Nigerian Afrobeats stars Burna Boy and Wizkid both won their first Grammy Awards at the 63rd edition of the ceremony which also caused a Twitter fight between Cardi B and Candace Owens. Meanwhile, Zack Snyder’s Justice League has enjoyed positive reactions since its release. The UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League Quarterfinals draws have been announced as well.
All these stories and more are included in our weekly news recap for today, 22 March 2021.
Lead stories of the week
Burna Boy and Wizkid win Grammy
Burna Boy, Nigeria’s biggest Afrobeats singer has won the Best Global Music Album award for “Twice As Tall”. He beat fellow nominees Antibalas, Bebel Gilberto, Anoushka Shankar and Tinariwen to the prize. After his big win, Burna Boy received congratulations from the likes of Ben Murray-Bruce, Femi Anikulapo-Kuti, several of his colleagues and even Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
Wizkid, another Nigerian superstar, also won a Grammy award for his contribution to Beyonce’s “Brown Skin Girl” in the Best Music Video category; which was one of the four awards Beyonce went home with that night. You can learn more about the award winners here.
Cardi B and Candace Owens Twitter fight
The Grammys also brought some drama with it stemming from Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” stage performance. The singers had performed a clean version of their raunchy single but many viewers had problems with their suggestive dances.
Candace Owens, an American conservative author, political commentator, and activist, was one of such critics. She went on FOX News to slam Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion and was thereafter mocked by the “Bodak Yellow” crooner.
However, it quickly turned into a fight after Owens insisted that Cardi B was encouraging young women to strip themselves of dignity as well as ruining American culture and values. The rapper dragged former US First Lady, Melania Trump into the issue before also including Candace’s husband and her brother. You can get a complete rundown of the fight in this video:
Emmanuella wins Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice award
Nigerian entertainers were not done winning last week. After the Grammys announcements, child-comedienne Emmanuella Samuel emerged as the winner of the Favorite African Social Media Star category at the just concluded Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice awards.
On winning the award, Emmanuella congratulated herself via an Instagram post and also thanked her fans. Other popular online figures that were vying for the award with her were; Nigerian counterparts Ikorodu Bois, Kenyan internet comedienne Elsa Majimbo, South African television presenter and online personality Bonang Matheba, Ugandan children dance group the Ghetto Kids, and South African-born online magician Wian Van Den Berg.
Kanye West $6.6 billion net worth story, how it happened
Kanye West, another entertainer who grabbed a gramophone at the Grammys, also made the news this week for something else. The rapper was said to be worth about $6.6 billion in March 2021 – growing his net worth by almost $5 billion within a year or less. The news came after UBS Group AG – a financial services company and multinational investment bank – released a report valuing Mr West’s sneaker and apparel business Yeezy at between $3.2 billion and $4.7 billion.
However, while there were claims that the rapper had become the richest black person in America, Forbes released a statement debunking the new net worth claims. According to the magazine, Kanye West is still worth around $1.8 billion. The UBS report was based on projected future earnings, Forbes clarified.
Oscars award nominees
The Oscar nominations 2021 for the 93rd Academy Awards were announced on Monday, 15 March 2021. Streaming platform Netflix dominated the nominations list and its studio’s production “Mank” got 10 nods. Amazon’s “Sound of Metal” and A24’s “Minari” earned 7 nominations each with “Nomadland”, “Judas and the Black Messiah”, “Promising Young Woman”, and “The Trial of the Chicago 7” scoring six nominations.
Other entertainment stories
Michelle Obama gushes over Viola Davis
Prolific actress, Viola Davis was nominated in the Best Actress category for her role in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” at the upcoming Oscars as well. She had also recently gotten high praise from a former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, who revealed that she is excited about the actress playing her character in the coming series “The First Lady”.
Ray Fisher speaks on his role as Cyborg in Zack Snyder’s Justice League
Zack Snyder’s Justice League is one of the most talked-about film topics since its release on 18 March 2021 and Ray Fisher, the actor that played Cyborg in it, also made an interesting revelation.
In a tweet, he mentioned that the character having an absent father is a part of the story that touched him personally as a Black man. For Fisher, his biggest takeaways from the latest Justice League release is family and reconciliation.
Ray Fisher has always been vocal and since July 2020, he has criticised the executives who worked on the 2017 Justice League film. This includes director Joss Whedon, producers Jon Berg and Geoff Johns, DC Films chief Walter Hamada, and Warner Bros.’ parent company WarnerMedia as well.
Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez break up rumour
Celebrity couple. Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez have debunked reports that they are breaking up over a ‘cheating scandal’, calling such reports ‘inaccurate’. The couple released a joint statement that indicates that there may be issues but that they are still together.
“All the reports are inaccurate. We are working through some things,” part of their statement reads. A source that is close to them also claimed that their issue had nothing to do with Madison LeCroy who was rumoured to have had an affair with Rodriguez.
