Archive for June 2013

Home Archive for June 2013

First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama (@Flotus) will underline her commitment to and support for youth on the African continent by participating in the ground breaking African TV series and multimedia campaign, MTV Base Meets.

The First Lady will be joined at the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre by teenagers from across South Africa, as well as students in cities around the US joining virtually in cities around the U.S. via Google+ Hangouts in: Los Angeles, California; Kansas City, Missouri; New York City, New York; and Houston, Texas. This event will be streamed live on WhiteHouse.gov, the White House Google+ page and www.mtvbase.com.

MTV Base Meets Michelle Obama will premiere to 52 countries across sub-Saharan African on MTV Base (DStv Channel 322) on Friday 19 July @ 17.00 (repeats Saturday 20 July @ 13.30 CAT, Sunday 21 July @ 10.00 CAT, Monday 22 July @ 20.30 CAT & Friday 26 July @ 20.00 CAT).

Multiple Grammy award winner, John Legend is amongst the celebrity participants who will feature in the programme.

In addition to the live Hangout, MTV Base Meets Michelle Obama will include the First Lady’s meeting with a panel of four African youth, in which she will candidly address their questions and exchange views on education.

MTV Base will engage its social media communities in Africa in the project by canvassing questions and discussion topics for Mrs Obama, as well as embedding the Google+ Hangout on the MTV Base website and Facebook pages.

Speaking on behalf of MTV Base, Alex Okosi, Senior Vice President & Managing Director, Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) Africa commented, “Mrs Obama’s involvement in the MTV Base Meets programme reinforces her commitment as an advocate for young people. Her tireless efforts to tackle issues facing the youth - in Africa and around the world - is remarkable, and we are excited to work with her in leveraging our platform to engage with young people on the continent. Her extraordinary career and personal journey will be an insightful and inspiring contribution to the programme.”

Created and broadcast by MTV Base (DStv Channel 322), MTV’s dedicated youth and music channel for sub-Saharan Africa, the long-running MTV Base Meets franchise is a multimedia youth empowerment campaign which connects aspiring African youth with key influencers or opinion formers from the worlds of politics, business, sports, music and fashion. Previous high profile influencers to appear on the series include former President Mandela, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, music icon Hugh Masekela, actor Idris Elba, and businessman and entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson.

To join the conversation about MTV Base Meets Michelle Obama, please go to www.mtvbase.com, join MTV Base on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MTVBaseVerified or follow us on Twitter @MTVBaseAfrica using the hashtag #MTVMeetsMichelle.

Hip-hop artist Kcee’s scored his first ever victory at the top of the MTV Base Official Naija Top 10 with his catchy hit “Limpopo”. The chart-topping singer joins VJ Ehis (@SpecialSlim) in the Top 10 studio to talk about his art and dissect the week’s chart and music news.

Further down the chart, former number one Davido sees his hit “Gobe” slip to number two after two weeks at the top of the Official Naija Top 10.

This week’s highest climbers include: Wande Cole – up three places to number 4 with “The Kick”; Iyanya, whose “Sexy Mama” moves up two places to number 3; and D’Prince, whose “Goody Bag” jumps two places from number 9 to number 7. 2Face’s “Dance Floor” slips one place to number 9, but sticking firm at number 6 is WizKid with “Azonto”, as is Flavour’s “Chinny Baby”, still at number 10.

This week’s Official Naija Top 10 premiered on MTV Base on NTA on Friday 21 June, and can be seen on MTV Base (DStv Channel 322) on Tuesday 25 June @22.00 WAT, on AIT on Tuesday 25 June @ 21.30 WAT, and on STV on Thursday 27 June May @ 18.00 WAT. Next week’s chart will be revealed on Friday 28 June on NTA @ 23.30 WAT.

Every week, the Official Naija Top 10 is put together by an elite panel of judges comprising of Nigerian broadcasters, music specialists and tastemakers, working with MTV Base to pick the winners and losers in the week’s chart. On the panel are Onos Ovueraye (Bella Naija.com), DJ Humility (Rhythm FM), DJ Jimmy Jatt, DJ Xclusive (Cool FM), Big Time (Rhythm FM), DJ Caise (The Beat FM), Toolz (The Beat FM) and Osagie Alonge (Nigerian Entertainment Today).

The MTV Base Official Naija Top 10: 21 June - 28 June 2013:

1.      Kcee - Limpopo
2.      Davido - Gobe
3.      Iyanya - Sexy Mama
4.      Wande Coal - The Kick
5.      Lynxxx - Eziokwu
6.      Wizkid - Azonto
7.      D'Prince - Goody Bag
8.      Darey - Asiko
9.      2Face - Dance Floor
10.    Flavour - Chinny Baby

For further information about The Official Naija Top 10 go to www.mtvbase.com, “like” us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MTVBaseVerified or follow us on Twitter @MTVBaseAfrica, using the hashtag #OfficialNaijaChart.

One of the country’s leading news organizations, Nigerian Entertainment Today has announced a major international partnership with popular news agency, Bang Showbiz.

The NET founder Ayeni Adekunle, who signed the deal with the Bang’s global marketing director, Masato Kamo on June 3, says the agreement, which will see both organizations exchange content, is a move that will expose Nigerian and African celebrities to a global audience, through Bang’s far reaching wire.

‘We’ve been experimenting with Bang, since they first contacted us many months back’, Ayeni says. ‘It started with them giving us their great content for our website thenet.ng. And after seeing the opportunities, I requested for a face-to-face meeting, which happened in London, last month.

‘Our offer was simple: we’d love to have all the great content from Hollywood, Bollywood, the UK and elsewhere. But we’d also love for the world to have access, through Bang’s network, to the works and lifestyles of great African celebs like D’Banj, 2face Idibia, Sarkodie, Omotola, Genevieve, Wizkid and others’.

The partnership means that The NET will now exclusively deliver daily, on all its platforms, global entertainment news courtesy Bang, to its millions of readers within and outside the continent; while Bang will deliver rich African news content supplied by The NET, to its subscribers in the UK, America and Asia.

‘BANG sees this as a tremendous opportunity to work with a leading African media company to develop a mutually beneficial content distribution channel’, says founder Rick Sky.

‘I always dreamed of getting a foothold in Africa. The continent is a wonderful marketing opportunity and I am convinced it is a great market for the very best entertainment news…’

BANG Global Marketing Director Masato Kamo added: ‘Nigeria has the highest distribution of Internet usage per capital in Africa and NET is an ideal partner positioned in a prestigious niche. We look forward to working together at both representing and expanding the coverage of African celebrities in our global news network.’

Founded in 1997 by Rick Sky, a former entertainment editor with The SUN, Daily Mirror and Daily STAR, Bang is a worldwide leader in entertainment news; supplying several organizations across the globe with breaking news in several languages. Bang currently reaches over 400 unique users every month.

The NET was founded in 2009 by former Encomium, The Punch and THISDAY journalist Ayeni Adekunle, ‘as a child of necessity’ to deliver accurate, reliable and up-to-the-minute entertainment news from Nigeria, to audiences wherever they are. NET is currently available on mobile, web and print, with a TV news service scheduled to launch later in 2013.

This is NET’s second content partnership in 2013. Earlier in February, the company announced a deal with Star Music – Nigeria’s premiere mobile music app.