Wednesday, 10 April 2013

'Akon Hitlab' to be aired on Live 91.9fm




Live FM before its transmission is working indefatigable to gain most Ghanaians to listen to their network. According to enewsgh, American star Akon will be hosting a show on the radio station when it starts its transmission.
It’s been confirmed! Award-winning Senegalese-American artiste Akon will present a show on Live 91.9 FM, when the station starts proper programming next month.
The arrangement, which would see the Konvict Music boss host his pre-recorded internationally-syndicated weekend show called Akon Hit Lab, is one of many on-air packages driven at getting a solid listenership base for the station.
Akon Hit Lab would air Saturdays, 6pm to 8pm and would be heavy on music, featuring the biggest hits, celebrity interviews and music from new artistes.
Akon’s Hitlab is a weekly syndicated 2 hour radio show currently being broadcasted on radio stations in 15 different countries around the world, reaching millions of listeners each week. It fuses the biggest top 40 dance/ club hits, talented, new, up and coming artists and one-of-a-kind access to celebrities and recording artists around the world.
Born Aliaune Damala Badara Thiam, he has sold millions of albums around the world and collaborated with countless pop and hip-hop icons such as Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Snoop Dog and Eminem.

Tuesday, 9 April 2013

Beyonce Covers Vogue UK, Calls Herself “A Modern-Day Feminist”



Beyonce is featured on the cover of the upcoming May 2013 issue of Vogue UK magazine, but we already knew that. What we didn’t know, however, is what was INSIDE the pages of Beyonce’s British Vogue issue — which just so happens to be her SECOND Vogue cover this year alone.

Inside the latest issue of British Vogue, Beyonce talks about how she considers herself a modern day feminist, while also discussing motherhood, her husband Jay-Z, and her “passion for a job which has seen her singing professionally for nearly 20 years.” (Beyonce has been around for almost 20 years? WOW!)
Read a few excerpts here:
On considering herself a modern-day feminist: “That word can be very extreme…But I guess I am a modern-day feminist. I do believe in equality. Why do you have to choose what type of woman you are? Why do you have to label yourself anything? I’m just a woman and I love being a woman…’I do believe in equality and that we have a way to go and it’s something that’s pushed aside and something that we have been conditioned to accept. But I’m happily married. I love my husband.”
On why she calls herself “Mrs. Carter” now: “I feel like Mrs Carter is who I am, but more bold and more fearless than I’ve ever been. It comes from knowing my purpose and really meeting myself once I saw my child. I was like, ‘OK, this is what you were born to do.’ The purpose of my body became completely different.”
On whether she supports Blue Ivy becoming an entertainer: “I definitely want my daughter to have goals and drive and passion … it has to be a balance.”

Tuesday, 2 April 2013

School of Performing Arts honours Kwabena Kwabena




Sensational Ghanaian highlife musician Kwabena Kwabena has received a special honour from the Music Department of  the School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana, Legon, for his contributions to the development of highlife music in Ghana. Before receiving the plaque and the citation from the music department Kwabena Kwabena real name George KwabenaAdu had thrilled the students with good music like Aso, Engya Me Ho, Dabi, and Menewoa.
The presentation was made by  Dr Awo Asiedu, Director of  The School of Performing Arts. Kwabena Kwabena who received the award with his wife Abena Owusuaa thanked the music department  for recognizing his works and urged the students not to give up in whatever they aim at.

Wednesday, 27 March 2013

Don't Offend The People Of Kwahu This Easter - MP





Member of Parliament for Nkawkaw constituency of the Eastern region, Eric Kwakye Darfour, wants the Ghana Tourist Authority (GTA) to coordinate with those organising the Kwahu festival to ensure that the cultural sensibility and heritage of the chiefs and people of Kwahu are not slighted this Easter weekend.
 
Mr Kwabena Darfour is therefore urging the GTA to liaise with the Kwahu Traditional Council, MPs and Assembly Members within the enclave, Districts and Municipal Chief Executives so that they “the people are not allowed to be exposed to threadbare, more in the midst of the fanfare and enculturation”.
 
The Kwahu Ridge has become the official place for the celebration of Easter and the annual National Paragliding Festival organised by the tourism authority, which draws thousands of patrons to the mountainous area yearly.
 
But delivering a statement on the floor of the House ahead of the festivities which begin this Friday, Mr. Dafour recalled: “the media were replete with bad reportage of immoral acts characterising the last year's festival," he said.
 
“These publications did not go down well with the Chiefs and people of Kwahu as reports of these immoral acts cast a slur on our Cultural Heritage as Ghanaians and we would not countenance that.
 
“Mr. Speaker, Kwahu is a disciplined community with high morals and would be the last to either engage or encourage visitors to do that."
 
The MP also appealed to the media from reporting “to purposely taint the hard-won reputation of the good people of Kwahu.”
 

Tuesday, 26 March 2013

Gallaxy to thrill Fans at Adom 106.3 fm and Airtel sponsored festival at Kwahu.

Gallaxy



It has almost become a routine in Ghana that every Easter people from all walks of life moves to the mountains-Kwahu to spend the holidays with their friends and families.
This year is not exceptional as numerous media  and cooperate bodies are organizing a series of activities and Adom106.3 fm a subsidiary of the multimedia group in collaboration with one of Ghana’s leading Telecommunication companies Airtel are  staging a big platform to entertain it loyal listeners and fans  starting from 28th  to 31th March respectively.

This event will see a host of Ghana’s celebrities and musicians including Gallaxy from Harbour city recordz performing vehemently to satisfy their fans for the first time. The ‘wodo nti’   hit makers will be sharing the same stage with the likes of Edem, Amaky Dede,EL, and the host of others who will also br performing.
This event is going to be their maiden biggest platform for them to perform,  since their official entry into the music industry with their three hit  singles ‘Chop money’ ft Guru, ‘Bo asie mamie ft Dobble’  and the banging highlife tune of the moment ‘wodo nti’.

According to Gallaxy they are not surprise but very grateful to God and the organizers for the opportunity, because they have been working industriously for a moment like this. So this is just one of the numerous privileges that, they will be getting to showcase to Ghanaians  both home and abroad what they have for them.
The duo continues to add that, they are ready to deliver and their fans should expect it. They also used the medium to remind their fans that their second video is coming soon and urge all their fans to keep supporting them Gallaxy.

Monday, 25 March 2013

Edem gives new life to ‘Sika Ye Mogya’



Hiplife strongly expresses its close affiliation to highlife when the former overtly borrows from the latter and rapper Edem’s vibrant re-working of Pat Thomas’ Sika Ye Mogya classic shows how the two home-grown styles can effectively feed off each other.

Edem’s version features Pat Thomas himself. The original piece was done in Fanti but Edem brings a fresh tang to the song with his usual energetic raps. He has also injected a fast club tempo into his version.

Sika Ye Mogya was originally recorded by Pat Thomas in 1991 in Ontario, Canada. The recording session included crack Ghanaian instrumentalists like Paa Joe on guitar and Carl Ricky Telfer on keyboards, bass and flute.

Edem caught attention largely with his Volta Regime album that included hit tracks such as Bra Freme, You Dey Craze and Nyornuviade. His subsequent Mass Production album offered the public other catchy songs like Ghetto Arise and Over Again.

He is an entrenched act on the music scene and trekking back in time to pick on Pat Thomas’ all-time great piece re-enforces the idea that there is a big well of highlife classics that the younger generation can always fall on to keep Ghanaian popular music forever alive.

Pat Thomas’ singer daughter, Nana Yaa is also said to have her own rendition of Sika Ye Mogya on her upcoming debut album.

The power of the showbizer

Samini
People in show business are one the most influential if not the most influential in the world because they cause change in the life of a society.

It is conceived of showbizers by many as scatterbrains and worthless individuals who are drug addicts, womanizers, debauchees, hooligans or crooks. Despite these brutish descriptions of showbizers, which some however consider as misconceptions, it is a well established fact and a reality that musicians, actors, fashion designers, painters, writers, radio and TV hosts, and other creative artists are powerful to the extent that the ramifications of their actions surpass that of the politician or the clergy.

Showbizers the world over have influenced how people dress. For example, an artiste appears on stage in a particular costume and in no time it becomes the dress code of the moment. Let a TV presenter appear on screen with an outlandish hair style (I mean one that may be considered abnormal) and the next day, it is the latest hairstyle in town. Hip hop and its variant genres have become so strong that it is seen as a veritable culture of some sort. Its followers have their way of dressing and speaking, and many people from all walks of life copy their lifestyle.

Fashion designers like Mawuli Okudzeto, Kofi Ansah, Bee Arthur and others have contributed to the dressing culture of this country. Is it not interesting how entertainment doyen KOD will create and design his own clothing and people will not just admire it but copy him? A few years ago, wearing suits on top of jeans trousers was slovenly and unbecoming for formal occasions but artistes have soon made this dress code acceptable almost everywhere.

Someone would like to have a tattoo on his body just because his favourite actor, singer or footballer also has tattoo on some part(s) of his body.

Showbizers or creative artistes are one the few groups of people whose names are used by their fans to christen their children. In fact, fans do not care whether these celebrity names they are adopting for their kids were created by the artistes or have always be in existence, let alone dig into their meanings. They just revel in the fact that they are naming their children after stars.

Lyrics of a song can be inspirational, derogatory, suggestive, leering or insinuating. Testimonies abound from people whose lives, upon listening to certain songs have transformed for the better. Others also have engaged in unscrupulous activities after listening to some particular songs.

This case is no different from movies. Movies more often than not epitomize the culture of a people. Any adoption of cultural practices of a people into another would bring a change in the lives of the inhabitants of the latter. A case in point is the current use of explicit sex scenes in Ghanaian movies; something that jars with the indigenous culture of Ghanaians.

It could also be said of creative writers like William Shakespeare, Efua Sutherland and Chinua Achebe (may his soul rest in peace) as very powerful and influential personalities because they used their literary works to affect society. While Shakespeare's English was deferred to and used by his contemporaries, Chinua Achebe used satire to critcise people in power in Nigeria. Efua Sutherland would also be remembered for authoring books that portrayed Ghanaian culture.

One other power that showbizers have is creating language. Remember Barima's 'Abuskeleke' song|? 'Abuskeleke was a word that supposedly originated from the Western Region of Ghana or somewhere in Ivory Coast and was used to describe a lady who is kittenish and promiscuous. It was made popular by Barima in his song and was later used to refer to ladies who were indecently dressed and it has since become part of the lexicon of Ghanaian languages.

'Bye bye' is an English world used to bid people farewell. Until recently there had not been a Twi version for it. Not even professors of Linguistics could help Twi speakers out. It took Dr. Duncan, a radio presenter of XFM to couch 'ekyire' to be the Twi version for 'bye bye'. Up till now, 'ekyire' has become part of Twi vocabulary to mean 'bye bye'.

Credit: Kwame Dadzie -  Deputy editor-Flex Newspaper

Sunday, 24 March 2013

My Song Was Inspired By the Ghana DJ Awards – Prodigal (VIP)




VIP fame who released his first single of his first solo project, ‘DJ’s’, which is already receiving massive airplay, Prodigal revealed that the song was inspired by the Ghana DJ Awards.
Prodigal, who joined Sammy Forson to premiere the song talked about the composition of the Hip Hop song which features an outstanding vocal performance by Sweetio singer Raquel, revealed that the song was inspired by the emergence of the annual Ghana DJ Awards. “I saw the nominees list on the internet. Our DJs have been very supportive since we got on the music scene over a decade ago. This is a way to say thank you”, he added.
On ‘DJ’s’, Prodigal mentions over 40 DJs and record promoters including DJ Black, DJ Jimmy Jatt, DJ Rab, DJ Booty Brown, Benny Blanco, Big L, Killa Fingers, Fiifi Banson, Dr Pounds, DJ Kess, Merqury Quaye, Jay Foley, Jeremy, Fiifi Pratt, DJ Mensa, DJ Mic Smith, Kwame Faakye, Bola Ray, Kwame Sefa Kayi, DJ Carlos and a host of others.
Talking to Sammy Forson on VIP, he said, “VIP is still together. However, we will be working on solo projects in between time.”

Herty Borngreat Responds- “vote For Me To Win”

Herty Borngreat



Have you ever found time to really analyze the impact of Herty Borngreat’s musical talent and versatility on the music scene? Which other musician can match up to Herty Borngreat’s exploits and impact so far as her musical career is concerned?
With all due respects, aren’t many of our gospel musicians merely singers? How many of our gospel artistes can stand up to Herty’s achievement of featuring two hiplife artistes on two different songs and making hits out of them? Herty Borngreat has been able to expose her great touch of musical delivery coupled with her versatility and as such it comes as no surprise she has been nominated variously for the upcoming Vodafone Ghana Music Awards.
For Herty Borngreat to be nominated in the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, that means her impact on the music scene in the year under review was so remarkable. Last year at the RTP AWARDS, you should have been there to see the way Herty Borngreat dazzled the audience with her performance and to put the icing on the cake, she ”killed” the rap verse of Sakordie on her song ”bebrebe” and that of Trigmatic on the track ”Ka No Seyaa”.
Kindly help me out, have you heard of any gospel artiste getting the opportunity to be invited for Legon Artistes Night? For Legon Artistes Night, it is mostly the secular artistes who get the chance to perform but Herty Borngreat became the first ever gospel artiste to perform at the Legon Artistes Night. Not only did she perform, she awed the students so much that, they showered some ”kuffour” dollars on her.



That is not all, have you cared to find out exactly what happened when she performed at the 2ND edition of the Ghana Gospel Industry Awards organized by Adom Fm? Have you also considered her performance at the high profile Victory Party held at the Oxford Street after the December 2012 Elections? Your guess is as good as mine.
I have critically studied both Best Collaboration of the Year and Gospel Artiste of the Year awards of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards that Herty Borngreat has been nominated for and I don’t see why she doesn’t deserve to win the awards. I am totally in support of Herty Borngreat winning these two awards and I need you to help me in this regard.
Kindly text G1 to the short code 1767 as many times as possible,  so that Herty Borngreat will win the Gospel Artiste of the year award. For her to also win the Best Collaboration of the Year Award, show your love to her by texting J2 to the short code 1767.
When you vote for Herty to win these awards, you have done obviously the right thing to propel her to greater heights on the gospel music scene. I rest my case.
.flexghana.com
Ebenezer Narh Affum

Friday, 22 March 2013

Chinua Achebe is dead



Foremost novelist, Prof Chinua Achebe, is dead. He was 82.
PREMIUM TIMES learnt he died last night in a hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
A source close to the family said the professor had been ill for a while and was hospitalised in an undisclosed hospital in Boston.
The source declined to provide further details, saying the family will issue a statement on the development later today.
Contacted, spokesperson for Brown University, where Mr. Achebe worked until he took ill, Darlene Trewcrist, is yet to respond to our enquiries on the professor’s condition.
Until his death, Prof Achebe was the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown.
Below is how the university profiled him on its website.
“Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe is known the world over for having played a seminal role in the founding and development of African literature. He continues to be considered among the most significant world writers. He is most well known for the groundbreaking 1958 novel Things Fall Apart, a novel still considered to be required reading the world over. It has sold over twelve million copies and has been translated into more than fifty languages.
“Achebe’s global significance lies not only in his talent and recognition as a writer, but also as a critical thinker and essayist who has written extensively on questions of the role of culture in Africa and the social and political significance of aesthetics and analysis of the postcolonial state in Africa. He is renowned, for example, for “An Image of Africa,” his trenchant and famous critique of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Today, this critique is recognized as one of the most generative interventions on Conrad; and one that opened the social study of literary texts, particularly the impact of power relations on 20th century literary imagination.
“In addition, Achebe is distinguished in his substantial and weighty investment in the building of literary arts institutions. His work as the founding editor of the Heinemann African Writers Series led to his editing over one hundred titles in it. Achebe also edited the University of Nsukka journal Nsukkascope, founded Okike: A Nigerian Journal of New Writingand assisted in the founding of a publishing house, Nwamife Books–an organization responsible for publishing other groundbreaking work by award-winning writers. He continues his long-standing work on the development of institutional spaces where writers can be published and develop creative and intellectual community.”