beyonce’s music is that she explores those themes in an idiom that is accessible to everyone, we can use it as a conversation starter, that’s what it’s designed to be.
“I know there are people who will say using Beyonce is just a cheap way of trying to get people in the church”. Harmon added: ‘But Jesus used very provocative images in the stories he would tell to incite people to ask hard questions about their own religious assumptions. He regularly provoked. We are following in Jesus way”.
R&B star, Temilade Openiyi, popularly known as Tems, has recounted the early-career challenges she faced, revealing that she was once booed out of the stage while performing at a school event.
Speaking in an interview with Newsmen, the Crazy Tings crooner shared that she wasn’t only booed but was also harassed with plastic bottles.
“I remember one time I was going to perform at my school as an up-and-coming singer and I thought I was going to receiving a standing ovation.
“But I got booed. They even threw plastic bottles at me,” she recalled.
Tems explained that despite the embarrassing incident and other such rejections, she remained determined to pursue a career in music.
The Tide Entertainment reports that Tems admitted that some of the initial rejections she faced could be due to her conviction to stick to her originality instead of doing covers or familiar sounds like most of her peers.
The Grammy-winning singer said looking back now, she is glad that she didn’t compromise her style despite the initial pressures.
A close associate of late singer Mohbad, Primeboy, has appealed for the artiste’s burial nearly three years after his death.
According to him, Mohbad’s body remains in the mortuary since September 12, 2023, pending burial arrangements.
The Tide Entertainment reports that in a statement Primeboy urged the family, public, and government to permit the burial, stating, “It’s been almost three years since Mohbad left us. His body is still in the mortuary. I’m begging the family, I’m begging the public, I’m begging the government, please let’s bury our brother. He deserves a befitting burial.”
It would be recalled that Mohbad’s death sparked public outrage, protests, and investigations. Ongoing autopsy examinations, police inquiries, and legal proceedings have delayed burial arrangements amid family disagreements and public scrutiny.
Nancy Briggs
