They had no choice though, for how else were they to respond to the thrilling hotshots of the ever entertaining Samini, or the gigs of the sensational trio, Praye. It was simply irresistible and worth all the night sweats.

Breathtaking stagecraft, and lofty calls for peace as the nation goes to the polls on December 7, raised the annual event above a mere musical bash.

Five Five, Sarkodie, Kwaw Kesse, R2Bees and Samini, the first five to perform, all had unique and interesting entrées to the stage, just as the rest of the pack of high performers.

The stage opens slowly with a blend of increasingly glowing beautiful lights showing a bedroom setting with an apparent ‘boss’ and his mistress, while a strongly built body guard keeps close watch. Enter Five Five.

They slowly warm the crowd with their songs ‘Number One Fan’, and then mixes of ‘African Gurlz’.

Then enters Sarkodie, and the speedy rapper will not only set the house dancing, but he jibes everyone into side splitting liners that rained spontaneous applause after him as he headed for backstage.

And then Abodam! Kwaw Kesse, true to form, entered in a special way. Saddled in a wheelchair with his hands cuffed behind his seat, lights show Kwaw Kesse struggling to pick a fallen microphone without much success. As a young lad offers a hand, the chained musician grabs the chance to ‘blow’ his songs. And when he is eventually set free from the cuffs, Kwaw Kesse works patrons into a frenzy with a couple of songs, ending with his ‘Odeem’ hit. He signs off with a call for peace in the December polls, explaining that Ghana had been, and would need to remain peaceful.

As the lights return from seeing the ‘mad’ Kesse off, the stage bears what was supposed to be a posh car – two piles of car wheels and shiny alloyed rims. It was another but a new set of ‘madness’ – R2Bees, who performed their favourite ‘I Dey Mad’ and ‘Yawa Girl’.

Next, somewhere within the crowd, a boom of ‘yaga yoo ei!’ heralds MTN Music Icon, Samini - rasta-turbanned and elegantly fashioned after His Imperial Majesty Haille Sellasie. In any competition, Samini would have been ‘too much’ of a match as he rolled one song after another in a seamless chant. In one moment the multi-talented star has his voice sweetly low and charming, and the next minute, he was all hot and vibrant, yet lovely.

Samini stressed the need for peace, reminding all Ghanaians that before NPP, NDC, CPP et al, Ghana was and must be!

Tic Tac played and showed he still has a good following, and homeboy, the ‘Sexy’ Tinny, who entered the stage masked with a handkerchief and minus his trademark hat, rocked the house with a variety of renditions. Asem, Okyeame Kwame and Bradez were equally on top of their game. And as for Praye – it is well they say the sky is not the limit – their entire performance of about five songs was simply fantastic, not least ‘Angelina’. And the crowd appreciated it, upstanding all through and applauding. The group tipped their act with a stage stunt featuring an ‘enormous’ lady with endowed everything – boobs and behinds – which sent the room wild.

Okyeame Kwame was voted Joy FM Star of the Year, worth prizes from Joy 99.7 FM and telecoms giant MTN, event sponsor. (The musician was profusely surprised with his fortune, announced by the ‘ruffian’ Ato Kwamena Dadzie of Joy FM.)

The programme was also televised live on national television, GTV.

The Joy FM Nite with the Stars is in its eighth year, and while the artiste line-up and patronage have recorded appreciable improvements over the years, organisers may want to have a re-look at time – just as previous seasons the event took off late!

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• Sarkodie shines at Joy FM Night With The Stars
• Joy FM Night with the Stars on Saturday

Thousands of patrons have yearly thronged the pre-Christmas bash, now in its eighth season, and organizers are expecting a full house when the MTN-sponsored event rocks the roofs.

On stage Saturday will be the irrepressible Kwaw (Abodam) Kesse, the industrious SAMINI, the destroyer himself, Castro as well as the crowd-pulling-Angelina-singing Praye (oh, they asked to tell you not to forget to pull your pants up when it’s down while dancing shooperu, salsa and mapouka).

And you will be looking out for the new hip-life hitters; Edem, Asem, R2Bees, Richie and Sarkodie, who will expect to bounce along with household names - Tic Tac, K. K. Fosu, Chemphe, Okyeame Kwame, Tinny, 4X4, Five Five and Bradez.

What is more, there will be showers of gospel fanfare as Night with the Stars’ regular, Kwaku Gyasi, storms the stage with ‘gospel nightingale’ Christiana Love.

The Joy FM Night with the Stars which yearly features celebrated international performers is this year breaking with tradition to feature only locally brewed artistes, and organizers Joy 99.7FM say the move is to celebrate and highlight the many champions on the home front.

Tickets for the all-night-long bash are at GH¢40 and the gates as usual, open at 8pm.

Related:

• Sarkodie shines at Joy FM Night With The Stars
• Joy FM brings on the stars
• Fans thrilled at Joy FM Nite with the Stars
• ‘Believe In Ghana’ concert hits Tamale
• Concert to raise funds for children
• Nduom meets musicians
• Why Ghanaian musicians will continue to slip down the deep trenches of poverty
• Ghanaian artistes perform for peace
• Nacy’s new deal for artistes
• Hypocrisy will kill us - Slim Buster

M.I Prime Entertainment, organizers of Bless Da Mic event at Base Lounge, has been putting together Listening Parties for several underground artistes.

Since the launch in September, several artistes have featured at the Bless Da Mic event, some of the notable names are Scooby Selah, R2B, Indigenous Groove, Scientific, Afrikan Baby, Future, Partan and lately Funky Boy.

Base Lounge has become a haven for fresh artistes and also ones with unconventional genres and styles. It is a place where Spoken Word poetry is also thriving and a part of the activities.

Base Lounge is fast becoming one of the few arts cafes in the nation’s capital. In an interview with the Director of My prime entertainments, organizers of Bless Da Mic, Papa Yaw Addo, said, “The program gives the opportunity to those who have something to say yet are not able to reach out owing to several constraints, we also present alternative music to the mainstream such as hip-hop, poetry, live acoustic performances and disc jockey sessions among other performances.

The event which comes off every Thursday attracts several Ghanaian celebrities such as the Godfather of hiplife, Reggie Rockstone, Kweku T of Big Brother fame, Kwame Faakye, Eddie Blay, Wanlov among other personalities.

“The Listening party concept is an opportunity to promote new artistes on the block and also underground artistes who are unknown in this country, every event is different, we try to be creative to give our patrons a potpourri of activities, for instance when we have the listening parties featuring a particular artistes, there are also several supporting artistes and up and coming ones that we do showcase,” added Addo Boateng

During the listening party sessions, artistes sell their music to patrons at the club and it is amazing the response most of the parties have generated for those who have used the Bless Da Mic platform to exhibit their art.

In a related interview with a regular patron of the Bless da Mic program, Kojo Arkoh, said, “It is a place for the youth to express themselves, as the name of the program suggests, you come through the avenue to bless the microphone and show everybody what kind of creative prowess you are made off and I tell you a lot of talents are discovered at every Bless Da Mic program which is a good thing”.

In the wake of live music waning in Ghana, it is unequivocally refreshing for venues in Accra to host live performances. Bless Da Mic program discourages miming as an art in music thus every artiste that performs there does a live presentation be it a spontaneous or well-rehearsed performances.

In countries such as South Africa, France, Germany and United States of America there are plethora of arts cafes sprang all over for youth to have a place to hang out and also enjoy live performances, where as in Ghana, there are very few of such places, thus Bless Da Mic stands out as one of the few venues where workaholics and other music lovers can go and chill out.

Bless Da Mic also has a philosophy of promoting African culture through music and the art. Papa Yaw further explained that, “What we have put together is a cultural café where we present hip-hop and all other musical genres in an African setting and also with African traditional spices. We also encourage artistes to play live music thus we have organized an acoustic guitar program dubbed ‘Guitars in the Park’.

Base Lounge has become synonymous with live performances and poetry; it can be said that Bless Da Mic has been very instrumental in introducing Spoken Word Poetry in Ghana and many of the young vibrant poets are regular patrons of Bless Da Mic.

The Listening party continues to be the event of the moment bringing a new breed of consciousness to Ghanaian music.

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For those of us that were at the Ohene Djan Stadium on Saturday November 22, we know that a lot more went wrong. I thought hosting a grand concert of this nature made the stadium a good choice; after all most memorable concerts the world over are held in stadiums. So what went wrong?

The stage for performances was tucked away in one end of the football pitch several hundreds of meter away from spectators. Two useless tiny screens were placed on both sides of the stage, and in fact spectators needed the best pair of binoculars to see any action on the stage. This made performances on the stage stiff and impersonal.

After waiting for 4 hours from the advertised time, Obrafour was the first casualty of the night as he tried to work with what he was given. His act was terrible, he had no reaction from the crowd and to make matters worse, his microphone didn’t work half of the time. Tinny tried to make things work in his favour by running across the pitch to get some reaction from the crowd; he even decided to score a goal on the field. It worked well for him but it affected the quality of his sound. Kwaw Kesse tried a combination of the two by starting off his performance on the pitch and rounding off on the stage. The tale end of his performance was so uninspiring that he was booed by the crowd.

While all these were happening time was fast spent and some patrons had given up and walked out of the stadium. Did I mention that the stadium was 2/3 empty? That’s what happens when you charge Ghanaians 20, 30, 50 and 100 cedis for a Zain sponsored concert at the sports stadium. In fact the gates were later opened free to the public but still the place was empty. At this point without mincing words, the concert was a complete flop!

2face managed to get some audience participation from the crowd and R&B superstar Mario took it a notch further but still the energy levels were low as most of the patrons remained seated. Then came Eve, who literally turned the fortunes of the concert around. Suddenly the sound seemed to work and we could hear and feel her energy even when she was rocking the stage. Occasionally she ran unto the pitch to get some more energy from the crowd. After Eve came in the maestro, Wyclef, who absolutely stole the show. He tried to get security to open the gates around the pitch to let the crowd in. he even protested that if the gates were not opened he wouldn’t continue with his show, but it fell on deaf eyes. ‘I didn’t travel for 10 hours to perform to my people behind cages like prisoners’, he protested.

Wyclef’s energy was simply unbelievable as he performed on the stage, on the pitch, on top of the gates around the pitch; and even jumped over the gate to get into the audience at a point. His energy was so high that when the microphones went absolutely dead on him in the middle of his performance, he staged a little drumming and dancing show, capoella style until the microphones worked again.

Well in a nutshell, the Zain 026 Experience went from being the most anticipated show of the year to a biggest flop and then just when we thought it was down and out Eve and Wyclef pulled a 360 to save it. It may affect Ghana’s reputation with international artist but I hope the organizers have learnt their lesson and would only grow based on this ‘experience’.

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Nigerian singer D’banj won the artist of the year award, while his compatriot, Naeto C, took the laurels for the best new African act, it was announced at the ceremony in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

Winners were selected by fans sending text messages, said Alison Reid, a spokeswoman for MTV Networks Africa.

Africa has long featured a vibrant music scene, but artists have had difficulties breaking into overseas markets. Famous African artists include Senegal’s Youssou N’dour, Nigerian legend Fela Kuti and South African impresario Miriam Makeba, who died this month.

MTV hopes the awards can offer the artists more exposure and celebrate the continent’s artistry.

Performers from South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Gabon and others also were nominated. Songs by D’banj and Naeto C, both male, are all but ubiquitous on the radio in Nigeria, Africa’s most-populous nation of 140 million people.

African music is highly varied, reflecting myriad tastes in the vast continent. Included across the many genres are call-and-response chanting and heavy drumming, drawing on pre-colonial modes of communication among villages.

Since independence movements swept the continent in the 1960s, African music also has increasingly been open to outside influence, incorporating salsa rhythms, rock beats and, increasingly, hip hop and R&B styles.

Many of the new Nigerian acts nominated Saturday feature heavy beats pioneered by American rappers and hip-hop artists. The lyrics often reflect the desire of many Nigerians to escape poverty and corrupt governance.

MTV’s regional music channel MTV Base now reaches almost 50 million African viewers in 48 countries through a network of pay-per-view services and partnerships with domestic channels.

BEST FEMALE
Wahu (Kenya)

BEST MALE
D’Banj (Nigeria)

BEST LIVE PERFORMER
Jozi (South Africa)

BEST GROUP
P Square (Nigeria)

BEST ALTERNATIVE
Seether (South Africa)

BEST HIP-HOP
9ice (Nigeria)

BEST R&B
Alicia Keys (USA)

ARTIST OF THE YEAR
D’Banj (Nigeria)

BEST NEW ACT
Naeto C (Nigeria)

BEST VIDEO
Ikechukwu (Nigeria) – Wind Am Well

LISTENER’S CHOICE AWARD
D’Banj (Nigeria) – ‘Why Me’

MAMAs LEGEND
Fela Anikulapo Kuti

MY VIDEO
Jide Rotilu

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The event, to be held at the Jubilee Park in Tamale, would feature artistes like K.K. Fosu, Praye, Wutah, Daddy Lumba and King Ayisoba.

The rest are Batman Samini, A-Plus, Philipa Baafi and a host of others.

Highlighting on the event, the Northern Regional Secretary of the NPP, Mr. Clifford Braimah said it was aimed at portraying the party’s commitment to peace with emphasis on the youth in the region as well as allaying fears of any violence during the elections.

He disclosed that in attendance would be the flag bearer of the party, Nana Akufo-Addo and his running mate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, as well as national and regional executives of the party and other party bigwigs.

The concert which would kick off at 7: 30 pm would precede the regional mammoth rally which is to take place the next day where the flag bearer would address the people.

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• Is NPP flirting with musicians
• Joy FM Night with the Stars on Saturday
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• Nduom meets musicians
• Why Ghanaian musicians will continue to slip down the deep trenches of poverty
• Ghana’s most renowned gospel musician - Pastor Joe Beecham
• Ghanaian artistes perform for peace

Dubbed The Sounds of Sweetness Concert 2008 and presented by Guardian Angel Promotions, the show will feature artistes including Amandzeba, Jackie Annan, the Winneba Youth Choir, guitarist Ackah Blay and his Abiza band and the Zshumba Dumba Dance Company led by dancer/choreographer Terry Ofosu Bright.

Part of the proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to a different charity each year. The Princess Marie-Louise Children’s hospital will be the first to benefit after Sunday’s show. The Korle-Bu Children’s Block will have its turn next year.

According to the CEO of Guardian Angel Promotions, Jackie Annan, The Sounds of Sweetness Concert 2008 is expected to bring people from all walks of life together under one roof to celebrate the power and beauty of music.

“Music lovers will be treated to captivating, invigorating entertainment which will fill them with pure, sweet, endless pleasure,” she added.

Related:

• Joy FM Night with the Stars on Saturday
• ‘Believe In Ghana’ concert hits Tamale
• Nduom meets musicians
• Why Ghanaian musicians will continue to slip down the deep trenches of poverty
• Ghanaian artistes perform for peace
• Nacy’s new deal for artistes
• Hypocrisy will kill us - Slim Buster
• MTN to hold two big yellow parties
• MUSIGA honours musicians
• Mad rush for NPP

The nomination show that followed on Sunday was an impressive exhibition of true talent as the contestants were challenged to render their own compositions.

Kojo’s performance of So Strong, brought the audience to their feet cheering and singing along.

The judges and faculty were extremely delighted by his performance and could only say that he had showed a side they didn’t know existed before.

Principal Joke Silva was beside herself with delight as she exclaimed that Kojo had finally brought out what they knew he had deep inside him.

Nii put up an equally sterling performance with a Yoruba composition called Mo Ni Fe E (I Love You) which went down well with the audience, judges and faculty as well.

Judge Tee-Y Mix felt it was a very clever and strategic move for Nii to sing in Yoruba.

The judges then took turns to explain that the Board of the Academy had decided the time had come for viewers to decide who should stay or be evicted from the Academy.

In effect, all remaining seven contestants are now on “probation” and only sms votes from viewers would determine their fate.

The contestants seemed startled as the enormity and full impact of the Board’s decision hit them. The stakes for the $20,000 cash prize, recording contract and brand new Toyota Rav 4 had suddenly been raised several notches.

The two contestants with the lowest votes will be evicted this Saturday. To keep the two Ghanaians in the Academy, viewers may text the numbers 3 (for Nii) and/or 13 (for Kojo) to short code 1737.

With three weeks of the competition remaining, viewers can keep pace with the contestants daily (Monday to Friday) from 10 ton10:30pm as they practise and gear up for the weekend shows.

The eviction shows are on Saturdays at 6.00pm while the nomination shows are on Sundays at 10:30pm both on TV3.

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Guest performance: Apex - Nigeria , Chris Deshie - Liberia  Coupe de kale dancer’s -Co`te d lvoire  Dj Serpent - Cameroon and more.
Date: 27th December, 2008

Official media website: www.ghanamusic.com

The night will be filled with so much fun for all fans and friends of African music who  will come and enjoy the rich sound’s of African.

Side Attraction: The best DJs in DC, MD and VA, the best comedian Bobby, Fashion show, red capet for VIP’S

MCs: Alinco and Mick O.

Special MC: Abeiku Santana.

Damage: $20.00

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For someone who only released his first album in 2008, Flo Rida has quickly notched up an impressive music resumé: enjoying a massive US number one hit, collaborating with T-Pain and Will.i.am among others and garnering numerous award nominations including two ‘nods’ for the upcoming American Music Awards.  Named in homage to his home state, Flo Rida has taken the hip hop world by storm with his well crafted lyrics, slick grooves and speedy rhymes, honed during his teenage years when .e toured with Fresh Kid Ice from 2 Live Crew before popping up on high-profile mixtapes as a collaborator with numerous artists.

Signed to Poe Boy/Atlantic, Flo Rida instantly made himself noticed with debut album Mail on Sunday, whose lead single, “Low,” featuring T-Pain, held the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for ten weeks, and was #1 on Billboard’s Pop 100 chart for 12 weeks and still counting.  “Low” was also #1 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Tracks chart for 11 weeks, marking the longest-running #1 since 2004 and the seventh longest-running #1 in the chart’s history.  ”Low” also made it into the record books as the biggest selling digital single of all time in the US, selling 4.3 million units!

Flo Rida, 9ice, Naeto C, Ikechukwu and Jua Cali will join previously announced artists Kelly Rowland, The Game, D’Banj, Asa and Cassette at the Velodrome, Abuja for MTV’s uplifting celebration of African music and artists on Saturday, 22 November 2008. Their performances broadcast on MTV base (DStv Channel 322, GTV Channel 40), partner networks and terrestrial channels RTGA (Democratic Republic of the Congo), TV3 (Ghana), NTV (Kenya), AIT (Nigeria), STV (Nigeria), TBC (Tanzania) and WBS (Uganda), from 29 November 2008.
To vote for your favourite artist or video, please go to mama.mtvbase.com.  Music fans with WAP/GPRS enabled phones may also vote at m.mama.mtvbase.com (standard internet charges apply).  Voting closes on Tuesday 18 November 2008.  For details of SMS voting go to mama.mtvbase.com.

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• Samini, Abodam and others to join Game on MTV concerts
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• Ghanaians lose out at MTV first African music awards
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