Universal Music Group (UMG), the world leader in music-based entertainment, today announced an exclusive global recording agreement with acclaimed Nigerian singer-songwriter Tiwa Savage, one of Africa’s biggest stars and an artist whose success spans music, fashion, film and television.
Under the agreement, her future music will be released internationally through UMG’s operations in more than 60 countries worldwide.
Projects will be executively produced by Efe Ogbeni of Regime Music Societe and Vannessa Amadi-Ogbonna.
The acclaimed singer-songwriter was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and later received a scholarship to study Professional Music at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts before embarking on a career that has seen her achieve creative success across a multitude of mediums.
2018 was her most successful year to date, which saw the singer-songwriter, philanthropist, entrepreneur and fashion icon crowned Best African Act by the MTV European Music Awards, making history as the first female to win the accolade.
In the same year, she also became the first African female to sell out London’s IndigO2. In December, Tiwa was handpicked by Coldplay’s lead singer Chris Martin to perform alongside Beyonce, Ed Sheeran and Jay Z live at the Global Citizen Festival in Johannesburg to a 70,000 strong audience and millions across the globe in celebration of the centenary of Nelson Mandela’s birth.
An accomplished live musician, she has performed around the world, including a notable performance at Jay Z’s Made In America festival in Philadelphia in 2017.
Tiwa was named one of the world’s Top 100 Inspirational Women in Fashion by Vogue US then later featured in British Vogue’s December 2018 issue as one of 10 women that are changing the face of music globally.
She has released a string of singles including ‘Mr Lova Lova’ ft Duncan Mighty, ‘Diet’ and ‘Tiwa’s Vibe’ all of which hit the No. 1 spot across charts within Africa, securing her position as one of Afrobeats leading artists.
A resilient force within Africa’s ever-growing entertainment industry, she has also managed to carve a career as a reputable songwriter, conquering the charts in Africa whilst balancing her roles as an entrepreneur, mentor and mother.
Throughout her career, Savage has been active in her philanthropic endeavours, supporting various youth engagement organisations and breast cancer screening projects across Nigeria and further afield.
Tiwa Savage Picture/ Dami Oyetade
Through her work with MTV’s Shuga, Savage is also keen to share further knowledge of HIV/ AIDS prevention and awareness within the continent.
One of Africa’s most followed women on social media, Savage was the first African female to represent Pepsi as an ambassador and represents leading global brands including Nike, MegaGrowth Hair, MTN and Star Beer.
Throughout summer 2019, Tiwa will play a string of international festivals including the UK’s Wireless Festival, Afropunk in Paris and Oh My! Festival in Amsterdam.
Tiwa Savage said, “My biggest goal is to make Africa proud. I’m so excited for this moment and I’m thankful to Sir Lucian Grainge and my new UMG family for their belief in my dreams. I’m looking forward to this next chapter in my career and I’m more ready than I have ever been.”
Adam Granite, EVP Market Development, Universal Music Group said, “We are looking forward to partnering with Tiwa and her team to help her music reach new audiences around the world.
As one of Africa’s most successful, influential and dynamic singer-songwriters, Tiwa has truly global ambitions and UMG is committed to help her in achieving them.”
Efe Ogbeni & Vannessa Amadi-Ogbonna of Stealth Management said, “We’re very proud to be a part of this ground-breaking partnership between Tiwa Savage and Universal Music Group.
Tiwa is undoubtedly the most hardworking and talented female artist crossing over from Africa to the rest of the world, and UMG has demonstrated its commitment to the Continent by placing its formidable machinery behind her amazing career.
Partnerships like these symbolise the hopes and dreams of so many talented artists back home in Africa and it is an honour to be the executive producers of her project.”
Wingate witnessed what could be Zimbabwe’s most expensive album launch to date as the new hip hop kid King 98 unveiled his album with the support of heavyweights.
Multi-award winning artists such as Davido and Nasty C with the help of the vivacious Nadia Nakai all taking turns to entertain the fans on a chilly Saturday Night.
ExQ,Tammy Moyo, Shashl, Union 5 and Probeatz completed the local line up.
The show was hosted by Star FM presenters KVG and Dj Mox. King 98’s album is titled Francesca and will be available for purchase this coming week.
Below are some of the images from the launch by CLEAR SIGHT Zutography
South African musician Zakes Bantwini today dropped his latest single tilted Freedom which features a new artist from Botswana called Moonga K.
Moonga K is a relatively unknown artist but is a great talent.
“This is my first single release without my vocals which is quite exciting as people will get to understand another side of me,” Zakes told Zimbuzz.
“I wanted to show the producing skills side of me which many aren’t aware of although I have produced many songs I had never put myself out there as a producer,” he said.
The musician said the song freedom was produced months ago but they delayed the release because they felt they needed a perfect time to release it.
“We did the song many months ago but we felt the market wasn’t yet ready so we waited for a relevant time to release it, hence we are dropping it Friday (today), on the eve of South Africa’s Freedom Day.
Although the song is not specifically touching on South African freedom, it speaks about emancipation.
“In the song, there are words like we will write our names in stone telling story of how we will definitely find freedom,” explained Zakes.
“It’s about freeing ourselves from the borders. Before you think that you are a Zimbabwean, Nigerian or South African you have to think of yourself as an African.”
Like many artists from across the Limpopo Zakes is looking forward to coming to Zimbabwe and perform.
“It’s a good thing when our music cross borders it shows that we are making music for everybody and not just ourselves.
“One of the major reasons why our music is doing so well is the infrastructure that a lot of African countries don’t have.
“Through that infrastructure we are able to use it as a machine to push our music,” he said.
“I can’t wait to share my love for music with the Zimbabwean people I would like to come there and present something that you will enjoy,” he said.
Currently experimenting with a new way of delivering live perfomances, he tell us how that has been going.
“At the moment people might say that I am a one-man band because I’m on the vocals, I play keys and DJ which is quite unique because I see myself as a person seeking new ways of delivering my performs,” He explains.
The last time the Prince Edward Tigers participated in the St Stithians Easter rugby festival was in 1996.
Their current coach Shaun De Souza was still a schoolboy then and was part of the touring party which managed to register two wins beating Queens college 25-24, Glenwood 15-10 before losing 11-20 to Kearsney College.
De Souza who has archived an unbeaten both as a player and coach will be hoping the class of 2019 could emulate some of the schools past great sides, rewrite the history books in this year’s edition.
The Tigers gaffer believes his team’s strength is their running style of attack which has been the hallmark of most PE sides and also takes pride in his side’s defence.
De Souza is very much aware of the task at hand: “All our opposition have played a few games already with my technical team we have managed to analyse patterns and structural changes which are signs of teams trying out various systems.”
Shaun De Souza in the Prince Edward Tigers Class of ’96
“This definitely makes the challenge even harder because we will have to adapt to what comes our way.
“All three fixtures are great rugby Schools with a rich history .
St Stithians who have 7 Zimbabweans in their team who some of my boys already idolize will be a mental task.
SACS is a team we played on their Zimbabwe tour last year will definitely be the toughest game of the three as we only have 2 players who started in the fixture we lost in 2018. Parktown boys play a quick running game which will test us defensively,” he said.
Zimbabwe under 20 rugby team kept their promotion dreams alive after beating a stubborn Ivory Coast 26-10 at Prince Edward School in Harare in the first Group semi-final of the Barthes cup.
The Young Sables will now play Madagascar in the group final pencilled for Saturday 20 April at the same venue. The winner will then be promoted into Barthes cup group A in 2020.
Zimbabwe had a sluggish start in their encounter against Ivory Coast and were punished dearly as early as the 3rd minute through a close-range penalty by fly-half Sirki Traore giving the visitors a 3-0 lead.
Young Sables first half performance was all over the place and was largely characterised by poor handling as they knocked on the ball at crucial times.
They also struggled at contact point as they failed to secure their own ball and the visitors managed to dominate in that aspect in the earlier exchanges.
Zimbabwe levelled the score courtesy of their Fullback Tinashe Hombiro, who slotted a home a penalty.
The scrappy affair continued and Ivory Coast managed to capitalise once more when scrumhalf Abbdou Aziz Konate gathered a loose ball, went under the sticks for the match first five-pointer. Traore added the extra two points easily.
Young Sables only managed to add three more points before half time through the boot of Hombiro as they went to the oranges trailing 10-06.
Zimbabwe emerged in the second period with more purpose and utility back Tabonga Ngonyamo started to show his class dictating proceedings with his dazzling runs and intelligent passing which started to create holes in the west Africans defence.
Picture/Zimbabwe Rugby Union
Ngonyamo‘s industriousness was duly rewarded when he planted a try in the corner to give Zimbabwe the lead for the first time in the match 11-10 and was not converted.
Young Sables kept the scoreboard ticking as Hombiro scored his third penalty stretching the lead to 14-10. Ivory Coast never got going in the second period as they were pinned in their own half.
Zimbabwe eventually killed off the contest with two more tries by flank Kelvin Kanenhungo and wing Allan Mwande.
Young Sables Coach Farai Bob Mahari shared his sentiments after the match “it was a very nervy start but we managed to show character especially in the second half we found our feet and made adjustments. Our goal was to be in the final on Saturday and right now we are on track with this win.”
One of the biggest television events to date in Zimbabwe takes place this month (April) with the launch of Our Perfect Wedding Zimbabwe, the first local version of this internationally-successful reality television series.
Liz Dziva, publicity and public relations manager of MultiChoice Zimbabwe, said the show would launch on Zambezi Magic(channel 162) at 9.30pm on Thursday, April 18, with Zimbabwe’s Independence Day a suitable platform for the initial episode of a series that will help take Zimbabwean television content to new heights.
Our Perfect Wedding is being produced by Zimbabwean production company Ngoda TV, which was commissioned by DStv’s Zambezi Magic channel to undertake the full series production, while the presenter is singer Adiona Chidzonga, a former Zimbabwean representative on M-Net’s Idols Africa show.
Production is well underway and is being worked around selected couples, who applied to be considered for inclusion when a call to action was made public earlier this year. The 13-episode season will end on July 11.
Said Ms Dziva: “Our Perfect Wedding is an original concept from South Africa’s Mzansi Magic channel, with Zambezi Magic having already undertaken a successful Zambian series before moving it into Zimbabwe. Kenya has also enjoyed its own version on DStv’s Maisha Magic East.
Each week during the 13-week run a Zimbabwean couple will be featured as they tick off their wish lists ahead of their marriage ceremonies, aiming at having the perfect wedding experience with the help of the programme organisers.
Zimbabwean viewers now wait to see which 13 couples will be featured, with all planning and execution of each of their weddings being focused on in the episodes in which they star.
The show focuses on a mix of content features and human emotions to bring the highs and lows of the planning and the final joy of the couples after they marry.
Ms Dziva said Zambezi Magic was created to offer Zimbabwean film-makers a platform for ever-increasing amounts of local content, and the Our Perfect Wedding Zimbabwe series will be the biggest local achievement on the channel to date, opening the door to even more local content in coming months and years.
“This is, without doubt, one of the most exciting Zimbabwean TV events to date and we have no doubt it will achieve huge success in Zimbabwe and in other territories in which Zambezi Magic is shown, such as Zambia,” said Ms Dziva.
“We are looking forward to showing viewers all the excitement and fun of weddings, and to see something of how our fellow Zimbabweans live and spend their lives, adding to the sheer Zimbabwean excitement of this show.”
Her enthusiasm was matched by that of Timothy Okwaro, M-Net’s director of East and Southern African channels, who said: “Across Africa, we love a good celebration and a wedding is a celebration of the best kind.
There’s nothing like watching a happy couple taking a walk down the aisle to pledge their love for one another in front of their loved ones. I’m particularly proud that this show will bring viewers across Southern Africa the Zimbabwean version of wedding celebrations. That’s how we, on Zambezi Magic, continue to tell our stories.”
Viewers are encouraged to join the conversation on their social media platforms with #OPWZim and tagging @ZambeziMagic to share their thoughts with other viewers.
After the premiere of Our Perfect Wedding Zimbabwe on April 18, the series will run at 9.30pm each Thursday
Zee Entertainment Africa has announced the exciting premiere of Mehek, the first Zee World production to star actors from the African continent.
The landmark series, which was shot entirely in India, will premiere on Saturday, 6 April at 2100hrs on Zee World and introduces African actors Shonisani Masutha, Kamogelo Mogale, Ndaba ka Ngwane and NomavaKibare to Zee World viewers across Sub Sahara Africa.
“Mehek represents an important and evolutionary part of Zee World’s commitment to providing relevant, exciting and innovative content to its viewers.
Zee is proud of this production and of our African actors; furthermore, it will undoubtedly set a strong foundation for similar productions in the future,” says Harish Goyal, CEO, Zee Entertainment Africa and Asia Pacific.
“The decision to develop a Bollywood production with African actors stemmed from Zee World’s unequivocal success in Africa and the love showered by our audiences for the channel.
Zee World has enjoyed tremendous growth throughout the years and Mehek was the obvious next step” says Ratna Siriah, Business Head, Zee Entertainment Africa.
“The Multichoice group understands the importance of local content to our subscriber. As Africa’s leading content producer and most loved storyteller, we are delighted that our channel partners such as Zee share this in this vision and investing in showcasing local talent in new innovative ways.”, added Aletta Alberts, Executive Head of Content Strategy for MultiChoice.
Africa meets India
Mehek is the eponymous story of a young girl from Delhi, India whose love for cooking is closely tied to her mother’s memories and Shaurya (Karan Vohra), a rich and arrogant, restaurateur.
Their paths cross leading to an unlikely relationship but all is not what it seems.
Meanwhile, Eddie Gabela (Ndaba ka Ngwane), a successful businessman from Africa moves to Delhi with his wife Leleti (NomavaKibare), daughter Norah (Shonisani Masutha) and son Dennis (Kamogelo Mogale).
Dennis has been implicated in a serious crime and whilst the family knows he’s innocent they are helpless to save him from these false accusations and decide to leave Africa for his safety.
Norah’s love life however takes an interesting turn when she meets and falls in love with Karan in India.
Their relationship is a colourful imbalance of love and betrayal as the couple forges a life together in India.
Follow the story of this ground-breaking Africa
meets India story line and experiences of Norah and Karan from vastly different
backgrounds brought together by love.
Zee World, the world’s 1st Bollywood English dubbed channel in Africa, has unveiled its line-up of programs for the year to keep viewers even more glued to their television screens.
Speaking at a content upfront in Harare,
Harish Goyal, CEO, ZEE Africa & Asia Pacific, said: “We are really excited
about the wide acceptance and appreciation of our programmes here in Zimbabwe
and we are constantly improving our content to keep our viewers happy with new
programmes from the best of Bollywood.”
This year, Zee World have announced the
exciting premier of Mehek, the first
Zee World production to star actors from the African continent.
The landmark series, which features local African stars along with the Indian cast, premiered on 6 April introduces African actors Shonisani Masutha who plays Nora, Kamogelo Mogale as Dennis,
Ndaba ka Ngwane in the role of Eddie Gabela and Nomava Kibare who plays the mother Leleti to Zee World viewers across the Sub Sahara continent.
“Mehek represents an important and evolutionary part of Zee World’s commitment to providing relevant, exciting and innovative content to its viewers.
Harish Goyal CEO, ZEE Africa & Asia Pacific
Zee is proud of this production and of our African actors; furthermore, it will undoubtedly set a strong foundation for similar productions in the future,” says Harish Goyal, CEO, Zee Africa & Asia Pacific.
“The decision to develop a Bollywood production with African actors stemmed from Zee World’s unequivocal success in Africa and the love showered by our audiences for the channel.
Zee World has enjoyed tremendous growth throughout the years and Mehek was the obvious next step” says Ratna Siriah, Business Head, Zee Africa.
Like theever-popular Twist of Fate, its
spin-off series This is Fate is also gaining fans from the long separated Arora
sisters, Shriti and Preeta.
