BISMARK ENTERTAINMENT

Wednesday 5 December 2012

Sarkodie’s partnership with Dencia on the MIC brings her to town

Sensational pop singer Dencia will be touching down in Ghana this month, after several months of planning to visit Ghana. The award-winning singer is well known for her beauty and singing prowess around the world.
She has recorded a banging hot song with Ghana’s BET Award winner Sarkodie and she will be in town for the song’s release ahead of the Christmas festivities.

Current videos of her hit singles; ‘Beri Beri’ and ‘Supergirl’ are getting massive attention, with a lot of rotations on world acclaimed platforms including MTV.

The California based recording artiste, Dencia was born to Cameroonian/Nigerian parents on March 26. She started indulging in her love for music and performing arts at the tender age of five.

Her African roots play a major role in her style of music. In her early years, she sang with her local church groups and schools but later went off the scene.

Determined and certain music was her passion, she stayed close to her love- music- by engaging herself in other fields in the entertainment industry like modeling, fashion, acting, and hosting music events.

She has featured in several music videos such as 50cent’s ‘Down On Me’, Chris Brown’s ‘Yeah 3’, as well as videos of artistes like Ludacris, Baby Bash and Lady Gaga.

While doing this, she never stopped trying to reconnect with her music skills for the professional world. In September 2008, Dencia took the ultimate decision to finally pursue her lifelong dream of being a musical sensation. Since then, she has recorded several songs, some of which include her first official hit single ‘Beri Beri’.

She has performed on big stages worldwide and graced some of the hottest red carpets such as the Grammy awards, Emmy’s, Oscars, BET, VMAs etc. Recently, she performed at the pre BET award event in Los Angeles, hosted The Game’s mix tape release party and has hosted parties worldwide.

Described as a fast rising singer, Dencia, who came into the limelight with her hit single ‘Beri Beri’, has officially dropped her second single titled 'Supergirl'.

Supergirl, a charismatic pop love song, has Dencia showing a softer side of her where she defines herself as a diva who is simply looking for a man who will treat her right.

‘Beri Beri’ rocked airwaves upon its release and is still hot till date and from the sound of ‘Supergirl’, Dencia is improving in her talent and also showing that she won’t be stopping anytime soon.

Sarkodie joins Akon & Hugh Masekela for Calabar festival

Ghanaian superstar rapper, Sarkodie will join Senegalese American R&B and hip hop recording artist Akon, and legendary South African trumpeter, composer and singer Hugh Masekela to lead a star-studded list of international and local musicians to perform at this year’s Calabar Festival, which started December 1.
This is the second time Akon, who is the founder of two record labels, convict Muzik and Kon Live Distribution, will be performing at the festival.

Also to perform during the 31-day festivity are some of Nigeria’s biggest music stars such as 2Face, MI, Ice Prince, P-Square, Wizkid, J. Martins and Naeto C. Other local acts include Timaya, Duncan Mighty, Ruggedman, Wande Coal, Iyanya, Nigg a Raw and Flavour.

The organizers of the festival have also made sure that lovers of Jazz Music equally have a swell time by lining up Jonathan Butler, Kunle Ayo and Moses Philips to perform at the Jazz in Paradise segment of the festival.

There is also a long list of comedians billed to put smiles on the faces of revelers. The list includes I Go Die, Klint da Drunk, Shirman, Julius Agwu, Gordons, Akpororo, MC Mbakara, Prof Aboki, White Nigerian, Last Prophet, Headmaster, Whokes and Robert Ekpo.

For the Calabar Praise Night, the list of artists is no less impressive. It includes respected acts like Sammy Okposo, Hope Davies, Sinach, Sabina, Ohen de Pprophet, Kingsley Agbor and Godswill Danied.

The festival will also witness the commissioning of a cinema, where the movie ‘Streets of Calabar’ will premier.

There would also be Festival of Arts and Craft, golf and football matches, the selection of a new Calabar Carnival Queen and the Green concert among other new additions to the yearly social event.

Beautiful UK & USA Actresses Arrive In Ghana For Refugees Movie


London-based actress Diana Yekini and two others from United States of America will arrive in Ghana today for the shoot of an upcoming movie titled, ‘Refugees’.
The new movie is being directed by award-winning director Frank Rajah Arase. Major scenes of the movie will be shot at locations in Accra including James Town and some parts of Ghana’s coastline.

Other scenes will be shot in the UK and some other African countries. Reports on Monday said Frank would not be using big named Ghanaian actors in this production. This is because he wants to achieve a certain aim with this movie- catching the eye of a different audience. Arase is yet to publicly speak about the upcoming production but a source said the production would start tomorrow.

Diana Yekinni is the winner of Screen Icon Search, organized by Golden Icons, producers of the most credible black entertainment film award, Golden Icon Academy Movie Award (GIAMA) in Texas, Houston.

She will be arriving in Ghana for the first time for the movie with Okawa Shaznay, ex-Miss Cameroun USA, who is also a Nollywood, USA-based actress in Texas.

Also with them will be Best New Actress at the last GIAMA awards, Belinda Effah. Belinda is a great talent and is a receiver of Nollywood’s most promising actress award, Nigeria, and Akwa Ibom Youth-Recognition Award, Nigeria. Reports say the three beautiful ladies will be playing lead in the movie.

Samini in “Time Bomb” collaboration with Wizkid

Dancehall artist Samini is set to drop a new single titled “Time Bomb” on December 12. The song, which features Empire Mates Entertainment (EME) signed act Wizkid, is said to be a banger.
Samini has had a relatively quiet year but has staged a strong comeback recently with two successful shows including Joy FM’s Night with the Stars music concert, and the Malta Guinness Top of The World concert, held at the Independence Square on Saturday.

In all two shows, the dancehall act gave a good account of himself, proving why he is still a force to reckon with.

His last studio album “Crucial Entertainment Outlaw” (CEO) was released two years ago, and as expected, music lovers can’t wait to see him drop a new one.

Today is popular actress Jackie Appiah’s Birthday

Today (December 5) is the birthday of popular actress, Jackie Appiah. She was born in Canada.
Jackie who was a runner up at the Talent Teens Competition started acting at the age of 12 in her local church group. Their performances mostly demonstrated the Christian way of addressing and approaching the public. However, her professional acting career began when she was cast as Enyonam Blagogee in the TV series Things We Do for Love.

Following her onscreen debut Jackie went on to create a successful acting career including starring in the smash hit movie BeyoncĂ© alongside prominent Ghanaian actors Van Vicker and Nadia Buari, quickly establishing herself as an ‘A’ lister.

Jackie’s face has graced many billboards and magazines. Jackie has also cashed in on her ‘A’ list status as she has endorsed many products and was the spokes person for AID/HIV awareness campaign in Ghana.

She has won numerous awards, including a prestigious Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) for best supporting actress in 2007. And the most recent award was the one she picked at the National Youth Achievers Awards in the Performing Art category.

Her filmography includes: Against My Will, Pretty Queen, Mummy’s Daughter, Beyonce – The President daughter, Tears of womanhood, Fake Feelings, Princess Tyra, Run Baby Run, Divine Love, et al.

We wish her a superb day today.

My dad ‘fired’ me as radio presenter – Okyeame Kwame

Kwame Nsiah Appau, known in the Ghanaian music circles as Okyeame Kwame has revealed that his dad ‘fired’ him as radio presenter at Fox FM.

According to Kwame, there were many private issues he needed to deal with and he could not pretend as if all was all when he came on air.

The rap doctor made this statement when he appeared on the Hang Out segment on the Cruise Control show with Kwame B.

He said, his father did not mince words when he told him, “I’m advising you to quit or I will sack you.”

He explained that he realized how bad he was when he had no listeners contributing to his show on air when the phone lines were opened for an hour.

He disclosed that, “since nobody was calling I had to pretend that we were having problems with the production and phone lines.”

Okyeame Kwame also took time to talk about the upcoming Versatile Show as well as his carrier and how far he has come.

He said, the show is being put together by Prof Nii Artey and Uncle Ebo Whyte.

He explained that the show will be divided into three parts, first is “Okyeame Kwame classics”, where he will perform most of his old songs, then he will move to “Okyeame hustle” where other musicians join him on stage to perform and “Okyeame Kwame now”, bringing to bare all his latest songs.

Nigerian oil tycoon takes Oprah's place as richest black woman in the world

Oprah Winfrey has lost her long-held title as the richest black woman in the world to a Nigerian oil tycoon, according to a report by an African business magazine.


Edging out Oprah is Folorunsho Alakija, a 61-year-old woman from Nigeria who is reportedly worth at least $3.2 billion, or roughly $500 million more than Oprah's $2.7 billion net worth, Ventures Africa reported.

Alakija is the founder and owner of Famfa Oil, which owns a 60 per cent interest in OML 127, an offshore oil field that produces roughly 200,000 barrels of oil per day and is worth an estimated $6.44 billion.

Also a fashion designer and philanthropist, Alakija is married and has four grown sons, as well as one grandchild. She owns at least $100 million in real estate and $46 million private jet, Ventures Africa reported.

Born into a wealthy Nigerian family, Alakija started out as a secretary in the mid 1970s at the now defunct International Merchant Bank of Nigeria.

Several years later, she quit her job and moved to London, where she studied fashion design. She later returned to Nigeria and launched her fashion line, Supreme Stitches, which caters to upscale, high-society women.

While she was building her name as a fashion designer, Alakija in 1993 applied for an Oil Prospecting License -- an expensive permit that allows for oil exploration in a specified area.

The Nigerian government granted her request and allocated a 617,000-acre block of land to Alakija for oil exploration -- but she knew nothing about finding and extracting oil.

So in September of 1996, she appointed Star Deep Water Petroleum Limited -- a subsidiary of Texaco -- to act as a technical adviser for her business.

In 2000, Star Deep Petroleum determined that Alakija's land contained an excess of one billion barrels of oil. When this was discovered, the Nigerian government tried to re-acquire half of the oil-rich block it had sold to Alakija.

The Nigerian government was successful and Alakija lost control of all but 10 percent of her oil company until 2012, when Nigeria's highest court reversed the government's actions.

With Alakija now back in control of 60 percent of the oil company, her net worth has shot up to $3.2 billion, an estimate that Ventures Africa calls extremely conservative.

Alakija's sons now run Famfa Oil and her husband, Modupe Alakija, is the chairman of the company.

She recently purchased a $102 million property at One Hyde Park in London, as well as a Bombardier Global Express 6000 jet, which she bought earlier this year for $46 million.

Her charity, Rose of Sharon Foundation, gives out small grants to widows and orphans.


Veteran Nollywood actor Enebeli Elebuwa is dead

Nollywood veteran actor Enebeli Elebuwa, is dead, reports say.

The actor, who is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) died Tuesday night at an Indian hospital after battling with partial stroke for more than a year.

The actor Enebeli Elebuwa was flown to an unnamed Indian hospital for proper medical attention after attempts to treat him at the St. Luke’s hospital, Sabo, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria failed.

Early this year, controversial Nigerian man of God, Apostle Sign Fireman posted a video on video sharing site, YouTube claiming to have healed the veteran actor of his partial stroke.

The video showed Enebeli struggling to walk during the healing service done for him. The pastor thereafter claimed that in a matter of days, Enebeli would be able to walk well.

The actor, soon after, denied the healing and was subsequently flown out of Nigeria after his condition worsened.

While on admission in India, members of his Ndokwa community of Delta State based in India visited to lend him support and wish him speedy recovery.

Enebeli Elebuwa was a native of Upkane in Otagunu local government area of Delta State.

His dad died when he was 10 years old, forcing him to leave his home town when he was only 12 years to stay with someone in Lagos.

Pa Enebeli, as he was affectionately called, was a retired civil servant and an actor who had over three decades of acting experience. Enebeli’s first ever acting role was in the soap Mirror In The Sun.

He appeared in the first three pilot episodes of that series and eventually worked as an assistant producer and director. He has since been part of many productions including Heaven’s Gate produced by another veteran actor Zik Okafor.

Enebeli’s first movie was a film (celluloid) called Dinner with the Devil, produced by Sanya Dosumu in 1974 where he played the role of a police officer investigating a crime.

He also featured in other major films including Bisi Daughter of the River by Jab Adu and Eddie Ugboma’s Oyenusi. He also acted in the now rested popular television drama, The Village Headmaster.