IDOLS WEST AFRICA!!!

Some Idol West Africa contestants!!!


Riel Uzamere


Somto Akunyili (So far has the best voice)


Aku Maurice


Simon Hindan


Atimi Margaret Deinere

I can't believe I am yet to reported about the biggest thing happening in the whole of West Africa right now. Idols West Africa has arrived and the search begins for the first West African Idol – a solo singing sensation who will be able to represent West Africa at home and abroad.

Idols West Africa is open to any person between the ages of 18 and 30 (as of 1 January 2007), who are residents of the West African countries of - Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Saint Helena, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

Castings have already been done in Lagos, Abuja, Calabar and Ghana and 24 finalists have already been Selected by the three JUDGES comprising of Nigerian Afro beat musician Dede Mabiaku, Ghanian singing sensation Nana Abrewa and American born-Nigerian based radio DJ, Dan Foster.

All 24 contestants are presently holed up in a hotel at Ikeja in lagos, having voice lessons and its like. Goodluck to all of them. Maybe the best 'man' win!


Idols West Africa airs 24 hours on DSTV channel 37. Check it out!

FOUR FRENCH NATIONALS SHOT DEAD IN SAUDI ARABIA

Four French nationals, some of them Muslims, were shot dead in Saudi Arabia on Monday February 26th in what appeared to be a militant attack, the state's television said.

It said a group of eight French nationals came under fire near the town of Tabuk in the northwest of the vast desert country as they were heading to the holy city of Mecca for a pilgrimage.

Two of the group died at the scene and two others died later in hospital, the report said. The group include four women and a child but it was not clear if they were among the dead.

I usually don't like reporting sad events but this caught my attention. The killing happened in SAUDI ARABIA, a country which is supposed to be the most peaceful Arab nation in the world. I have a British friend who works in an oil comapny over there, I hope they don't get to him. But does this mean that this country is no longer safe for foreigners? It's a sad world we live in.

May the souls of those departed live in perfect peace. Amen.

EDDIE MURPHY STORMS OUT OF OSCAR AWARD.

Is Eddie Murphy a sore loser? After failing to nab the award for Best Supporting Actor, loosing to Little Miss Sunshine’s Alan Arkin, Murphy tried to brush off the loss, telling reporters, "It's fine. It happens. It's OK."

But clearly it wasn't. The sore looser was visibly upset and shortly after loosing, Murphy, 45, and girlfriend Tracey Edmonds left the show and didn’t return. He didn't bother to stick around and watch his Dreamgirls castmates perform and he also wasn't there to see his co-star, Jennifer Hudson, pick up her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

But really, did Eddie expect to win? For what? His performance in Dreamgirls wasn't spectacular. Maybe he deserved a nomination, barely, but a win? Lai lai. I have absolutely no idea why "The Golden Globes' gave him a win. I'm glad he lost. Sore losers don't deserve to win! By the way Eddie, how do you expect things to go well with you when you dumped your pregnant girlfriend? Get real and take responsiblity for your actions. Looser!!!

DARE ART ALADE IS MARRIED!

Dare Art Alade is married. Beautiful! I've been hearing the gist for a while now but refused to report it until I heard it From the horse's mouth. Nice! He said it himself at the Thisday Award show where he was one of the MC's. Cute! Dare is married. Incredible! What's better than finding someone who completes you? Great feeling! Dare is 25/26 years old? Wow! Couldn't he have waited till he was at least 30? Mind your own business Linda.

Congrats to Dare and his new wife Deola who got hitched on the 17th of February 2007. Happy married life!!!

LEMAR AND DIANA ROSS IN NIGERIA.

Lemar Obika


Diana Ross

How could I have forgotten to tell y'all? Lemar and living legend Diana Ross were in Nigeria just this last weekend. They both performed at the 12th Annual Thisday Awards, which held on the 24th of February, 2007, at the Muson Center, Onikan, Lagos.

I saw it live...hmm...I mean...I saw it live on television. I'd had absolutely no idea that such a thing was about to happen in Nigeria. Had I known, I would have gone to the end of this world to find a pass to that show. Common people, Lemar in Nigeria and I didn't see it live? That's so unfair. And Diana Ross? That's even more painful.

Lemar's performance
Lemar said that was his first time of coming to Nigeria in fifteen years. That's a sad thing to happen. I'm not routing for Lemar anymore. He should come home more often. He churned out most of his popular music and the crowd consisting mostly of the 'elites', couldn't have enough of him.

His performance was beautiful. He sang all his popular songs and there was absolutely no alteration in his voice. You would think he was miming, but my boy wasn't. He performed live. Incredible voice.

Diana Ross's performance
Her band performed for about 5minutes before she came on stage singing her hit song and my all-time favourite Diana Ross song, 'I'm coming out'. The crowd went wild immediately she appeared on stage. She rightfully received a standing ovation. After that, she performed two songs from 'The Supremes' album. She sang songs from her 60's, 70's, 80's album. The people watching her live had a great time, especially the women. They just couldn't stop singing along, dancing and clapping in excitement. It was a beautiful thing to see. Diana would have felt really appreciated and loved.

But something happened that shouldn't have happened. At a point during her performance, a man clad in agbada carrying a bunch of flowers tried to climb the stage to give the flowers to Diana but she stopped him with a hand gesture, and said 'you have no right to come on my stage' then she continued singing. The embarrassed 'big man' disrespectfully threw the flowers on stage beside Diana, who still paid no attention to him. Somebody from her crew came to pick the flowers up. After that particular performance, Diana left the stage. Now, I don't know if she left the stage because of the incident or if she'd been planning to leave after that performance but anyway, she came back on stage and performed 'I will Survive'. I guess somebody backstage must have told her she hadn't performed the particular song Nigerian's love to bits. That was her final performance and she left the stage amidst shouting, clapping and hailing from the crowd.

Did I also tell you that she changed 5 times? And the speed at which she changed was alarming, especially because her clothes were tight fitting/figure hugging. She's been performing for over 45 years now, she must know the tricks of changing outfits fast. Anyway, apart from the flower incident, everything went well. It was her first time in Nigeria, Let's hope she had a good time.

After the two performances, I went to bed. Congrats to everyone who won an award. By the way, does anyone know how I can contact Lemar? He looks like the man I saw in my dream. lol

MORE 2007 OSCAR PICTURES!!!

Mark Wahlberg and Partner


James Bond's Daniel Craig


Sasha Cohen (Borat) and partner


Mr and Mrs. Spike Lee


Ellen Degeneres's better half, Portia De Rossi


Kate Winslet


Anne Hathaday


Djimon Hounsou


Eddy Murphy and Tracy Edmond


Best Actor, Forest Whitaker


J Lo and Mark Anthony


Leonardo Dicaprio


Jada, Jaden and Will Smith

2007 GRAMMY AWARD PICTURES!!!

Cate Blanchett


Nicole Kidman


Kirsten Durnst


Actress, Cameron Diaz


Naomi Watts


Rachel Weizs


Actress, Jessica Biel


Jennifer Lopez


Beyonce


Best Support Actress nominee, Abigail Breslin


Gywneth Paltrow


2006 Oscar Best Actress, Reese Witherspoon


Jodie Foster

Best Support Actress, Jennifer Hudson

Best Support Actor, Alan Arkin

Best Actress Nominee, Penelope Cruz

Best Support Director, Martin Scorsese


Best Actress, Helen Mirren.


From the pictures above, who is the best and worst dressed of them all? I think J.Lo is best dressed and Cameron Diaz worst dressed. No? Let me know who you choose.

2007 OSCARS WINNERS.

The 2007 OSCARS has come and gone and below is the list of nominees and winners. There's a slight difference with the winners of the Golden Globes but the nomination is almost thesame. And like always I'll point out the ones I agree and don't agree with.

Best picture
The Departed (I agree)
Babel
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

Best actor
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland (I agree)
Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling, Half NelsonP
eter O'Toole, Venus
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness

Best actress
Helen Mirren, The Queen (I agree)
Penelope Cruz, Volver
Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet, Little Children

Best supporting actor
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine (Don't agree)
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond (My choice)
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Mark Wahlberg, The Departed

Best supporting actress
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls (I agree)
Adriana Barraza, Babel
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

Best directing
Martin Scorsese, The Departed (I agree)
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Babel
Clint Eastwood, Letters From Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Paul Greengrass, United 93

Best foreign language film
The Lives of Others, Germany (Don't have an opinion)
After the Wedding, Denmark
Days of Glory (Indigenes), Algeria
Pan's Labyrinth, Mexico
Water, Canada

Best adapted screenplay
William Monahan, The Departed (Don't have an opinion)
Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer and Todd Phillips, Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Alfonso Cuaron, Timothy J Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, Children of Men
Todd Field and Tom Perrotta, Little Children
Patrick Marber, Notes on a Scandal

Best original screenplay
Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine (I agree)
Guillermo Arriaga, BabelIris Yamashita and Paul Haggis, Letters From Iwo Jima
Guillermo del Toro, Pan's Labyrinth
Peter Morgan, The Queen

Best animated feature film
Happy Feet (I agree)
Cars
Monster House

Best art direction
Pan's Labyrinth (Maybe)
Dreamgirls
The Good Shepherd
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
The Prestige

Best cinematography
Pan's Labyrinth (Haven't seen any of the movies)
The Black Dahlia
Children of Men
The Illusionist
The Prestige

Best sound mixing
Dreamgirls (I agree)
Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Flags of Our Fathers
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Best sound editing
Letters From Iwo Jima (I agree)
Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Flags of Our Fathers
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Best original score
Babel, Gustavo Santaolalla (I agree)
The Good German, Thomas Newman
Notes on a Scandal, Philip Glass
Pan's Labyrinth, Javier Navarrete
The Queen, Alexandre Desplat

Best original song
I Need to Wake Up from An Inconvenient Truth, by Melissa Etheridge (Don't agree)
Listen from Dreamgirls, by Henry Krieger, Scott Cutler and Anne Preven (My choice)
Love You I Do from Dreamgirls, by Henry Krieger and Siedah Garrett
Our Town from Cars, by Randy Newman
Patience from Dreamgirls, by Henry Krieger and Willie Reale

Best costume
Marie Antoinette (I agree)
Curse of the Golden Flower
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
The Queen

Best documentary feature
An Inconvenient Truth (Don't have an opinion)
Deliver Us From Evil
Iraq in Fragments
Jesus Camp
My Country, My Country

Best documentary (short subject)
The Blood of Yingzhou District (Don't agree)
Recycled Life
Rehearsing a Dream (My choice)
Two Hands

Best film editing
The Departed (Don't agree)
Babel
Blood Diamond (My choice)
Children of Men
United 93

Best makeup
Pan's Labyrinth (Don't agree)
Apocalypto (My choice)
Click

Best animated short film
The Danish Poet (Don't have an opinion)
Lifted
The Little Matchgirl
Maestro
No Time for Nuts

Best live action short film
West Bank Story (Maybe)
Binta and the Great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea)
Eramos Pocos (One Too Many)
Helmer & Son
The Saviour

Best visual effects
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Totally agree)
Poseidon
Superman Returns



Congrats to my girl Jennifer Hudson; she deserved to win.

I'm glad Eddy Murphy didn't win. He didn't deserve to, not with his performance in Dreamgirls. Didn't know what the hoppla was about in the first place.

So happy that Happy Feet won Best Animation and not Cars. You know Cars beat Happy Feet at the Golden Globes. Happy Feet is a must watch.

Forest Whitaker deserved his win. How many of you have seen LAST KING OF SCOTLAND? Amazing acting! You wouldn't believe he's an American, he took acting to another level.

I haven't seen 'The Queen', but I know Helen Mirren is a fantastic actress. She has my vote anyday.

I don't personally think that Merryl Streep deserved a nomination for Best Actress for her role in "Devil Wears Prada'. There was nothing fantastic about her acting in the movie. I've seen better acting from her.

Picture of the year I think Should have gone to 'Babel' even though I agreed with 'Departed' going home with the award. I haven't seen Departed but I hear it's a great movie, but how many of you have seen Babel? Which movie do you think should have won?

Martin Scorsese deserved the best director award he got. But I'm almost sure the director of Babel deserved it more. But you know Martin has never gotten an Oscar, even though he had been nominated severally. Well, he did a good job in Departed but did a better job in 'The Aviator' and he didn't win an Academy award then. I guess they just wanted to make it up to him.

What's your assessment of the 2007 Academy Awards? Send me your thoughts.

WORLD'S LUCKIEST WOMEN!!!

NAME: Vera Wang
OCCUPATION: Designer
WHY IS SHE LUCKY? The only female Designer in the world who is a billionaire. The world loves Vera Wang. What's luckier than that?


NAME: Condeleeza Rice
OCCUPATION: US secretary of state
WHY IS SHE LUCKY? She's a black woman involved in the decision making of everything that concerns not just America, but the world. Give me that kind of power anyday



NAME: Katie Holmes
OCCUPATION: Actress
WHY IS SHE LUCKY? She is married to the man of her dreams. She always fantasised about marrying Tom Cruise and she did. How many of us get to marry the man of our dreams? Lucky girl!



NAME: Mariah Carey
OCCUPATION: Singer
WHY IS SHE LUCKY? She's blessed with the most beautiful voice in the world. There are others who have the voice like Mariah, but someone with a better voice is not yet born



NAME: Halle Berry
OCCUPATION: Actress
WHY IS SHE LUCKY: For being blessed with such incredible and rare beauty


NAME: Elin Nordegren
Occupation: Model
WHY IS SHE LUCKY? She's married to Tiger Woods. Who would not switch places with her in a heartbeat?


NAME: Marilyn Monroe
OCCUPATION: Actress/Singer
WHY IS SHE LUCKY? Most talked about celebrity of all time. 45 years after her death, she's still being talked about and alot of women try to be like her.


NAME: Kate Middleton
OCCUPATION: Sales representative
WHY IS SHE LUCKY? She's dating the future king of England, Prince William. Who doens't want to be queen?


NAME: Faith Hill
OCCUPATION: Country Singer
WHY IS SHE LUCKY? She is said to have the happiest marriage in Hollywood. Please note I said HOLLYWOOD. A happy marriage in Hollywood? What a lucky girl.



NAME: Jill Scott
OCCUPATION: Singer
WHY IS SHE LUCKY? No drinking, no smoking, no dope. She's the happiest singer in America. She is happy with life. You have that in American entertainment? Then you are a lucky person



NAME: Heidi Klum
OCCUPATION: Model/Enterpreneur
WHY IS SHE LUCKY? A successful modeling and TV career. And she's married to a man who worships the ground she walks on.



NAME: Beyonce Knowles
OCCUPATION: Singer/Actress
WHY IS SHE LUCKY? Blessed with great beauty, beautiful voice, incredible body, talent, so much money and is world's most popular female singer. On top of that she's dating Jay Z. Let's stop here. I'm beginning to get jealous. How can one girl have it all? Lucky her



NAME: Kelly Clarkson
OCCUPATION: Singer
WHY IS SHE LUCKY? Won 1st American Idol competition. Multi-Platinum selling Albums, international fame and loads of Awards



NAME: Agbani Darego
OCCUPATION: Model
WHY IS SHE LUCKY? First Black African Miss World, First Black African Face of L'oreal. What's bigger than breaking records and making History?



NAME: Jennifer Hudson
OCCUPATION: Singer/Actress
WHY IS SHY LUCKY? Relatively unknown in 2006. She blew up in 2007, winning the BAFTA, GOLDEN GLOBES and an OSCAR in her first movie role, the DREAMGIRLS. Now, she's on the lips of everyone. Lucky!!!



NAME: Gisele Bundchen
OCCUPATION: Model
WHY IS SHE LUCKY? Everybody in the fashion industry wants this woman to represent their products. She's the most sought after model in the world and the richest.



NAME: Oprah Winfey
OCCUPATION: TV Personality
WHY IS SHE LUCKY? The most influential woman in the world. The world cares about what she has to say, the world wants to hear what she has to say, the world does what she says. And she's blessed more lives than any other human living.


NAME: J K Rowling
OOCUPATION: Anthor
WHY IS SHE LUCKY? There are so many writers in the world. She's the only Billionaire amongst them. She became a Billionaire just from thinking of a story; the Harry Potter series. Lucky woman.


NAME: Melinda Gates
OCCUPATION: Philantropist
WHY IS SHE LUCKY? She is married to the world's richest man, Bill Gates. Need I say more?


NAME: Oluchi Onweagba Orlandi
OCCUPATION: Model
WHY IS SHE LUCKY? Won the first M-NET Face of Africa, has an incredible modeling career and is married to Italian designer, Luca Luca. Who, by the way, just bought a mansion in the US worth $4million. And she's the madam of that mansion? I want to be Oluchi. lol


NAME: Victoria Beckham
OCCUPATION: Singer/Socialite
WHY IS SHE LUCKY? She's married to the world's most famous Sportsman and one of it's finest, David Beckham. Let's be honest here, who doesn't want to be married to David Beckham? Lucky woman!

Well, these are some of the women that I think have been blessed in one way or the other in their lives. Women who, sometimes not through their own doing, have had all their wishes and dreams come true. Women who have things other women only dream about. There are so many other women I know who fit in this category, I just can't think of anyone else at the moment. When I do, I'll load it up for you guys. I know some of you won't agree with my assessment, depending on what is of importance or of essence to you. Maybe wealth and marrying a rich man is not luck, but you can't deny that these woman have one thing or the other we all wished we had. They are all special in their own way. We all are special! If there's someone you think deserves to be on this list, do send me their names.