Tag: Nigerians in America

Festivals, Music

Mr. Eazi and Burna Boy highlight the rise of afrobeats at Coachella

By Makeda Easter

This has been a particularly global year for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. The lineup also includes Nigerian stars Mr. Eazi and Burna Boy, two artists representing afrobeats, a genre that’s steadily gaining traction in the U.S. and beyond.

It’s not the first year that Coachella has hosted Nigerian artists. The 2012 performance of Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, featuring Fela Kuti’s youngest son and band, is just one example of the handful of the country’s artists who have played the Indio festival. And 2018 was expected to be a big moment for afrobeats at Coachella when Wizkid was booked, but he missed the gig due to visa issues.

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Business, People

Africa meets America at Rem De Trendy Fashion boutique

By Peg DeGrassa

PROSPECT PARK — Delaware County is a melting pot of countless nationalities’ rich traditions and cultures, mixed with modern American trends and influences. Reflecting such a vibrant mixture is Rem De Trendy Fashion store, which opened this past fall at 621B Chester Pike. The part-African, part- American blended style boutique specializes in formal and casual wear, as well as custom made dresses for proms, weddings, Communions, Confirmations, christenings and other special occasions.

Rem De Trendy Fashion is the creation of designer/owner Remi Oyelami of Folcroft. The talented seamstress is a native of Lagos, Nigeria, where she opened her first dress shop, which is still in successful operation today.

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News

Nigeria’s Sahara Group signs deal with United Nations Development Programme in New York

The Sahara Group, an international energy and infrastructure conglomerate and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are joining forces to promote reliable access to affordable and sustainable energy, and to mainstream the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the private sector with a specific focus on SDG 7 (affordable energy).

The partnership was formalized with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on Monday 15 April in New York.

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Entertainment, Events

Davido to headline “Coming To America Music Festival” in Washington DC

African music continues its meteoric rise across the globe, spearheaded by the resurgence of the Afrobeats movement.  From chart-topping pop collaborations with mainstream artists such as Drake, Rihanna, Ed Sheeran and Alicia Keys, to the resounding influence of African producers and artists across the international music industry, the sound that has rocked the continent for decades, now touches the hearts of many around the world.

On April 27, 2019, international music insider Eshoon Nashun will launch the “Coming to America Music Festival” in Washington, DC with some of Africa’s top artists at The Anthem. The newly-built 6,000 seat venue in the Nation’s Capital will be the setting for mega acts including headliner, Davido, Nigerian singer, songwriter, and record producer.

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Music

Discover Sons Of Sonix, the British-Nigerian duo looking to spread Afropop to the world

By Adewojumi Aderemi

Just last week, Kida Kudz released another infectious single, “Jiggy Bop”, which saw him unveil even more of his rap range than we had heard on his previous hits, “Issa Vibe” and “Again”.

While Kid Kudz’s melodic delivery certainly made the song extra catchy, it’s the fantastic production work, particularly its mystical beat, that pushed the track over the edge, and that’s all thanks to British-Nigerian production duo, Sons of Sonix.

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Music

Nigerian-Born musician Alex Boyé releases two singles for Mental Health Awareness Month

By Socrates Mbamalu
Alex Boyé has become known for his uplifting music. Now his support of mental health campaigns has seen him being honoured for adding his voice to suicide prevention efforts.

Three years ago, Nigerian-born Alex Boyé appeared on one of America’s best-known talent shows, America’s Got Talent. He was 44 years old at the time and had been singing for 25 years. With his signature white mark under his right eye, a boisterous spirit and great charisma, he took to the stage and blew away the judges with his energy and music. Boyé has gone on to become an important voice in music.

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News

Nigerian embassy settles rift between diaspora groups in U.S

The Nigerian Missions in the United States and Nigerian diaspora on Saturday converged on the Embassy of Nigeria in Washington DC to reconcile factional groups in the Nigerians In Diaspora Organisation Americas (NIDOA).

The reconciliation followed earlier separate meetings with NIDOA Board of Trustees (BoT) and NIDOA USA Board of Directors (BoD) at the Consulate General of Nigeria in New York.

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Music

Thutmose experiments with genres while honoring his Nigerian roots

By Christina Cala

Thutmose is the name of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, but it’s also the stage name of Nigerian-born rapper and songwriter Umar Ibrahim. After immigrating with his family to Brooklyn, N.Y. at the age of 8, Thutmose grew up caught between the America he was experiencing and the America he imagined.

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Business, News

AfDB urges US businesses to “take advantage of opportunities” in Africa

African Development Bank President Adesina said it is time that the United States “scale up and take advantage of opportunities that other global players are already investing in.” APA learned on Friday.

Speaking at a high-level dialogue in Washington D.C., Akinwumi Adesina noted that “it is time to turn around the declining investments of the U.S. in Africa.

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Business, News

Africa’s Amazon Is set for a New York IPO as online retail takes off

By John Bowker

When Christophe Fofana, a 29-year-old taxi driver and student in Ivory Coast, needed a birthday present for his daughter last year, he did something he hadn’t done before. He went shopping online.

“It was a specific toy, an electric car, that I either couldn’t find in stores or was very expensive,” he said in Abidjan, the commercial capital. He found a gift for the big day on Jumia, the online retailer and market place active in 14 African countries.

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Music

Drake Brings Out Wizkid To Perform ‘Come Closer’ With Him At The O2 Arena
By Clement Akubude
Nigerian Afropop artiste, and StarBoy Boss Wizkid was brought on stage at the O2 Arena in London Monday night 8th of April by American singer, Drake to perform their hit single, Come Close during his Assassination Vacation Tour where he’ll be spending seven days performing at the O2.

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Business, People

Chef’s Memoir Tackles What It’s Like To Be Young, Gifted And Black In Fine Dining

Kwame Onwuachi is a rising star in the food world — the executive chef at Kith and Kin, a celebrated Afro-Caribbean restaurant in Washington, D.C., and a nominee this year for a prestigious James Beard award.

By Lulu Garcia-Navarro and Maria Godoy

It was the morning after the election of America’s first black president, and Kwame Onwuachi was hungover. He’d been partying all night. He was dealing drugs to survive after he dropped out of college. He was, he says, lost.

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Movies

Kris Mokwunye takes Nigerian short films to America

Kris Mokwunye, 25, is a Nigerian filmmaker, content creator and a lover of creative works generally. All his life, from secondary school to university education, he has been doing creative works.

An award-winning short filmmaker, his showbiz career started with organising an event, Chill with a Star, before branching into filmmaking, which saw him garlanded at the Abuja International Film Festival in 2017.

So far, he has done and directed eight short films, for himself and for others.

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Sports

Efe Obada: The Nigerian NFL star abandoned on London’s streets at age of 10

By Tom Reynolds BBC Sport

“Apparently if you want to book it you have to say: ‘The Efe Obada room please.’ That’s really cool.

“If someone’s in there, I’ll just kick them out…”

Efe Obada is joking about the meeting room we are about to enter at the NFL’s UK headquarters in central London.

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