The Nation Newspaper

Category: Entertainment

  • Aneke twins out with another movie

    Aneke twins out with another movie

    AFRICANS in London are currently excited because of the presence of Nigerian movie stars; Patience Ozokwo better known as Mama G; and the Aneke Twins; Chidinma and Chidebere.

    The movie stars have been in the English capital city for some days now for Ozokwo’s son’s wedding, which was held last Saturday and also in preparation for the premiere of the film Onochie, produced by the twins.

    The movie premiere will hold on Friday, June 7, 2013 at the Odeon Cinema, Bugsby Way, Greenwich, London. The event it is said, will start with a red carpet by 9:30pm while the screening begins from 11pm.

    Patience Ozokwo, the Aneke Twins and others are some of the movie icons expected at the event.

  • 2face tangos T-Pain in ‘Rainbow’

    2face tangos T-Pain in ‘Rainbow’

    EARLIER in the week, 2face Idibia premiered the much anticipated remix to one of his hit singles “Rainbow” which features American rapper and singer, T-Pain. The original single is off his last album, Away and Beyond, which is still gaining a lot of hype a year after being released. 2face aims to appeal more to his fans around the globe with this collaboration which is considered as one of the biggest in recent times.

  • Jim Iyke stars alongside Hollywood actress Garcelle Beauvais

    Jim Iyke stars alongside Hollywood actress Garcelle Beauvais

    IF you are fan of Nollywood actor Jim lyke and wondering what’s next after his Unscripted reality show, here is a good news. As you read this piece, the actor who is not resting on his oars is in far away Santa Monica, Hollywood and Beverly Hills where he’s filming with the amazing Garcelle Beauvais. The movie is called And then there was You.

    Here is what Jim posted on his twitter page a couple of days ago, ‘On set of d #phenomenal movie ‘and then there was u’ shooting in Santa Monica, Hollywood, and Beverly Hills wif d amazing Garcelle Beauvais’.

    Beauvais is a Haitian actress, singer, and former fashion model best known for her roles as Francesca “Fancy” Monroe on The WB television sitcom, The Jamie Foxx Show, which ran from 1996 to 2001, and has Valerie Heywood on the ABC crime drama, NYPD Blue.

  • Eviction scare unsettles contestants

    Eviction scare unsettles contestants

    BARELY 24 hours into this year’s edition of the popular Big Brother Africa reality, sign of the dreaded whip started to show, as housemates were asked to nominate themselves for possible eviction.

    The show, tagged ‘Chase’ kicked off last Sunday with two Housemates from each of the ?? countries making it into the BBA ‘confinement’ in Johannesburg, South Africa. The following day, five contestants including: Selly (Ghana) and Natasha (Malawi) of the Ruby House and Denzel (Uganda), Betty (Ethiopia) and Huddah (Kenya) belonging to Diamonds House were already put up for possible eviction, this weekend.

    After a testing day which saw the housemates having to make nomination decisions on the fly, the lounges in both houses were in sombre mood as Big Brother delivered the nomination verdict.

    Early on Day 1, the housemates in both houses got the chance to claim the honour of the fiercely contested Head of House role. Instead of battling it out in a task, Big Brother made the selection random, making the Housemates select a ball from a box in the garden without peeking, the one who chose the winning ball would be Head of House for week 1. Feza picked the right ball in the Diamond house, while Beverly was victorious in the Ruby house.

    The Diamonds’ nominations saw Huddah, Denzel and Elikem lead the pack with seven, six and four nominations, respectively. Betty, Annabel, Fatima, Bolt and Neyll picked up two nominations apiece, with Dellish picking up one. Diamond Head of House Feza stuck to her original nomination decision and saved Elikem, replacing him with Betty, who she had nominated during the day.

    Once the Rubies had spoken, Selly and Bassey had six nominations each, with Natasha and Hakeem picking up three each. Cleo and Biguesas were each nominated twice, while Sulu, Maria, Beverley, ONeal, Koketso and Pokello were each nominated once. Beverley, in her role as Ruby Head of House, chose to save Bassey and put Natasha up for eviction in his place.

    The fate of those on the eviction list rests with the viewers who are to decide on who stays or leaves.

  • Nollywood and Cultural Imperialism

    WHAT defines us as African is our ‘Africaness’. What differentiates Nigeria from other black nations, is our ‘Nigerianess’, in terms of our cultural pattern, ethnic composition, moral feelings and other social realities. These peculiarities, I believe, should be the fulcrum upon which the fast growing Nigerian filmmaking industry, Nollywood, rotates. Our movies should appositely represent who we are, and conform to our necessities, needs and wants.

    Sadly, however, reverse is the case. Rather than promoting our national outlook, some filmmakers in the country unabashedly glamorise and patently espouse the cultural ideals of the metropolitan countries, thereby, promoting cultural

    imperialism.

    Cultural imperialism refers to external influence on receiving cultural system, which may be imposed or actively invited. A section of film producers in Nigeria, are guilty of indorsing the worldview of materialism, capitalism, obscenity, individualism and objectification of women, which are synonymous to Western motion pictures industry. This negative attitude, consequently, threatens the sanctity of our identity. Our artistes, in an attempt to imitate Hollywood superstars, end up making a caricature of themselves and, thus misinterpret roles that require local flavour. Nollywood must learn to be original, like Bollywood.

     

    -Thompson Taiwo is of Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos

  • A Tiwa Savage’s party without Mavin

    A Tiwa Savage’s party without Mavin

    FIRST lady of the Mavin Records, Tiwa Savage, staged her bespoke Album Listening Party on Sunday May 26 at the swanky Wheatbaker Hotel in Ikoyi. A list of select personalities were privileged to listen to her forthcoming 19-track album titled Once Upon A Time which is set for release on June 14.

    “I think the album is phenomenal. It has a bit of everything in it. I really loved most of the songs”, said a guest at the event.

    Some of her friends including Banky W, Lynxxx, Iceberg Slim, General Pype and Ill Rhymes, attended the and while members of the press were wondering about the whereabouts of Don Jazzy and the other members of Mavin crew, Tiwa explained that they were all unavoidably absent because of their engagement at the opening of the Big Brother Africa show, which was happening simultaneously in South Africa.

     

  • I’m an actress, not a porn star Nollywood actress Uche Ogbodo

    I’m an actress, not a porn star Nollywood actress Uche Ogbodo

    Although known for her wild looks, actress Uche Ogbodo could be described as a lady with a high sense of decency in her own rights. This is brought more to the fore in the light of recent happenings in the industry where the actress was said to have turned down a mouth-watering offer to star in a soft porn movie. In this interview with DUPE AYINLA-OLASUKANMI, the actress talks about experimenting with her looks, among other issues.

     

    WHAT production are you involved in at the moment?

    I just got back from one and I will be starting another one very soon.

    Would you say the roles you portray in movies are a reflection of your true self?

    My personality has nothing to do with the kind of roles I take up in movies. The roles I play in movies don’t tell the kind of person I am. Those roles are totally different from me in real life. In my movies, I try to depict a character, I try to actualize an unseen character, so for what I don’t know, people tend to tag me with the roles because of my looks and probably because of the way I dress and my colours too. ‘If she can interpret that role properly, then she is that crazy’. I am not a crazy person in my life, but I like to do what I like to do. I don’t think anybody can dictate to me.

    Talking about appearance and looks, what reactions do you get from people when you go out?

    I don’t get any negative reactions from my fans. I dress well like any normal girl on the street. I dress decently. I don’t expose my body; I am a star actually so I put an edge to what I wear, a little edge to differentiate me from a normal girl. I am a normal girl. I don’t have crazy styles that drive people crazy, I dress normal.

    Why do you like experimenting with colours, especially when it comes to your hair?

    Yes I have a red hair on. It was not for a particular movie. You know every year I try different looks and style for my hair. I want to believe that I am a pacesetter, I like people to follow me. If you could remember, like the last time I had a haircut, a lot of girls carried that hair cut because of me. It was really off the hook at that time but this one, I don’t know why people are not interested in it. This year, I searched for a look for myself because I had carried the haircut for one year and half. I decided that I needed something different. I looked and this one caught my fancy, so I decided to do a red hair. I didn’t want to do the red hair that Nigerian girl’s do, which is dark so I decided to do something a bit different. That is why I always say I want to have an edge to what I do. Because I want people to follow me, I don’t want to follow anybody.

    What is your relationship with Halima Abubakar?

    I don’t have any relationship with her. She is just my colleague.

    But both of you are carrying the same colour of hair?

    There is no connection between us. Probably she saw me with the red hair, liked it and went to do something similar. Or maybe she likes red hair too. Halima I don’t know her, she is not my friend. She is my colleague; we can meet on set and talk. It is not me, I did not inspire her. Maybe I inspired her without knowing to go and make a red hair. (Laughs)

    How crazy can you be?

    I am spontaneous; I am not crazy with my life, though I am crazy about show business. I am a very decent woman and I believe in God a lot. I know there are things that I can do, that will get me off the line from my religion and faith in God, which is why my life in showbiz is all about the show. I can be crazy there to drive a point home, but if you see me one on one, you would not believe that this is the Uche that is being shown on the paper all the time. I am a free bird. One part of me is really crazy and the other part is doing something good.

    How often do you get attraction from men?

    This is something that I get every minute of the day. I am tired of getting attractions from them.

    Does this have anything to do with your looks?

    It has got nothing to do with my looks. I think they see the real me. They like me, they love me but I don’t want them; I am not interested in whatever they want, because I have someone.

    How comfortable is this someone with your career?

    He is very okay with what I do. So long as I love it.

    Are you still on the show of Cookery for Maggi Kitchen?

    The show was not like a contract. It is like pay as you go stuff. It is a show to let your fans know that you can cook. I was not the only celebrity who cooked on the show. But I really would like to do things like that, because I love to cook.

    How much time do you spend doing domestic chores?

    Everybody who knows me would answer you and tell you I am a domestic freak. I like to clean a lot. I like to cook a lot and do everything in my house. My house is my everything. I prefer when I am home to when I am out. I don’t need people to do anything for me. If you do it for me, it is like you do not do it to my taste. I love to do it, because I am a woman and an African woman.

    You once stated that given the right place and money, you would act porn movie…

    I did not say that. I never said that I would act pornography. I don’t know why you guys are twisting my words. I have never, ever said I would act porn movie. I would never do that. I did not even grant any interview saying that.

    How did you react when Afrocandy approached you to feature in her soft porn movie?

    I can never do pornography. I am an actress, not a porn star. I released a press statement on that and you people ignored it. The people that do it, you all know them. I am a decent woman, I do not do pornography. I am not saying people that do it are indecent. It is their career, they want to do it. But I am an actress; I don’t do things like that please. So the likes of Afrocandy that called me to come and do that, I am not their type. I don’t do things like that. I have got decency for God’s sake. What am I protecting already? I cannot do that, I am so sorry.

    As the African woman you claim to be, do you have African attires?

    Yes, I have some and you can see me in them at weddings. But I don’t wear them in my everyday life. You have not really seen me with any because it is not my style. I have African attires. If you want me to do a photo shoot, I can. I am trying to do a photo shoot on African attires but I have about two or three African attires. I love African wears, I have things made of African prints.

    Presently are you representing any brand as their ambassador?

    No! Not at the moment.

    Are you looking at working on your own production?

    Yes, I am planning to do my won job. Very soon, I will set out but right now, I am still getting set.

    Why do you think actors are backing out of acting?

    You know in Nigeria, the reason most people don’t really work these days is because people are complaining of our production. They complain about Nigeria producing movies every other day. We are trying to cut it down to two or three times in a year. And you know that the more they cut it down, the more the rate of movies goes down too but there are still some people working.

    Do you have some set of people in the industry that you can refer to as friends?

    I have colleagues. I don’t have close friends in Nollywood. And you know because of our jobs, we are all friends too. I don’t have a ‘best friend’. When we see we talk, we catch up. The job does not give us time to always be together. And if there is anything going around, your colleagues will always call you.

    You came and have remained relevant. What is the secret?

    I am a learner and have always wanted to learn from people who have been there before me. I know that for you to move ahead in life, you have to move with people who are high rated than you. When you get to that height, you need to meet with people who are a bit higher than you. You see that, you keep moving ahead. But if you remain with people that are stagnant and ahead of, you will never move forward. I believe I need to learn everyday and know the secret of people who have been there. I have a role model but I don’t have role model that last. When I get to that height, I leave them and seek for new models. My love for God has always put me on a particular standard.

    When are you walking down the aisle?

    I am working and praying on that.

    What colour of hair do you have on at the moment?

    I haven’t gotten any colour on now but I am visiting my hair dresser. Any inspiration I get, I will work with it. You could see me on a green and white hair, you never can tell. I just want to look nice.

    Have you grown your hair back?

    Yes! I have my normal hair back on.

  • MTN splashes N100m on new celebrity Ambassadors

    MTN splashes N100m on new celebrity Ambassadors

    ONE of Nigeria’s leading telecommunication companies, MTN, has reportedly shelled out over N100m in endorsement deals for new brand ambassadors in line with their radical shift in policy.

    The mobile operator recently unveiled pop star Davido, along with four Project Fame Academy alumni, Iyanya, Praiz, Chidinma and Mike Anyasodo as new celebrity faces of the brand.

    Wizkid, whose endorsement deal with Pepsi was recently extended for another two years, was also a beneficiary as he also signed a one-year endorsement deal with the telecoms company.

    It is the first time MTN is officially signing brand ambassadors and exclusive reports also have it that the stars have finished negotiations for a one year endorsement deal which will see some of the beneficiaries earning as much as N15m a year. Davido, who was reportedly paid N30m for his debut MTN commercial last year also renewed for the same amount.

  • CONTROVERSIES? I don’t regret anything —Sammie Okposo

    CONTROVERSIES? I don’t regret anything —Sammie Okposo

    Over a decade after the revolutionary gospel singer took the industry by storm with his massive hit single Welu Welu, which was received as a breath of fresh air from the conventional gospel style, he’s still waxing strong in the game amid the good, the bad, and the ugly tales that have trailed him. In this interview with MERCY MICHAEL, Sammie Okposo who was spotted blazing the trail after the devastating flood that engulfed his countrymen in Delta State sometime in 2012, speaks on his deepest passion. He also shares his interesting fatherhood story, among other issues:

     

     

    A lot of celebrities have their foundations; you have Sammie Okposo Hope Initiative. What have been the achievements of the foundation?

    I always like to show that I care; to give back for everything God has done for me. We must give back. God has blessed me and that is why I want to give back. Recently, we did things for motherless babies’ homes. Like yesterday, it was the International White Cane Day, which is dedicated to the blind people all over the world. We did a walk… we walked all over Victoria Island in the rain for over two hours and we bought canes for blind people to present it to them.

    So, those are some of the things that we have been doing. And we are not going to stop here. Like every now and then when it is Christmas, I go to prisons, maximum prison, show them love. So the Sammie Okposo Hope Initiative has been involved in charity long before now.

    Walking in the rain for two hours for the blind…personally, how does it affect you directly or indirectly?

    It affects me because I just hate to see people suffer. It is not something that is delightful for me to watch. I don’t like to see people suffer unnecessarily. I don’t like people to be in hopeless situations when I can lend a helping hand. So first, it affects me as a person even before it affects me as an artiste. I’m a very compassionate person naturally, so it affects me personally as an artiste. It’s a time to give back.

    How did your background help to shape the person you’re today?

    I grew up in a family where I was taught that there is love in sharing. I was not less privileged at all. This is not a case of because I grew up in a foster home that’s why I’m compassionate. I grew up very privileged by God’s grace, but I was trained to understand that I am just privileged because of God’s grace and there are other people out there who are not as privileged as me and who whenever I find the opportunity, I should show them love.

    You have been in the industry for over a decade. What has been your staying power?

    Number one factor is God on my side. I do not attribute any of my success to my strength or my talent or to who I know. I do not. I always look up to heaven and say, God, I need you to help me every day because I’m in an industry that is very competitive and we have a lot of talented people everywhere you turn in Nigeria. So God has been able to keep me relevant. And two, I always strive for excellence. I always move with the trend. I always listen. I watch my environment. I look at what is happening around me, as it regards my work and I try to make sure that I’m on point. After I do my best, I leave the rest for God to do. I’ve just been blessed and favoured.

    Looking around, you’ve influenced quite a lot of people musically. How does that make you feel?

    If you are a man that is successful and nobody can look around you and say this is who and who and who you have influenced or touched their lives, you are a failure. So for me, success is not about acquiring everything to yourself, you must be able to say, at some point of your life, I have been able to touch this life. Not even you even saying it, people can look and say, wow! look at this person; look at that person, all these people are doing what they are doing today because they came in contact with Sammie Okposo.

    And every day they wake up they are like, if God did not use this person where would I have been, and they say, “God bless this person”. Do you know what it means? When people from all over the world are saying, God bless you. You don’t necessarily have to give me cash. I don’t even want it. That prayer, sometimes it just protects you from a lot of things that would have happened to your life.

    Agreed you are blessed among artistes, but it has not come without controversies…

    Yes, I’m glad it came because the Sammie Okposo you see today is a result of everything I’ve been through, everything, controversies and all. I don’t want to remove anything. Some people will tell you they regret. I don’t regret anything because firstly, I have learnt with everything I have gone through and if you remove anything or any situation, the Sammie Okposo you see today will not be complete because you have removed something from the equation.

    So it’s the good, the bad, the ugly, the controversies, the times I cry, the times I laugh, all put together, are what make me who I am. I am a product of everything I have been through. And for anybody who has not failed that person is not ready to succeed. You must go through that period of your life when you are tested, tried. And what makes you a better person is when you come out of it and you are still able to move on.

    Can we now say that say this is a ‘new’ Sammie Okposo?

    I don’t know what you are talking about. There is nobody that is clean, including you that are interviewing me. So I am never going to say that I will get to that place where I will be perfect. I will never be perfect but I will do my best to do the right thing and be at the right place at the right time. Sometimes, people are just victims of being at the wrong place.

    You didn’t do anything, you’re just hanging out with the wrong set of people, and they just look at those people, they look at you and they classify you and they say, Abeg, they are all the same! Sometimes it’s your own making, your own stubbornness, being too inquisitive. You just want to be stubborn and when you reap the fruit of your stubbornness, it teaches you. So that is why I said all of it, I am thankful, because if my father did not flog me for some things, I probably would not understand that what I did was wrong.

    People should be thankful to God for every time in their life that they have been in trouble because trouble teaches you. If you’ve never seen trouble, the day trouble will come upon you, I don’t know, you might just take your life. Sometimes I wish I could wake up my late dad and my late mum and thank them for every time they flogged me for something because I don’t know what I would have been today. In the midst of that thrashing I still did some things wrong; imagine if I was not trashed at all – it would have been worse. So each time I look at a situation, I try to see what I can learn from it even if it was the one I did with your korokoro eye. But when it’s all done, I’m always like, what I’m I going to learn from this so that it will not happen again? So people learn and I’m still learning. Some years ago, I was not associated with things like this (charity). I was just happy to be an artiste. But I got to a point when I had to understand that there is more than just you enjoying the glamour of being an artiste. We need to ask ourselves, what are we here for? You are here because there will always come a time when you are needed to give back to the society. I am nothing without the people. It’s the people who appreciate you, love you; you now have a fan base that makes you so popular. So when the people are in trouble you must come to their aid.

    What is fatherhood like for you?

    Fatherhood is interesting. Coincidently, my daughter is going to turn 18 this month. I have an 18-year-old daughter. Oh yes! I had my daughter very early, my first daughter. And you know what it means to have a daughter that’s going to be eighteen.

    Can you imagine what I’m dealing with? She’s a babe. If she walks into somewhere with me and you don’t know her to be my daughter you will think that hahaha, who is this chic Sammie is moving with it? She’s so clingy. You know how daughters get so attached to their daddies. She’s so clingy, always all over me. When I tell her “you are not a baby anymore,” she will reply and say, “I will always be your baby. You are my daddy.” It’s interesting. It is something everybody should be proud of at the right time.

    At the time when a lot of artistes are walking it out at the gym to have their six-packs, Sammie you have continued to bloat…

    For me, I am healthy. I am very healthy, trust me. I eat right. I do my exercises. Yeah, the stomach has come out a bit. It was even bigger than this. It has gone down so much and I’m still working on it but I’m really not crazy about the six-pack thing. There are a lot of six-packs guys who are not healthy. People fall down in the gym and die, so how healthy can you be? I try to be fit because of my work. I need the stamina to be on stage, perform and not collapse. But I’m still working on the stomach. It will go, trust me. But unfortunately for me, I’m not a slim person. I have a big frame. The stomach will go in but then all the body is still going to be big because I’m a big guy. I don’t like being lepa by the way.

  • BRYMO still with Chocolate City

    BRYMO still with Chocolate City

    BARELY two months after Jesse Jagz took a bow from Chocolate City following the completion of his contract, rumours of the exit of another label artiste Brymo, is making the rounds. But President of the music house, Audu Maikori and his deputy, M.I say there is need to differentiate between wishful thinking and reality.

    They urge that people on the social media should not join in popularizing falsehood which is not good for the image of the company. They argued that, Brymo may have made a statement that suggests he is no longer with the label, but the artistes cannot leave because he is still in a legal relationship with the company.

    The company stated that the singer still has a few years and two albums to deliver in line with his contract.

    “For someone to just wake up and tweet anything doesn’t hold ground because there’s a contract and he has to come back and fulfill his obligations. If an artiste feels that he wants to leave for one reason or the other then there’s a proper way to do it,” Maikori explained.

    The rift appears to have started when few weeks back, Brymo uploaded a picture of himself smoking a ‘joint’, which did not go down well with the label. Some sanctions may have been imposed on the artiste which he did not take in good faith, leading to the slipshod talk about his exit on twitter. But the company is certain that the storm will be over in no time.