Category: Entertainment

Young rapper Danny contributes Rwf 500,000 to Agaciro Development Fund

A Rwandan rapper, Ntakirutimana Mudathiru popularly known as Danny Nanone has pledged to contribute Rwf 500,000 as part of joining other Rwandans to support efforts directed towards self reliance.

He revealed the commitment during the concert of Primus Guma Guma Super Star held in Nyamirambo on Saturday where he said before his fans that as a Rwandan having understood the value of country’s development, it is he joined other Rwandans to play a role towards the nation’s progress.

“I commit to contribute Rwf 500,000 in Agaciro Development Fund. It is a small le amount compared to Rwanda’s needs but I hope we will get money to achieve more if everyone willingly contributes in accordance with his/her capacity,” he said.

He has told IGIHE that the money will be availed within this week and revealed a plan to motivate fellow artistes, opinion leaders and his fans to contribute to Agakiro Development Fund.

“I want other artistes to emulate this act. I will conduct mobilization so we can work together and motivate t he youth into contributing to Agaciro Development Fund,” he said.

Danny Nanone is the only young rapper competing for this round of Primus Guma Guma Super Star.

He is backed by Incredible Records and is among three artistes that stir crowds’ emotions as they hit stage with vigour and spectacle. He hopes to keep performing better during the whole Primus Guma Guma Super Star competition.

June 6, 2016
Miss Rwanda contestant donates 12 sewing machines worth 1.2 million to Musanze single mothers

A young lady of 20 who represented Northern Province in Miss Rwanda competition, Miss Umuhoza Sharifa, has donated 12 sewing machines worth Rwf1.2 million to Association Icyerekezo, which she founded, comprised of single mothers that dropped out of school in Musanze district.

The donations were handed to beneficiaries yesterday.

She was crowned the 4th runners up of Miss Rwanda competition and crowned Miss Popularity .At the beginning of Miss Rwanda contest, Umuhoza Sharifa promised to help single mothers especially those who dropped out school.

Miss Sharifa says that it is time to realize the project she promised Rwandans even though she didn’t become Miss Rwanda.

“I have established Association Icyerekezo as a way of building hope among single mothers. Members of this association need support. For this round I have negotiated a donor who provided 12 sewing machines.They are soon starting to learn how to sew and will learn other skills in the near future,” she said.

Miss Sharifa said that she is going to negotiate with Musanze district to seek room where single mothers, beneficiaries of donations will work from.

“These single mothers don’t have places of abode from where to operate but the Musanze vice mayor in charge of social welfare talked to them and promised support,” she said.

June 3, 2016
Organisers promise better Salax Awards

Ikirezi Group Ltd & Yes Africa Ltd y have held a consultative meeting with the highly valued stakeholders as part of the strategies to make Salax Awards Edition 7 better and reflective of stakeholder’s interests and expectations.

The Consultative Meeting, dubbed: ‘Consulting for Better Salax Awards Edition 7 ‘ took place at Five to Five Hotel, Kigali, Rwanda, yesterday 29th May 2016 with an aim of making the Edition 7 more stakeholder-centered.

Emma-Claudine Ntirenganya, the Chairperson of Ikerezi Group Ltd and the Principal Spokesperson of the Salax Awards Edition 7, said; “this consultative meeting shows our commitment to valuing stakeholders. We cannot achieve a colorful and successful Salax Awards without the insightful ideas of the media, musicians, producers, sponsors and the general population.”

She revealed that Salax Awards Edition 7 will be unique, and the consultative meeting will play an important role in informing the general population that “Salax Awards is back, with new approach and new awards.” She therefore asked participants to be candid in sharing with prtners how to effectively implement the Salax Awards Edition 7 better.
The Consultative Meeting is structured in a way that valuable feedback will be generated and accordingly incorporated in the Salax Awards Roadmap and the implementation strategy. The participants to the consultative meeting will focus on draft proposals: categories and criteria guiding the awards.

Commenting on categories and criteria, Mike Karangwa, the Coordinator of Ikirezi Group, said: “letting participants in the consultative meeting review and refine the proposed Salax Awards categories and criteria reveals our openness and willingness to learn, adjust and apply for quality Edition 7. ”

Partnership for results, early preparation, right timing of the final awards (23nd December 2016) are some of the uniqueness of the Salax Awards Edition 7.

The Managing Director of Yes Africa Ltd, Willy Mugenzi said the two companies are committed to translating the guiding objectives of Salax Awards into better results for a wide range of actors: musicians, producers, sponsors and other players in the music industry.

Yes Africa will continue to work with stakeholders in positioning music and art industry as a key contributor in achieving excellence and sponsor’s value for money. As our motto states, Salax Awards should be ‘happiness in the making.’

Willy Mugenzi added : “music is a powerful tool for achieving greater societal development outcomes by public sector, civil society operators and private sector actors.”

After going through a systematic review and refining by the participants to the Salax Awards Consultative Meeting came up with the 15 categories for awards in the 7th Edition:

1. The Salax Awards Artist of the Year;

2. Best Male Artist;

3. Best Female Artist;

4. Song of the year;

5. Album of the year;

6. Best Music Group;

7. Best Gospel Choir;

8. Most Valuable Player;

9. Best Gospel Singer;

10. Best Hip Hop Singer;

11. Best RNB singer;

12. Best New Artist;

13. Best Afro Beat Singer;

14. Video of the Year;

15. Best Audio Producer.

On 30th November 2014, Ikirezi Group Ltd and Yes Africa Ltd signed the 5-year partnership agreement aimed at upgrading Salax Awards in Rwanda and East African region.

May 30, 2016
South African star musicians coming to Kigali

Musicians from ‘Mi Casa’ group popular in South Africa’s capital city Johannesburg are awaited in Kigali for a big concert.

Mi Casa comprises of three players of musical instruments including Dr. Duda who plays piano; J’Something a singer who plays guitar and Mo-T who plays flute.

The artistes are popularly known for the song ‘These Streets’ which they produced at the inception of the Mi Casa group in 2011. Currently they have a new song called ‘Tulale Fofofo’ they produced featuring Sauti Sol.

Twagira Bruce, one of organizers of the big concert expressed delightfulness over the music tour saying it will be a historical concert and the group’s first time for them to come to Rwanda.

“It’s true they are about to come, they will arrive on Monday 9th May, 2016 and sing during the World Economic Forum that will be held in Kigali on Tuesday,” he said.

After entertaining participants in the Forum in which they were invited, Mi Casa will on the evening of Tuesday 10th hold a concert in People Club, Kacyiru.

Mi Casa was launched in Johannesburg in 2011 and produced the first group’s song known as ‘These Streets’ which is part of songs that comprised their first popular album ‘Micasa Music’.

In 2012, ‘Micasa Music’ album won South African Music Awards. This group also got many other hits including scooping Metro FM Music Awards. Mi Casa music competed in MTV Africa Music Awards 2014.

May 7, 2016
Congo lays to rest music and fashion legend Papa Wemba

Hundreds of thousands of mourning fans came out on Wednesday to bid a final farewell to Papa Wemba, the legendary Congolese singer who brought his tumultuous country’s music to a world audience and became a national hero in the process.

Wemba, born Jules Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba in Lubefu in what was then the Belgian Congo, collapsed and died on stage while performing at a music festival in Ivory Coast on April 24. He was 67 years old.

A steady stream of mourners filed past his white and gold casket in the three days before Wednesday’s burial as he lay in state at Democratic Republic of Congo’s parliament building in the capital Kinshasa.

And a crowd of tens of thousands packed the streets in front of the Notre Dame du Congo Cathedral where the city’s Catholic archbishop celebrated a funeral mass.

“Papa Wemba has always been my idol. So I’ve just lost my star,” said JB Mpiana, the head of the popular Kinshasa musical group Wenge Musica.

Wemba came of age during the 1960s, a period of post-independence hope in Congo that was quickly dashed by civil war and the murder of Patrice Lumumba, the young nation’s first democratically elected leader.

It was also a period when Congo’s Cuban-influenced rumba ruled the airwaves across an African continent in the midst of an existential transformation.

Wemba would rise to become one of the genre’s masters before turbo-charging it in the 1970s with breakneck drum beats and frantic guitar riffs as part of the Congolese super group Zaïko Langa Langa.

He left after five years to found Viva la Musica, the band he would continue to perform with until his death despite periods of solo work and collaboration with other artists.

“CONTINUE TO BE ELEGANT”

“Papa Wemba was able to make being a musician something valued. He taught us how to dress well, to be elegant, to make ourselves respected in society,” said Ruinga Keps, a Congolese musician known by the stage name Brigade.

Already a household name in his home country, then known as Zaire, Wemba met Peter Gabriel in the early 1990s as the British singer was beginning to promote and produce artists from around the globe as part of the burgeoning world music movement.

He would remain among Africa’s most popular artists and continue to tour internationally until his death.

At home his status as the godfather of Congolese music was perhaps only rivalled by his status as a fashion icon in a nation where dress and appearance have long been a point of pride.

Wemba was known as the Pope of Sape, a movement of fashion dandies deriving its name from the French acronym for the Society of Ambiance-Makers and Elegant People.

Wemba sang the praises of the sapeurs, whose impeccable appearance and penchant for designer label garments are a stark contrast to the gritty, impoverished environment in which they often exist.

“We came to know the sape thanks to Papa Wemba. And believe me, even with his death, we are going to continue to be elegant,” said Vieux Malala, an 81-year-old sapeur who travelled from neighbouring Republic of Congo to attend Wemba’s funeral.

May 5, 2016
Magic System drummer Pepito drowns in Ivory Coast

The drummer of Ivory Coast’s famous Magic System band has drowned at the age of 46, the group has said in a Facebook post.

Didier Deigna, known by the stage name Pepito, drowned at a beach in the small town of Jacqueville in southern Ivory Coast on Sunday, it said.

Magic System are particularly popular in French-speaking West Africa and in France.
Reports say Pepito died while trying to save another person who was drowning.

“For the last 16 years, Pepito was our backing vocalist, our drummer, but above all the conductor with our group Magic System,” the band added in a statement.

Pepito’s tragic loss comes a week after the sudden death of influential Congolese musician Papa Wemba, who collapsed on stage while performing in Ivory Coast’s main city, Abidjan.

May 3, 2016
Papa Wemba decorated in DR Congo

Papa Wemba collapsed while performing at a festival in Cote d’Ivoire on April 24.

Democratic Republic of Congo’s rumba king Papa Wemba (above) was posthumously awarded one of his country’s highest honours today, a week after he collapsed on stage and died aged 66.

At a ceremony in the national parliament in Kinshasa, where Papa Wemba’s body lay in state, Congo’s President Joseph Kabila made the singer a grand officer of the Order of National Heros Kabila-Lumumba for “the merits, the loyal and eminent services rendered to the Congolese nation”.

Papa Wemba collapsed while performing at a festival in Cote d’Ivoire on April 24.

The flamboyant musician, who led the Kinshasa music scene for four decades, died before reaching hospital.

An enormous red hat, modelled on the one the renowned sharp dresser was wearing at the time of his death, served as the roof of the chapel erected to house his coffin inside parliament.

A life-sized effigy of the singer, dressed as he was during his last concert, stood behind it.

“Papa Wemba, the Congo orphaned,” read a giant banner at the entrance to the building, where the funeral procession arrived early in the morning to be welcomed by the city governor and the military band of the Republican Guard.

A Roman Catholic priest accompanied the coffin, which was carried by eight men in black and draped in the national flag.

“This is great suffering and sadness,” said Biby Krubwa, who starred alongside Papa Wemba in a 1988 film, ‘La Vie est Belle’ (‘Life is Rosy’) about an aspiring singer who comes to Kinshasa. “Papa Wemba is a baobab that has fallen.”

May 3, 2016
Ghanaian crowned first Miss Africa

The 24-year-old dental hygienist beat 11 finalists drawn from an original list of 40 contestants.

Barefoot, wearing traditional costumes including animal hide skirts and elaborately beaded headdresses, the contestants strutted the stage before Ghanaian Rebecca Asamoah was crowned the first Miss Africa Continent.

The 24-year-old dental hygienist beat 11 finalists drawn from an original list of 40 contestants from across the continent in the inaugural pageant at Johannesburg’s Gold Reef City casino on Saturday night.

Runner-up was Michelo Malambo of Zambia, while South Africa’s Jemimah Kandimiri was placed third.

The swimsuit contest was also a departure from the beauty contest norm, with contestants wearing black t-shirts and tight shorts while dancing barefoot to music such as “Africa” by Mali’s legendary afro-pop musician Salif Keita.

The pageant is the brainchild of South African film producer Neo Mashishi, who says it aims to empower young African women.

“This is the first ever Miss Africa Continent,” said Mashishi, adding that it had been five years in the making. “This is about Africa, we are selling Africa to the world, and we are proud to be Africa”.

“The way everything was done was African, we didn’t emulate anything from Miss Universe, or Miss World,” he said. Asamoah, who wore braids, entered the stage in a traditional Ghanaian Ashanti gold-coloured beaded crown and then returned in a evening dress made from the country’s trademark kente cloth.

She walked away with a grant to study business management at Monash university in Johannesburg.

Runner up in the 2015 Miss Ghana competition, Asamoah said she wanted to see young people help uplift the continent.

May 2, 2016
Body of Papa Wemba arrives in DR Congo

Body was flown home after an all-night musical tribute in Cote d’Ivoire.

The body of Congolese “rumba king” Papa Wemba arrived home in Kinshasa on Thursday, where it was greeted by a huge crowd of distraught fans after the musician’s collapse during a show in Cote d’Ivoire.

His body was flown home after an all-night musical tribute in Cote d’Ivoire to the legendary African music star, who died on Sunday at the age of 66 during a show in Abidjan.

The white coffin draped in the Democratic Republic of Congo flag was received by Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo and parliament speaker Aubin Minaku before being taken off in a hearse.

Relatives of the flamboyant performer were also at the airport, along with tribal chiefs and numerous admirers of the artist who was a stalwart of Africa’s musical scene for more than 40 years.

“News of the death of Papa Wemba was an earthquake,” Ivorian Culture Minister Maurice Kouakou Bandaman told reporters. Dozens of musicians took part in a tribute concert to Papa Wemba in Abidjan overnight that was billed as a “big artistic wake”.

An artist never dies. In death, an artist becomes even greater. Papa Wemba is dead, and now even greater than before,” said the Ivorian minister of culture Kouakou.

A funeral for the father of six will take place on Monday and he will be buried on Tuesday on the outskirts of Kinshasa.

PIONEER

Papa Wemba helped to pioneer a blend of Congolese rumba with Western electric rock as part of the world music explosion of the 1980s. Dance was an integral part of the nattily-dressed performer’s shows.

After working with other Kinshasa artists, he launched his own band Viva La Musica in 1977 and gained world renown when African music became popular in Europe and the United States in later years.

“I’m flummoxed. I don’t know what’s happening. All our great musicians are dying one after the other,” Delico Nzinga, a Kinshasa fan, said on hearing news of his death.

The Ivorian culture minister said that Cote d’Ivoire’s President Alassane Ouattara had instructed him to set up “a crisis unit to ensure (that Papa Wemba’s death in Ivory Coast) does not damage relations” with DR Congo “on account of the stature of the deceased”.

“We want this period of mourning to be strictly a cultural event, not a political one,” Said DR Congo’s Culture minister Banza Mukalay said.

In Kinshasa, among musicians involved in funeral arrangements are Nyoka Longo, Maika Munan, Koffi Olomide, Werra Son, Tshala Muana, Fally Ipupa and Papa Wemba’s protege Reddy Amisi.

According to family sources, Papa Wemba had been off the stage for a while recuperating, after being hospitalised in Paris.

Congolese musicians in Paris were to converge on a restaurant to mourn the fallen comrade on Thursday and Friday.

Speaking to the Nation, veteran singer and composer Nyboma Mwandido said they would be dressed like Papa Wemba.

“We want to celebrate what Papa Wemba was known to promote in terms of attire and music,” he said.

Similar gatherings will be held in London, Brussels and Nairobi led by promoters JC Motindo and Jules Nsana, and Ms Paulin Wanga, a fan.

April 29, 2016
Papa Wemba: Stars remember the ‘voice of Africa

Music fans across Africa are mourning the death of Congolese musician Papa Wemba who died at the age of 66 after collapsing on stage on Sunday morning.

Stars have been paying tribute to a man whose music influenced artists across Africa.

Angelique Kidjo

I’m sad, and I’ve been struggling since the death of Prince and now we have the passing of Papa Wemba and I’m wondering what this is all about.

I worked with Papa Wemba and he was a very nice, genuine soul and very shy at the same time.

I did a duet with him, Ami Oh, on a Manu Dibango album, and when you heard him sing it was magical that a guy who was that big had such an angelic voice.

He was a generous soul when it came to helping people, and he didn’t say much, but he observed a lot and when he spoke in that gentle voice everything he said was right on the spot.

His whole attitude about dressing well was part of the narrative that we Africans have been denied our humanity for so long.

People have always had stereotypes about us, and he was saying dressing well is not just a matter of money, not just something for Westerners, but that we Africans also have elegance. It was all about defining ourselves and refusing to be stripped of our humanity.

Manu Dibango

Africa has lost another worthy son in the shape of Papa Wemba. It’s a painful beginning to 2016.

He was the voice of Africa.

We are all orphans… May the heaven and the spirits welcome him in peace. Papa Wemba will remain forever in our hearts.

Koffi Olomide

It’s a catastrophe. Congolese music has been decimated, it’s been blown apart. I don’t know what to say.

I refused to believe it when the Ivory Coast government official told me. To be honest, from now on, life means nothing, we are nothing.

Today, with God’s forgiveness, I want to ask Him to accept Papa Wemba. He is His son.

I don’t know what to say. I want to give my condolences to all Congolese people and all Africans.

Femi Kuti

I was quite shocked because we were just getting over Prince’s death and then hearing this it was sad.

He was performing in a period of people like my father Fela Kuti, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masakela, Manu Dibango – the African greats who have always opened doors for people like me.

They have always done Africa proud anywhere in Europe and America where they performed, and they opened doors for African musicians to tour Europe with great pride and respect.

Especially when you are playing African music in Europe and America, Papa Wemba’s name will be in the forefront of great names.

It’s a name that was always there and will always be there. It’s not a name that will go away any time soon.

King Kikii

It was such a shock when I received the news it was something I didn’t see coming.

He was one of the people whose stars shone so brightly. I tried to innovate through my music and Papa Wemba innovated though his.

He had so much love for it. He’s helped so many people through his music and lifted them up.

We won’t be able to forget him, the death of Papa Wemba is a huge blow.

Samuel Eto’o

What a sad way to start the day by learning of the passing of this monument of Africa.

We got chills listening to Wake Up, Okoningana, Ye Te – to name a few.

I’m all the more affected by this sad event as I’m a big fan of Congolese music.

Papa Wemba so loved his music that he left while performing.

April 26, 2016