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Multiplatinum South African R&B artist Elaine is untouchable in her lane.

Elaine's New Single Is Simply Stellar

Multiplatinum South African R&B artist Elaine has premiered the smooth and sensual all-female ensemble music video for her new single 'Right Now'.

South Africa's multiplatinum artist Elaine has shared the music video for her latest single "Right Now" — and it's a definite must-see! True to form, the production on "Right Now", once again, proves that Elaine is untouchable in her lane and the stunning music video seals her mark.


"Right Now" tells the story of a lovers tiff with Elaine choosing to spend a night out with her girlfriends instead of moping over the lover's quarrel. Elaine is still pining over her lover, yet chooses the intimacy of friendship and bonding over a strip club outing. The music video is a stark aesthetic shift from her previous works "Risky" and the entry-breaking "You're The One", the latter being admittedly ahead of its time. Additionally, the "Right Now" music video is poles apart from the innocence of "You're The One". Shot in Cape Town's idyllic setting, "Right Now" is the type of music video bound to have fans glued to their screens from start to finish.

What stands out, even more, is Elaine's evident growth and the maturity of her sound. On creating "Right Now", a process Elaine described as a purging of sorts, the 22-year-old artist told Apple Music:

"....When I got to the studio that day, I had no idea what I wanted to say, but I heard the beats. It awakened something in me. I felt like I was carrying so much baggage. I was carrying baggage that wasn't even mine. I was carrying around things that didn't even belong to me. And when I made that song and I recorded that song, it felt like, you know what? From now on, I'm letting everything go, focusing on myself, focusing on what it means to be me, focusing on what it is to be a woman, focusing on what it means to be an artist and only that. And everything else, unfortunately, I can no longer continue carrying people's baggage. Not any longer, no. Things come and go. Feelings change. And healing is not an overnight process."


Read: Elaine's Hit Single 'You're The One' Reaches Multi-Platinum Status

Elaine has been on her musical winning streak since entering the music scene in 2019. Her EP Elements clinched her Apple Music's most streamed female spot towards the tail end of 2020. She, subsequently, kicked off 2020 with a multiplatinum certification for her single "You're The One", a feat often difficult for South African musicians to attain. In 2020, Elaine's untenable talent and success got her signed to Columbia Records in the U.S. She then went on to confirm the signing with the release of her "Risky"music video.

This time around, eager fans were anticipating Elaine's debut album release. The Pretoria-raised star confirmed that her debut album had been in the works for over a year, according to Apple Music. "...It's been a very brutal process for me, but it's been beautiful. Yeah, the internalisation of it all and actually realising that it's no longer a dream, I'm actually living this dream. It's happening. I'm responsible and everything that happens from now on forward depends on me," she shared.

Elaine's music videos are known for amassing millions of views, and "Right Now" is sure to follow suit.

Watch the "Right Now" music video.


Elaine - Right Now (Official Video)www.youtube.com

Events
Photo by Mohau Mannathoko for Unsplash

Fun Places in Accra, Ghana to Visit This Weekend

From Karaoke at The Woods to Outmosphere Festival, Accra is packed with places to have fun.

Gather your squad for some midweek karaoke, go Kizomba dancing at Afrikiko, or drive down to Prampram for Outmosphere Festival.

Whatever your choice of fun is, here is a list of places to visit this weekend in Accra, Ghana.

Karaoke at The Woods

The Woods is a bar and lounge located at Osu that features a cozy and charming space for events perfect for an intimate night out with your partner or a hangout with friends. On Thursday, The Woods will be hosting their Karaoke Night, and it’s the perfect excuse to sing covers of your favorite hits, while enjoying good food and drinks from The Woods’ delectable menu.

Date: Thursday, 1st June, 9pm

Venue: The Woods, Osu

Cost: Free

Kizomba Night at Afrikiko

Afrikiko is one of those must-visit places while in Accra. It’s a restaurant and bar well known for their midweek events—the most notable being their popular Kizomba dancing event hosted by Kizomba Ghana. Participate, learn, or just watch others dance the night away, led by an experienced Kizoma dance tutor.

Date: Thursday, 1st June, 7pm

Venue: Afrikiko

Cost: Free

Movies at Silverbird Cinemas

Silverbird Cinemas is West Africa's biggest cinema chain, with two locations in the premier malls of Accra. You can catch your favorite actors from Hollywood, Nollywood, and even Bollywood on the big screen, or watch local Ghanaian productions from top movie houses in the country. Box office hits like Fast X,Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and The Little Mermaid are currently screening as well, so if you haven’t seen them yet Silverbird is the place.

Date: Friday 2nd June - Sunday 4th June, 10am – 9pm

Venue: Accra Mall, West Hills Mall

Cost: Tickets starting from GHS50

Grand Opening of Mad Club

If you’re looking for a club event to go to this weekend, Mad Club Accra will be having its grand opening this Friday. On the bill to provide sounds is renowned Nigerian disk jockey and afrobeats hitmaker DJ Neptune, among others. Accra is a city that takes its nightlife seriously, so you can trust that Mad Club’s event will be an epic affair.

Date: Friday 2nd June, 12am

Venue: Mad Club, East Legon

Rooftop Sip & Paint

Sip & Paint Ghana will be hosting an event this Saturday, 3rd June. Participate in a fun painting class while enjoying complimentary wine, finger foods, and art supplies.

Date: Saturday, 3rd June, 8pm

Venue: Arrital Ghana, Airport Residential

Cost: GHS200

Pickup Soccer at Lizzy’s Sports Complex

Lizzy Sports Complex is an all-in-one sports facility comprising four top quality grass and astro turf soccer pitches, and other facilities including a swimming pool, a spacious lounge, a sports bar and grill. It was founded by renowned Ghanaian born French soccer player Marcel Desailly, and it’s the go-to location for friends who are looking to play a few quick games of five-aside pick up soccer.

Date: Saturday, 3rd June - Sunday 4th June, 9am-9pm

Venue: Lizzy Sports Complex, East Legon

Cost: Call to book

Wine Tasting at Vinakoper Wine Festival

For the wine lover, Vinakoper will be hosting the Vinakoper Wine Festival this weekend. Try out 15 different wines from Slovenia and participate in a wine tasting and pairing workshop, for an affordable flat rate.

Date: Saturday, 3rd June - Sunday, 4th June, 10am-11pm

Venue: Accra Polo Court

Cost: Tickets for GHS50

Outmosphere Festival

Outmosphere is an eco-friendly festival designed to empower and connect a generation of hybrid thinkers, self-starters and innovators with shared culture and passion for community driven agenda and creativity. The event is held at a different location each time, and this time around it’s taking place at Prampram, a coastal town 45 minutes away from Accra, known for its beautiful beaches and rich cultural heritage.

Date: Saturday, 3rd June - Sunday 4th June, 1pm-3am

Venue: Prampram, exact venue TBA

Cost: Tickets for GHS100-250



Music
Photo courtesy Black Major.

Bongeziwe Mabandla on his Latest Album, 'amaXesha,' and Returning to Love.

The South African singer-songwriter revisits timeless themes on an album dedicated to giving love a second chance.

When we last left Bongeziwe Mabandla, he was shutting the door on a relationship. Very literally, since his previous album, iimini, ended with the sound of a door slamming closed. But then the pandemic happened and, like so many of us, the singer found himself wondering about – perhaps, maybe – trying to open it back up again. You know, just in case this was how life was going to be forever.

“I was in that space of understanding that a lot of us revisit old relationships, old loves, trying to make something that didn't work, work,” he tells OkayAfrica. It was in this way that amaXesha, Mabandla’s latest album, began taking shape. The singer sees it as a continuation of iimini, his third album, which was released just as the lockdown in South Africa began. Rather than halt his songwriting, Mabandla, with a word of encouragement from his manager, kept on with the business of mining his thoughts and feelings about the things that were coming up for him during this time of enforced solitude.

AmaXesha means ‘the times,’ in his vernac of Xhosa, and the album roots itself in the idea of returning to a relationship over a span of time – reinvesting in it, fighting for it, giving it a second chance, even if there is no guarantee it will all work out again. “I just thought about the complexities of that; of going against everything that you said and trying to make a very turbulent relationship work again, and what it actually means,” says Mabandla. “What does it mean, relearning somebody, learning to forgive, finding love where there's a lot of pain?”

Let there be nothing that will again separate us

It’s how songs like “noba bangathini” came about. “That song means, no matter what anybody says, I think we are destined to be together,” says Mabandla. Or, as he sings, "makungabikho nto eyophinde isahlule (let there be nothing that will again separate us)." Like with iimini, he writes about his own experiences and there is much introspection as we hear Mabandla’s inner dialogue, the reckoning he goes through, and the desires he wrestles with, over folk-based and pop-tinged songs.

While the album may have been created during the insulated time of lockdown, it has an expansiveness to it. For Mabandla, who lives in Johannesburg but spent most of the early pandemic in Mozambique where he recorded with Correia-Paulo, writing lyrics that are able to extend far beyond his own experience is a skill he honed while studying acting at AFDA. His ability to reach into his own inner depth opens the door for others to do the same; to ask, where do I really belong?

Bongeziwe Mabandla - noba bangathini (official visualizer)www.youtube.com

AmaXesha captures that yearning for true connection, a yearning the pandemic only made more acute. As Mabandla’s fourth album, it’s connected to his previous work through little sonic trademarks, snippets of conversations – oftentimes between him and his producer Tiago Correia-Paulo – that are left in for us to hear. On 2017’s Mangaliso, the album that earned him the first of two SAMAs, you can hear Correia-Paulo at the beginning of “Ndibuyile” say, ‘Want to get closer to the mic?’ and then later on, his encouragement, ‘That’s it, little bit better.’

Now, as if responding years later – a progression of their working partnership – we hear Mabandla’s words to Correia-Paulo: ‘Should I try one last one? I’ve got one last one in me.’ He’s referring to a take, and keeping this in the recording lets us in on trust that exists between them. As much as this is Mabandla’s work, it’s also a feat of Correia-Paulo’s dexterity. He draws out elements from the singer: a sped-up vocal here, a drawn-out note there. They’ve worked together on the last three of Mabandla’s albums, shaping what some call the “Afro indie” sound of his songs – a mix of folk, soul, R&B, rock, and electronic that’s earned the singer a well-respected place in a country where amapiano and house rule the day.

“He’s definitely one of my closest friends,” says Mabandla of Correia-Paulo. “I feel like he has that sensibility of what an artist needs and what an artist doesn’t need. His way of working is not so much the technical, but it goes to understanding an artist’s sensitivity and emotive quality.” The trust between artist and producer creates the kind of atmosphere that allows Mabandla to relax and show us what he’s feeling, even when it’s a difficult song to share.

From "Zange" to "Thula"

There’s usually always one song on his albums that causes him a little bit of apprehension to share. With iimini it was “zange,” on amaXesha, it’s “thula,” a song that features Mabandla’s mother singing a lullaby, which was taken from a Whatsapp voice note she sent to him. The song is about his mother, “and some of the deep differences we have,” he says. One doesn’t have to know the details of their relationship, or what they don’t see eye-to-eye on to understand the conflicting emotions that can come with a mother-child relationship.

Mabandla, who was born in the Eastern Cape town of Tsolo, was raised without his father. “It's hard because I've always been very close with my mother,” he says. “So to have so many problems and issues between us, and to even put that into the music, it feels like a betrayal.” During a recording of “thula,” he changed one of the lyrics so that it “landed a little bit softer.” But it wasn’t really true to how he was feeling. He came back into the studio and found the original lyric had been placed back in the song by his producer. The old take “just worked better.”

An image of the singer looking at the camera as a sheet of purple blows across him.Bongeziwe Mabandla studied acting but has made his name in music for over the course of a decade and four albums.Photo courtesy Black Major.

To be sure, Mabandla has learned that diminishing the intensity of feelings doesn’t help. “With ‘khangele’ on my previous album, it was like, I have this song that I want to write and it’s about this feeling of loneliness that I sometimes get, which is super intense, but I'm not sure if I want to tell people that I'm actually a very lonely person,” he says. He wrote one verse, but felt it seemed a bit too needy, a bit too exposing. On the day he went to record the song, the loneliness made itself all too known.

“I was in the studio and I had that conversation with myself: ‘Dude, if you're not gonna go there, it’s never gonna land. If you’re not willing to risk it, it’s just gonna be, like, melodies and sound.’ And I took the risk, and had to write the second verse in the studio, and I decided like, I'm just gonna describe it – the chaos, the confusion, the mess. The loneliness.”

And it paid off. “Because people saw themselves in that song so much,” he says. They still see themselves in his music. Mabandla’s fans span the world, his tour dates cover from London to Mexico City, and he recently taped the single “sisahleleleni(i)” for the esteemed Colors show. As a nod to his roots, he also recently recorded covers of Brenda Fassie’s “Too Late for Mama” and Shwi No Mtekhala’s “Ngafa,” – the former being one of his favorite songs of all time.

Bongeziwe Mabandla - sisahleleleni (i) | A COLORS SHOWwww.youtube.com

“It’s one of those songs you listen to and never really digest the lyrics,” he says. Turns out, the maskandi classic has “the most heartbreaking lyrics that you can ever imagine.” Mabandla relates to their simplicity; of a man who believes he is dying for nothing, wondering out loud what has become of his relationship. South African artists, from Shwi to Simphiwe Dana and Thandiswa, are the base of Mabandla’s inspiration, with the likes of Frank Ocean, Solange and Bon Iver providing additional layers, too.

“I really have to give gratitude to the young me,” says Mabandla. “When I started out, I wasn’t sure about anything. It’s amazing how I've been able to build a career from knowing so little about music.” He chuckles when he thinks back to the days he’d walk around Melville in Joburg, guitar on his back, just trying to make a name for himself. The plan was to be an actor, and although he still takes on roles (he has a part in Baloji’s Omen, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival), music is the door he chose to walk through over a decade ago. It’s one his fans are ever grateful he decided to keep open.

Music
Image courtesy of the artist.

7 Essential Facts About Nonso Amadi's Debut Album

Nonso Amadi explores his musical journey and tells us 7 Essential Facts about his new album, When It Blooms.

Any discourse involving Nigeria’s alternative music scene can’t be complete without mentioning Nonso Amadi.

The 27-year-old singer, songwriter, and producer is a key figure in Nigeria’s “alté renaissance” of 2015-2018, a period responsible for the widespread emergence of a crop of alternative artists, producers, and creatives firmly establishing their niche and creating room for themselves and their art in an industry heavily dominated by afrobeats-centered music, sounds, and aesthetics.

2015 saw Nonso release his first project, the Alone EP, officially launching a career that would quickly usher the young talent into the limelight. Following the EP, his subsequent single “Tonight” put Nonso on the map. The self-produced afro-R&B song established Nonso as one of the leading new voices in Nigerian R&B and alternative music, transcending the niche listenership of the alté community and successfully taking the emergent R&B sound mainstream, in a similar fashion to what the likes of R&B veteran Banky W accomplished.

The next few years saw him release a string of singles, high-profile features with the likes of Mr Eazi, Simi, Kwesi Arthur, and more, and two EPs, all capped by a three-year hiatus. In 2022, he returned to the music scene with “Foreigner.” the lead single off the subject of this story: his debut album When It Blooms. The release of “Foreigner” marked the beginning of a brand new career run, backed by label partners UMG Nigeria, Def Jam Records and Universal Music Canada, in a freshly-inked record deal.

Now close to a decade after the singer’s first output, When It Blooms is finally here. It’s a 15-track project packed with blends of afrobeats, R&B, and more, laced with sonic and lyrical references to his Lagos ties. Nonso’s debut album represents everything he is and has become—a “sonic globetrotter” highly=assertive in his sound and identity.

OkayAfrica spoke to Nonso Amadi about his debut album When It Blooms, and he gave us 7 Essential Facts about the project below.

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Style
Photo by Kendrick Galeri.

Ayobami Oladapo On Winning AMVCA Design For The Stars Runway Competition

The Nigerian designer aims to use the prize money to create her first collection.

Ayobami Oladapo only found out about the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards fashion competition two days before the deadline. Luckily, that was still enough time to throw her hat into the ring. “I [got] an email a few weeks later that said, ‘Congratulations, you’ve been selected.’ Oladapo’s last-minute move resulted in her winning the second-ever edition of the AMVCA Design For The Stars Runway competition–providing a much-needed boost for her burgeoning fashion label, Statement by Bami. “It’s amazing,” she tells OkayAfrica. “I know for sure that winning this is going to set me up how I want [it] to.”

Created in 2014, the AMVCAs recognize and celebrate the ardent work of TV personalities and content creators across the Nigerian entertainment industry. Through its channel Africa Magic, founding parent company Multichoice has continued to build structures that uplift the industry, including introducing new categories to showcase Nigerian talent, such as the fashion competition, which it established last year.

The ninth edition of the AMVCAs culminated in a glitzy weekend affair over the 20th of May in Lagos. Among the big winners included Tobi Bakre taking Best Actor in a Drama, for Brotherhood; Osas Ighodaro taking Best Actress in a Drama, for Man of God, and Adeola Art-Alade taking Best Costume Designer, for The Real Housewives of Lagos (Reunion Episode).

Fashion has always played a role in the awards, and this year was no different. Celebrities dressed up in both regal and minimalist designs, showcasing their elaborate personalities in the process. Hosting a runway competition only further entrenches its significance at the AMVCAs. The maiden edition, which took place last year, saw Nigerian designers Obinna Omeruo, Sophie Chamberlain, and Felix Asuquo emerge as the winners. This year, Oladapo, who is known by her nickname of Bami, beat contestants like Emerie Udiahgebi of UDIAHGEBI, Emmanuel Goodnews of Just Icon, and Funmibi Olayinka. Last year’s competition was judged by a panel of high-profile fashion personalities, while this year’s was decided upon by public voting.

“I am still in shock, and honestly grateful to God for this win,” she says. “I think that what set me apart from my competitors and caught the eye of the audience was that my designs were simple, and at the same time exaggerated and making a statement. So, simple pieces, but exaggerated designs.”

StatementByBami creates womenswear pieces that juxtapose her brand’s style — easy silhouettes and fitted garments — with the personality of the clients she’s designing for. To that end, she creates highly fitted dresses, onesies and two-pieces, all made from vibrant colors and bold patterns. “My audience [is] women who are super stylists and know what they want. I mostly use silk, lace and a little bit of organza to design for my clients,” she says.

It’s no secret that one of the major challenges faced by fashion brands in Nigeria is access to funding, especially for young brands. This is why platforms like the AMVCAs are important in the grander scheme of things. Their impact allows designers to be expressive, with support as they progress in their journey. Coached by one of Nigeria’s most prolific designers, Ohimai Atafo of Atafo, the designers were tasked with producing a two-look collection consisting of one piece inspired by sponsor Pepsi’s official colors and one piece created for the AMVCA red carpet.

Another challenge facing young fashion brands is the issue of visibility and clientele recognition. With the AMVCAs being such a highly-anticipated event broadcast across a major channel, young designers taking part in the runway competition stand the chance to gain significant exposure. “My hope is that [this win] brings my brand out there, so that people can see me more, and see how creative I am,” Bami says. Although she has been building Statement By Bami for less than three years, she feels people are less willing to associate with brands of her size: “I do think there’s kind of discrimination against small brands but I’m grateful to platforms like this, since they also help us elevate our brands.”

Winning this competition doesn’t mean the difficulties of running a fashion label disappear. But for designers like Bami, it does provide more reason to continue to push on. “I would always advise people to put themselves and their brands out there. There are loads of challenges that come with it, but doing the work, improving oneself, and getting knowledge about the industry is one way to overcome such [things],” she says. And she’s only just beginning. Bami plans to release her first collection on the back of this win.

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