The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

#KizombaThursday. Every Thursday for the last number of years, I always listen to Kizomba. It started from going to Kizomba dance nights at Afrikiko in Accra on Thursdays. I have always maintained I went for these because I loved the Kizomba genre . It's true. That love has become deeper. Kizomba music is basically my go-to to ensure I lift myself out of any bad mood. It works. Because I decided accordingly. The one whose voice I like to hear singing the most is Perola . Does it matter that I can't speak Portugese ? No. Do I need to understand the language of Kizomba music? Would be good. Would it change how I feel about the music if I understood the lyrics? I have to think about that one. Would a long stint in Angola help me learn to speak Portuguese? Yes. Would a long stint in Angola help me finally learn to dance to Kizomba? Sim. But I can do that by just going to more Kizomba dance lessons and parties in Ghana.  No. Anyway, to the music by Jandira Sassingui . Nao Custa Na...

Lizha James, Dama do Bling, Amr Diab, Ralph Anselmo and Perola emerged multiple winners of the inaugural Museke Online Africa Music Awards (MOAMAs). The MOAMAs sought to award best of African music over the last year and put the winners in the spotlight as Africa prepares to host the globe at the World Cup in South Africa. The awards were organized by Museke.com, an African music site which seeks to unify Africa through its music and its partners. The winners would be awarded packages where their music will be promoted through various media while their online presence will also be enhanced. The winners were selected based on African music fan votes. Voting took place from April 6 to May 29, 2010 on http://awards.museke.com/ ( http://moamas.com/ ). Users were allowed to vote once everyday. The nominees were selected over a 3 month period by an academy made up of African music enthusiasts and fans. The organizing team encourages music fans to learn about all the other nominees, since th...

Last time, I took you through my top 10 Ghanaian songs of 2009. Well, I listen to a whole bunch of stuff from across the continent and want to share my African top 10. These are the songs that should be gunning for the awards and ruling the dancefloors. What do I know huh? :-) I know these jams are lekker and am pretty crazy about them. One song I am not adding to this list but is poised to join the list by the end of this year is P-Square's newest single called Danger. Yes, Do me & Ifunanya are officially old now. The Okoye brothers say wahala dey. These P-Square jams just grow on you. Ladies and gentlemen, I dey see danger; You go see danger; Omo, see danger; We dey see danger; Omo wahala dey! Before that, you have to check out my 10 favorite Ghanaian songs of 2009 , my 10 songs dedicated to African women , my favorite Ghanaian songs , 10 favorite songs from Kenya , 10 favorite songs from South Africa , my 10 favorite Nigerian songs and 10 African songs I think you should k...

Instead of going to Afrikiko to go and sharpen my poor Kizomba dancing skills, I am here at home 'working' and listening a playlist of Kizomba songs. That sounds like something I would do but not Roberto Saudades . When he is in the right environment, he can really get his Kizomba grooves on. Since I am not really Roberto, I have some learning to do. I basically want to be able to move like this on the dance floor. See the video below I became a huge fan of Kizomba music as I continued looking for music from Angola. I discovered musicians like Ary , Ralph Anselmo and Yola Araujo . I knew of Perola and Bruna Tatiana already. In fact, Bruna is my Facebook friend. Grande som ! Bruna had made a name for herself participating in Big Brother Africa and even coming to Ghana. How I wish she would come again, to Ghana? #Coded. Yeah. Perola had a couple of hot songs, disappeared for a bit and then reappeared with this classic - Presta Atencao . And then Ary came out with Vai Da...

Wande Coal , Lizha James , Barbara Kanam , AY , HHP , Bracket , Blu3 , Radio & Weasel , Alikiba , Black Coffee , and Cheb Khaled lead the nominees for the Museke Online Africa Music Awards . The MOAMAs will award the best of African music over the last year and put the winners in the spotlight as Africa prepares to host the globe at the World Cup in South Africa. The awards are being organized by Museke.com, home of the African music fan which seeks to unify Africa through its music. The nominees were selected over a 3 month period by an academy made up of African music enthusiasts and fans. Voting will take place on http://awards.museke.com (http://moamas.com) until 15 May, with winners being announced on 1 June. Users can vote once everyday. Below is the full list of nominees (arranged by song/album, name & country) African song of the year Bumper to bumper – Wande Coal – Nigeria Juju - Black Coffee - South Africa Meme pas fatigue – Magic System/Cheb Khaled –...

I first heard about Bruna through Big Brother Africa, the very first show in 2003. I think that is when I started loving Angola , and its women. I learnt that she was a musician then. As she fine , I continued tracking her music career, too. Turns out, she is really good at music as well. She is not related to Roberto Mendes . You know I love Kizomba a lot and I listen it to on Thursdays . Her music is one of many reasons. The other day, I was chatting with an Angolan friend on Whatsapp. Yes, she is a woman. She doesn't understand English well like many other Angolan friends of mine . Whatsapp started asking if they could translate what she was typing into English. And then it started offering to and translating my English into Portuguese. Shed a tear for Duolingo and Google Translate. Bruna lived in the US (Maryland areas) for many years. She can speak English . She was even cast in a movie by my friend Koby Maxwell called Paparazzi - Eye In The Dark . I am looking for the mo...

I have been a lazy blogger for many years. Especially after posting 233 blog posts in 2013. After my mum transitioned on on June 6, 2022, I told myself I needed to write a book. I'd get back to the book bit later. I promised to write lots of blog posts in 2023 too. It has not gone too well until now.  I (feel I) have a special relationship with music . It is what led me to Museke . As 2023 ends and I hit 40 years of age, I would like to share some of my all-time favorite music. I was going to do one blog post about some all-time favorite songs and how they impact me. I realised the number of songs were increasing as I thought about them. I also realized some of the same musicians were making these songs, and their songs have special places in my heart, head and body , etc for different reasons.  So I present to you the starting eleven of artistes who make music I dey feel waa.  In order of when they started making impact on me.  The years might not be 100% correc...

This blog entry is upon request to list the Top 10 African female vocalists. I am going to consider those who've been singing in the last 2 to 3 years, thus eliminating legends like Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Nayanka Bell, Miriam Makeba, etc. In determining this order, I took into consideration, pure singing, artiste popularity, song popularity, demand for shows/concerts, award recognition, amongst others. It's very subjective. I also took out the groups with more than one member. This is not scientific and this list is adjudged by a committee of one. Let's get into the countdown. 10. Amani (Kenya) - Amani is one of the biggest female stars in Africa and was nominated for a few Channel O awards. She's a little bit more pop than rhythm and blues but I love her work on ' Tonight ' and ' Missing my baby '. You can see her singing prowess when she collaborates with others, on songs like Ninanoki, Usiwe mbali, etc 9. Siphokazi (South Africa) - Siphokazi is not the...

I asked some friends to name their  top 5 songs  ever, from  Angola . My main alter-ego is called Roberto Mendes. One of these days, I would wrtie about him. He also contributed, thanks to all he has learnt around  Museke . I also asked  Google  Gemini (not through Google Sheets this time) & some other competitors of theirs). You know AI is is my friend these days right? I also contributed my top 5, while reminiscing this  list from 2009 . My first time in  Angola  was in 2016. Thinking about it is making me tear up. Not kidding . I was beside myself with joy when I had the chance to travel to Angola , thanks to Lourdes Fernandes . But prior to that, I had been listening to a lot of Angolan music, especially Kizomba . The first Angolan I met in my life was Isabel Correia and she was not an  MIT  student. We did not have some at ErmmmMIghty. She introduced me to Angolan music and eventually became a contributor for  Museke...

Recently, my South African friend Keitumetse 'Tumi' Diseko approached me about interviewing me for a website called Jucy, a community blog started by one Nzinga Qunta, who works for Channel O as a presenter on their popular O Boma. I met Tumi through my work at Museke.com and she formerly worked for MTV Base Africa. According to Nzinga's interview with Rage , Jucy is an African celeb news and entertainment site, with a little bit of inspiration to go out there and be fabulous! In her words, "Imagine Afrika and get to know celebs from the African continent who are doing amazing things, and I just thought it would be cool to read about them and not just American or European people." They also take a keen interest in Africans on the continent and in the diaspora doing big things in their respective careers, etc. It's an honour to be interviewed in the 'People You Should Know' category. Below is the story from the Jucy website __________________________ ...