ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT - The African Mirror

May

03

2021

South Africa’s romcom revolution and how it reimagines Joburg

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

NETFLIX went live in South Africa on 6 January 2016. The arrival of the subscription-based content streaming service was a game-changer for the country’s film and television industry, as it had been for other countries. PIER PAOLO FRASSINELLI, Professor, Communication and Media Studies, University of Johannesburg At about the same time – in 2015 and 2016 – there was another turning point for South Africa’s film industry: the arrival of a new, commercially successful genre, the black romantic comedy. For the first time, the country’s black filmmakers were able to make an impact at the box office – and go…

Apr

24

2021

By The African Mirror

“My Octopus Teacher” wins Africa’s only Oscar at historic night

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

SOUTH Africa's first ever Netflix original documentary, "My Octopus Teacher", has won an Oscar. The film, directed by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed, won in a strongly contested category at the 93rd Academy Awards held in Los Angeles today. In her acceptance speech, Ehrlich said: In many ways this really is a tiny personal story that played out in a seaforust at the very tip of Africa, but on a more universal level I hope that it provided a glimpse of a different type of relationship between human beings and the natural world." "Nomadland", the story of van dwellers in…

Jun

12

2021

By The African Mirror

Tems, Wizkid and more nominated for BET Awards

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

MPHO RANTAO NIGERIAN starlet Tems has bagged her first British Entertainment Television (BET) Award nomination. The singer, real name Temilade Openiyi, has been nominated alongside six other artists for BET”s Best New International Act: Viewers Choice, which is usually awarded during the pre-show airing of the BET Awards. Previous winners of this award include South Africa’s Sho Madjozi, Zimbabwe’s Shasha and Wizkid, who has had the most wins in the Best International Act category as an African artist. Tems rose to the top of the music charts with her debut EP, For Broken Ears, but is popularly known for her…

Jun

11

2021

By The African Mirror

The magnificent Mabi Thobejane, master South African drummer

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

WINTER chokes the highveld in Johannesburg, South Africa, and takes from me, from our entire culture, a mighty mountain. Gabriel Mabi Segwagwa Thobejane, the diminutive tower of rhythmic power, has left us: a man who did not so much play the drums, but became The Drum. DAVID COPLAN, Professor Emeritus, Social Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand He reportedly suffered a stroke at the age of 74 and passed on 3 June 2021. Even though he was both master and a creator of South Africa’s indigenous sonic archive, Mabi, as we all came to call him, was also a showman and…

Jun

10

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Coolest kid’ Elsa Majimbo covers Native

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

IT’s Elsa Majimbo’s world and we’re all just living in it. The online sensation has been revealed as the digital cover star for Native’s June issue, in a feature that sees the “coolest 19-year-old on the planet” in eccentric braiding styles and colourblock-styled outfits. Titled “Into Elsa’s Multiverse”, Native magazine chats to Majimbo on her massive rise online, her conversations with the likes of Olympian Usain Bolt, Rihanna and Naomi Campbell; and how she has been using her newfound fame to carve a space for young, rising African women like herself. View this post on Instagram A post shared by…

Apr

23

2021

By The African Mirror

Cardi B files papers to secure ‘Bardi Beauty’ rights

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER RAPPER Cardi B is making “money moves”, to quote her single ‘Bodak Yellow’. According to TMZ, the rapper’s company Washpoppin Inc. has taken legal steps to secure the rights to the phrase “Bardi Beauty”, which could potentially be used across a variety of the rapper’s merchandise and other products. Cardi’s company originally filed the papers on April 16, but news reports only surfaced when her company updated the court documents which both TMZ and Complex viewed. The listed products from the application to secure the rights to the phrase include cosmetics, fragrances, hair care preparations, non-medicated skin…

May

12

2021

By The African Mirror

Thuso Mbedu, Barry Jenkins speak about making slavery drama ‘The Underground Railroad’

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

LISA KEDDIE “MOONLIGHT” director Barry Jenkins switches to the small screen for an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Underground Railroad", a project the Oscar winner says he feared from the start. The 41-year-old read a copy of Colson Whitehead's harrowing tale before its 2016 release, and was enamoured by its young protagonist, Black slave Cora, and her quest for freedom from a Georgia plantation. FILE PHOTO: Director Barry Jenkins attends the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon in Beverly Hills, California, U.S. February 4, 2019. REUTERS/David McNew/File Photo Set in the 19th century Deep South, the 10-part series, released on…

Jun

08

2021

By The African Mirror

Snoop Dogg takes executive role at Def Jam

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

RAP superstar Snoop Dogg is joining the legendary hip hop label Def Jam Recordings as executive creative and strategic consultant, the U.S. company has announced. Def Jam, owned by Universal Music, has been home to some of hip-hop's most pioneering artists, from Public Enemy to LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys. Its current roster includes Justin Bieber, Rihanna and Kanye West. Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr, professionally known as Snoop Dogg, will be based in Los Angeles and report to Universal Music Group Chairman and Chief Executive Sir Lucian Grainge and Def Jam interim Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Harleston. As…

Jun

06

2021

By The African Mirror

From apprentice to fashion icon: Ivory Coast’s Pathe’O, 50 years on

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

LOUCOUMANE COULIBALY WHEN 20-year-old Pathe Ouedraogo left his Burkina Faso village in 1969 in search of a better life in neighbouring Ivory Coast, his dream was to return with a bicycle and a transistor radio to prove he had made it. He was too thin to work on a cocoa farm, so took the chance to learn how to make clothes instead - a decision that propelled him to fashion stardom. "The most accessible job at the time was to be an apprentice tailor," said Ouedraogo. The man mostly known as Pathe'O is now celebrating a 50-year career during which…

May

30

2021

By The African Mirror

‘It means everything’: Mary J. Blige inducted into NYC’s Apollo Walk of Fame

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

MARY J. Blige has nine Grammy Awards, eight multi-platinum albums, two Academy Award nominations, and now, the singer-songwriter has a plaque on the Apollo Theater's Walk of Fame. Blige, also known as the queen of hip-hop soul with millions of fans across the globe, was inducted into the Walk of Fame on Friday just outside the legendary theater in Harlem. Wearing a sparkling green and black jumpsuit, Blige personally thanked her fans and announced a release date of June 25 for a new documentary that celebrates the 25th anniversary of her second album "My Life." This was a return home…