Nigerian Artistes Thrilled by Awards Nomination

Fri, Feb 28, 2014
By publisher
5 MIN READ

BREAKING NEWS, Entertainment Briefs

NIGERIAN artistes who were recently nominated for the 2014 World Music Awards are overwhelmed with joy for their achievement. Speaking in separate interviews, Banky W, Iyanya and Waje could not contain their happiness as they effusively showed appreciation of their achievement.

Iyanya, winner of the inaugural MTN Project Fame West Africa, who was the most nominated with six said the nomination was a great honour to him. “I feel honoured and blessed that the works I have put out have been recognised all over the world. It’s always great for an artist to hear about a nomination or win an award no matter where it is taking place or the people he’s competing with,” he said.

Praiz, another Project Fame alumnus who was nominated in three categories expressed surprise at the development. “I’m still surprised. I never expected the nominations but I’m really elated by them, it means I’m doing the right thing,” he said.

Speaking in the same vein, Waje said she didn’t expect the nomination but that she was happy to be among the nominees. “It shows that patience, hard work and faith in God really pays. The list is quite heavy though with lots of talented people and I am honoured and humbled that they nominated me, especially for the Album of the Year,” she said.

Also Banky W said: “It’s always an honour to be recognised in any category and I’m definitely grateful. However, there are like 500 artists nominated in each category; five, ten or twenty will be okay. “But when it gets into the hundreds, you can’t dwell on it too much because there are just too many. However, I definitely appreciate being mentioned at all” he said.

A total of 21 Nigerian artists were nominated in seven out of the nine categories of the awards. The World Music Awards is an international awards show founded in 1989 under the High Patronage of Albert II, Prince of Monaco and is based in Monte-Carlo. The awards are presented to the world’s best-selling artists in the various categories and to the best-selling artists from each major territory. The winners are determined through online and SMS votes from all over the world.

Robin Thicke and Paula Patton split

Robin and Paula
Robin and Paula

THE nine-year-old marriage of Robin Thicke and Paula Patton has collapsed. The news of their split must have shocked fans of the celebrity couple, especially considering some of the quotes they gave to the press in recent months. The cause of the break up has been traced to be the woman who Thicke “grabbed” last year at the VMAs, an incident which has sparked a variety of trust issues from Paula, his wife. Thicke had been photographed grabbing the butt of Lana Scolaro, a young lady at the official VMA after a party, in August of last year. Thicke insisted at the time that he had nothing to hide, especially because Paula, his wife, was also at the party and saw it all happen.

However, the encounter clearly didn’t go down too well behind the scenes, despite the couple’s insistence that they were closer than ever. A few weeks after the incident, Thicke was quoted saying that he and Paula “cannot keep our hands off of each other” before announcing to the world that the music video for Blurred Lines was inspired by her ideas. Thicke has never made efforts to hide the attention he gets from other women, having been photographed in nightclubs in Paris with hot young girls; tweaking on stage with Miley Cyrus and of course, writhing with half-naked women in his music videos. Up until this point it had been believed that Paula had no issue with this, but that ended being a mistake! She was the one who made the official announcement to the press recently about the break-up. “We will always love each other and be best friends, however, we have mutually decided to separate at this time,” she said.

Adejo’s Generous Heart

Praise
Praise

ARTISTE Praise Adejo, popularly known as Praiz, has donated N10 million for the treatment of Somaya Olayinka, a baby born with a hole in the heart. Adejo told journalists in Lagos recently that the gesture was his “little” contribution to the society.

He presented the cheque for the sum to the child’s parents in Lagos. “I did it because I wanted to do something I had never done before. I wanted to save a life, and I am grateful to all who contributed to this,” Adejo said.

The artiste, who was among the finalists of the first MTN Project Fame, West Africa, in 2009, raised the money from sale of his single, ‘Oshe’ as a telephone caller-tune in January and February.

The baby was born with a hole in her heart in 2013, and had an operation in which the hole was successfully closed. However, the doctors said that she would need costly post-surgery treatments.

In January, Adejo launched the campaign to raise money for the baby by urging mobile phone users to make ‘Oshe’ their caller-tune for N50 monthly. He is currently signed with X3M music, owned by Steve Babaeko.

Adejo was recently nominated for the World Best Live Act and World Best Entertainer at this year’s World Music Awards.

— Mar. 10, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT

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