Category: Entertainment

{{Senegal’s minister for Tourism and Entertainment Youssou N’Dour is the winner of this year’s Polar Music Prize.}}

The prize is awarded yearly by the Swedish group ABBA to world music icons.

The prize was jointly awarded to the King of Mbalax turned minister and a Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho said Tuesday.

“Youssou N’Dour, the praising of West Africa is not only an ordinary singer, but also a story teller, poet, an entertainment artiste and a directory of oral tradition,” said the jury.

The jury further wrote that Youssou N’Dour was perpetuating the praising singer heritage and demonstrates that it can be used to recount not only Africa, but the whole world.

”But among all, the voice of the artiste (Youssou N’Dour) contains history, passion, hope and the energy of the entire continent,” the jury continued.

Youssou N’Dour, 53, has earned significant success in his career, including several Grammies.

He joined politics in 2012 when he attempted to run for the presidency of Senegal, but rescinded the decision and teamed up with the civil society backed opposition.

Polar Music Prize has been awarded since 1992 with funds raised by Stig Anderson, the former manager of ABBA.

The award recognises laureates for their contribution to world music in all its forms.

Other winners of the prize include Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin, the soprano Renée Fleming and violinist Isaac Stern.

This year’s other laureate, Saariaho, “occupies a singular position among composers and questions even the notion of music,” according to the jury.

Saariaho, 60, was trained in a music school in Paris and has produced various styles, including orchestra and opera tunes.

{Agencies}

{{Angelique Kidjo was named Best Artist in Songlines magazine’s annual world music awards on Friday, lauded for her high-energy shows and her championing of social causes.}}

French veterans Lo’jo, who mix French folk with African and Arabic sounds, picked up the Best Group award and the young Zimbabwean band Mokoomba was chosen as top Newcomer.

The Best Cross Cultural-Collaboration went to Dub Colossus for the blend of Ethiopian roots, reggae and dub beats on their latest album “Dub Me Tender Vol. 1+2”.

Kidjo, originally from Benin, is one of Africa’s biggest singing stars. Over the years she has worked with Prince, sang at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and sold out New York’s Carnegie Hall.

The Best Artist award was given for her live “Spirit Rising” album but was also recognition of her career achievements, Songlines editor-in-chief Simon Broughton told Reuters.

“She’s been around a long time but she’s always inspiring,” he said. “What clinched it was a concert she gave in London in March for Women’s Day. It was breathtaking. I’ve never seen her so exuberant. She bonds people and really makes it special.”

Kidjo, 52, has adopted the mantle of the late South African singer Miriam Makeba as a political voice and campaigns for women’s rights and education in Africa.

“The award is also for what she stands for,” Broughton said.

Lo’jo, from southwest France, has also been around a long time and the band’s latest album, “Cinema el Mundo”, showed them to be as strong as ever.

“They are much better known in the Francophone world than elsewhere. They’ve not been tempted to become more mainstream,” Broughton said.

“They are a quality act, an unusual, interesting group, especially in their connections with West and North Africa.”

YOUNG BANDS AND FANS

The Newcomer winner, Mokoomba, is a young group from Zimbabwe but the horn-driven music is pan-African, bringing in the sounds of Congo, South Africa and other countries. Its “Rising Tide” album sealed the award.

Dub Colossus’ award was recognition of its work over the past 10 years in popularizing Ethiopian music and blending it with modern beats.

“It’s risen from being unknown to something hip and really getting an audience. There’s a lot of people fusing Ethiopian and Western sounds so they represent a wide movement and are bringing in a lot of young people,” Broughton said.

World music has had mixed fortunes in the past year.

The live scene was still healthy, with a host of performers filling venues in London and elsewhere, Songlines publisher Paul Geoghegan said.

But the recording scene was very difficult for artists, record labels and distributors due to the closure of record stores and declining CD sales. The collapse of British chain HMV, whose shops stocked a wide variety of world music, was a big blow, he said.

{reuters}

Chris Brown ruffled some stiff African collars this week after he smoked marijuana on stage smack in the middle of a performance in Accra, Ghana.

Brown, 22, was bare-chested more than an hour into his show on Tuesday when he told a crowd that was half-jeering and half-cheering him that nobody should tell them not to smoke weed.

After uttering the words, Chris proceeded to light a blunt on stage before inviting Nigerian musician WizKid to take a few puffs too.

The performance – on the eve of Ghana’s Independence Day – was as energetic as it was riddled with expletives, according to media reports.

Angry Ghanaians took to social media to vent their displeasure, with several pictures being tweeted showing him smoking up on stage.

The resulting uproar forced organizers to admit that ‘the incident was unfortunate’ and the Ghanaian Minister of State for WA Central piped in to condemn the musician’s actions.

According to Nigerian blog naijagists.com, Minister Rashid Pelpuo chastised the singer and said police should have arrested him for that.

“This is appalling. It is unacceptable. In Ghana we have laws and one of the laws is to ban drugs, be it marijuana, ganja, weed, or whatever it is being called,” he is quoted as saying.

The concert at the Ohenhen Staduim was mainly sponsored by IT Company RLG as a prelude to the launch of a Technology City Project called Hope City.

Tickets to watch Brown and a host of other Ghanaian musicians like D’Black were retailing at 100 Ghanaian Cidis.