HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YVONNE OKORO

Today is the birthday of one of Ghana’s screen diva, Yvonne Chinyere Okereke Okoro. Yvonne is an actress, entrepreneur and philanthropist. She's been in the movie industry actively for 4years after she graduated from University of Ghana, Legon with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2008 and a diploma from the University of Nantes in France in 2009 in French civilization and culture. After taking a brief course in drama in France in 2009, Yvonne returned to acting which is her first love in Ghana. Yvonne Okoro has over the years played different roles in movies here in Ghana, Nigeria and France and has a plethora of accolades, with several awards and nominations under her belt. Some of the awards are: Best Actress 2010 at the Ghana movie awards, nominee for Best Actress 2011, 2012 and 2013 at the African Movie Academy Awards and winning Best Actress at the Nigerian excellence awards in 2011 and 2012 honoured by the ambassador of Nigeria His Excellency Musuliu Obanikoro for personality of the year. The first Ghanaian actress to have been interviewed on BBC focus for Africa and appeared on the radio breakfast show Newsday on BBC radio as fast rising entrepreneur. She's been involved in several charitable causes and has to a degree been able to fulfill some of her social responsibilities. Today as part of her gift back to the society, she will be launching a state of the art play ground for the Dzorwulu Special School. We wish her long life and prosperity as she enjoys her day.

 

I WILL FILL THE STADIUM – SONNIE BADU DECLARES

Ahead of the “Africa Worships Concert,” headline artiste Sonnie Badu, has confidently declared that he would fill the stadium.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with The General Telegraph Entertainment Desk in Accra, the UK-based gospel artiste said Africa has huge potentials, so there is the need to believe in ourselves.

Although some may see it as ambitious to host close to 50,000 people at a concert at the Accra Sports Stadium, Sonnie believes he would achieve this feat since with God “All things are possible.”

“With every concert we have targets, and by God’s Grace we have been able to meet a lot of targets so hopefully this one too we are going to meet our target,” he told the General Telegraph.

“It would be the first time in history that an African will single-handedly fill the stadium. I want the whole world to know that the best is still from Africa. So we don’t need too much of the international artistes to come over to fill the stadium but we can do it ourselves,” he added.

Explaining the concert further, Sonnie Badu said this year’s concept will be unique since a selected number of African comedians, including Ghana’s Funny Face, will minister the Word of God through comedy.
“We are expecting over 30,000 people, not just that we have comedians coming on board, a lot of worshippers so it is going to be fun,” he revealed.

Touching on the criteria for selecting other Ghanaian gospel artistes on his programme, this is what Sonnie had to say: “We do a survey to find out which Ghanaian artistes are doing very well and which the people would love to see on stage and based on the results we pick them up.”

This year’s “Africa Worships Concert with Sonnie Badu” will also feature international artiste Ron Kenoly, with SP Kofi Sarpong, Kwesi Oteng, OJ, Ohema Mercy, Joe Mettle, Eugene Zutah and Ella Duncan Williams being the supporting artistes.

According to Sonnie Badu, the year’s event is going to be “a once in a lifetime event that you can’t easily forget” so everyone should grab their tickets.

It is a yearly concept that we have been holding, dubbed “Africa Worships with Sonnie Badu” and this year we moved from London to Africa, and we chose to start from Ghana at the Accra Sports Stadium. The concert aims at bringing the whole of Africa together and all who desire to worship God like David did in prayer, praise, worship and thanksgiving.

TONTO DIKEH STEPS OUT WITH BOYFRIEND (PHOTOS)

It was a big night for Tonto Dikeh on Sunday.

The Nollywood actress was presented with the film actress of the year award at the 2013 Exquisite Lady of the Year Awards held at the Red Carpet Events Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Poko beat Chioma Chukwuka-Akpotha, Ini Edo, Ireti Doyle and Kate Henshaw among others in that category.

Tonto sizzled in a black dress with sheer sleeves, and a thigh high slit. She styled the dress with sparkly platforms, short wavy locks and pink lipstick.

But her most stylish accessory was her rumoured new beau Michael Awolaja, known as Malivelihood. According to some sources, Tonto introduced him to guests at the event when receiving her award.

Michael is an “Agent to the Stars, Luxury Designer, Entrepreneur, Business Man, Fashionista & Jeweller” according to his Instagram page @malivelihood.

SHATTA WALE IS NOT OWNER AND FOUNDER OF SHATTA MOVEMENT

Below is a statement sent to us by a group of persons claiming to be the original owners and founders of the group Shatta Movement, which has for some time now been linked to dancehall act Shatta Wale.

We publish their statement, unedited.

The family (a group of young achievers from the Ghettos of Ghana) that set up the Shatta Movement brand in Ghana and international – ‘Shatta Movement Family over the weekend threw a huge caution to the musician Bandana over his ownership and claiming of being the founder of the movement on Adom106.3fm.

According to the SMF, ‘Before they say anything, they want readers and Ghana to know that they are not after Bandana for his fame, money or anything. All they want him to do is to stop abusing the shatta movement brand and its meaning for he has moved very far away from the goodness and beauty of it. As a movement they stand and guarantee it’, the Founders of the Shatta Movement first strong words.

We own and registered SHATTA MOVEMENT FAMILY for a simple course that is to help promote ghetto youth doing well in a chosen field. The main focus of the group is bigger than music; it is a lifestyle company that wants to supports young people in ghettos from the streets selling small chops to the doctors, nurses, boxers, footballers and creative arts.

SMF have the mind set of doing business with corporate bodies and building ghetto youth’s image that hustling that does not mean you dirty or not smart but it means if you can make something out of nothing, then, you are the one corporate Ghana should use to market its brand.

According to the founders, Shatta movement is not ‘dirty’, violence or noisy but as a movement and a family, one person cannot claim ownership, the very moment you do that you are selling out the people whose idea and efforts went into the brand. Also if one person claims ownership, how will the rest of the ghetto youth in the movement get help and come out successful in their chosen fields.

The movement was started by Sly Shatta (based in America) then his company was Sly – Ent which was a studio based in Darkuman Nyametse. Sly could not do it all hence he met Cyfa & Juwaid who shared in his vision of love, trust and loyalty for each other as Ghetto boys. The three agreed to form the shatta movement with others such as Abarture (based in Germany) and Abas based in South Africa.

Then the agenda was set straight with the movement formed to propagate the good deeds of young people in society. From there the need for longevity hence they set to start promotion and for every brand to sell well and fast it needs music hence the introduction of Bandana.

‘We brought Bandana into the movement in 2010, that time his fame had died out but I convinced family to support me so we bring his fame back, Juwaid noted. He mentioned that, Shatta Movement family solved a problem for Bandana and he fell in love with the family hence the support for him also started from there.

Mr. Logic also a member and prime witness to this whole movement also said on Adomfm that: ‘My brothers (Cyfa & Juwaid) brought Bandana to me when I was at x95.1fm. That time I saw his promo CD and it had ‘Chockstillsquad’ written on it. So I asked him where he belongs and he said openly that he was with that squad but now he is with the ‘Shatta Movement family’.

‘The story between us (Shatta Movement family) and Bandana is a long one but what we want Ghanaians to know is that, Shatta movement is a family of boys from Nima, Newtown, Mamobi, etc of ghettos hence one person cannot claim ownership and to even go to the extent of dirtying it like how he (Bandana) has.

We want him to stop claiming ownership of the name and brand ‘Shatta Movement’ inorder to allow the other ghetto youth in football, boxing, nursing and music to stand for it because it was built on trust love and loyalty not violence.

We are sending this warning, enough is enough Bandana, you are building a following that does not support any ghetto youth in any way. Allow us to bring our ghetto youth with talent out.
Bandana has succeeded in throwing dust into the eyes of Ghanaians as the owner of the brand name ‘Shatta Movement while he does not understand the meaning.

‘ONE WEEK CELEBRATION’ FOR LATE ROONIE COACHES SET FOR NOVEMBER 28

It’s almost a week since the sudden death of Ronnie Coaches of Buk Bak hit Ghanaians, and as part of plans to keep the mood alive, the Musician Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) is organizing a ‘One Week Celebration’ for the gone Hip-life soldier.

According to a statement put together by Nana K.O Duah (a.k.a. Tic-Tac), who is the Chairman of the Greater Accra Regional Branch of MUSIGA, “the union is putting together a special select committee to announce the plans set for the day.”

It must be remembered that Ronnie was one artiste that helped in making the “art form Hip-life” of Ghana music industry today, so, “our plans are to provoke the history and contribution of this group in the music industry through the media.”

“We are planning to merge this event to remind the Ghanaian and the rest of the world about the volumes of artistic works that has come out of this artistic struggle of this very unique group.”

He continued, “with the help of the media houses we would like to do a celebration and fund raising event to help the family of our departed brother, friend and national icon. MUSIGA would like the media to dedicate a program to the memory of the group and Ronnie as a person, give him the necessary media attention and airplay of old and new songs as well as creating awareness for the upcoming funeral arrangements.”

The ‘One Week Celebration’ will fall on Thursday, November 28, 2013, at King Solomon Dansoman Accra, from 8am. It is open to all and sundry.

Dates of funeral, fund raising and celebrating concert would be announced later via different media houses across the country. 

SARKODIE TO START MAKING SARK G-STRINGS

Sarkodie, has told NEWS-ONE that his fashion brand, Sark Collection, would begin sale of female jeans and underwear, G-strings and shoes. In an interview with the tabloid, Sarkodie said: “I am currently working on Sarkology.

That is my new album coming out which has Illumanati, Gunshot, the new one with Fuse; Down On One, Halleluyah, Lies and more. This is basically a double CD album which is coming out.

We are not too sure about the date but it has to come out before December and we have videos coming out as well. Aside music, we are also working on the Sark Collections. We have the new collections coming in by January. We have new designs for the snapback caps, shoes for ladies, jeans for ladies, underwear for ladies and ….”

He explained, “Well not me designing G-string for ladies per say. You know I have a partner who designs most of the stuff. She is a lady and we have also realized that we have a lot of females patronizing the shop, so we decided to capitalize on that and meet their needs. I have not seen the ladies underwear myself but I believe they would be nice. I have seen the pictures of the other products.”

SHATTA WALE GOES ‘MAD’!..HE THREATENS TO SUE GRAPHIC SHOWBIZ IF....

Reigning Dancehall King “Inna de whole” Ghana, Shatta Wale and his Shatta Movement crew, are very furious after reports that African Dancehall King Samini outshined him on stage at the just ended “Guinness Big Eruption Concert” which took place at the Accra Sports Stadium on Saturday, November 23 2013.

Speaking in an exclusive interview on Neat 100.9 FM’s sensational talk show “Me Man Enti”, hosted by Adabre Frimpong Manso, the “Enter the net” hit maker vented his anger on the leading entertainment newspaper in Ghana “Graphic Showbiz” warning them not to publish anything about him again, and even went ahead to threaten court action, if the well-respected paper decides to go against his warning.

“Like what Graphic Showbiz has written, I can say in my life that I don’t want any publication from Graphic Showbiz again in my life, because when I find it I can sue them. I don’t need them to hype me; I don’t need them to say anything about me. They are nobody”, he stated with so much anger.

Shatta Wale, formerly known as Bandana’s reaction came after two different reports on the event (One from Graphic Showbiz and one from Daily Graphic) were published on Monday November 25, stating categorically that “Rising music sensation, Shatta Wale, left many of his fans livid after he failed to live up to the challenge of the durable Samini at the Guinness Eruption Concert Saturday night, at the Accra Sports Stadium” (Quoted from a Daily Graphic report by Issac Yeboah).

Another report was published on the front page of Monday’s edition of Graphic Showbiz by Francis Doku, with the headline “Samini Floors Shatta Wale”.

Shatta Wale was also not happy about the fact that he is always being compared to Samini, siting that as one of the reasons why he can’t stop using certain unprintable words on his competitor.

He blamed the media for creating that unnecessary competition between him and Samini. “I will only do that when people stop comparing me and Samini in this industry because what I am doing is different from what he is doing. So that is why people have to talk to him and his people and others is in the media, that they should stop comparing me to him”, he stated when a panel member on the show, told him to try and stop using swear words.

He emphasized that for as long as he is being compared to Samini, he would always come hard to make his fans happy. “When they rate me and him like that, I will always make sure that his fans feel bad because my fans also feel bad when they hear him or his fans also saying things about me which I can’t stand, and not defend my fans”.

Asked if he thinks he was able to use the big platform to enhance his music career, Shatta said “Well I used it the best way I could use it”, adding that an official of Guinness, sponsors of the show, spoke to his management and that of Samini not perform any of their “Diss” songs on stage, so he tried as much as he can to put up a “clean show”.

The man of the moment said he only made certain statements on stage because he needed to clear some things that had been said about him. “It was just that those comparison and other things that people were saying about me, I had to clear it on stage”.

Reacting to reports that his family is not too happy about some of his utterances and his attitude in general, Shatta Wale said “Do you know my father came to the show with me? My father actually gave me security and convoy. My father gave me his brand new Jaguar to come to the Guinness show”.

Shatta also disclosed that his father applauded him after his performance and gave him an amount of $3,000 to go for shopping for a good job done. He denied allegations that he was sacked from home because he is a troublesome boy, and stating that his family is aware that he is a straight forward person and they are happy about it.

Before last Saturday’s concert, most people thought the unrest between Shatta Wale and Samini was going to be over and done with but from what is going on now, it appears the game is just begging as Peacefmonline.com is reliably informed that a major Accra based Radio Station is planning another Samini and Shatta Wale showdown event, this Christmas.