Tributes have been pouring to Djene Djento who died suddenly of a suspected cardiac arrest in Dschang.

Djene Djento who rose to prominence in the early 80s with his popular song debroussailler travelled to the land of his ancestors on Wednesday, December 14, 2022.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that the legendary Makossa singer and composer was attending a function in Dschang when he suffered a heart attack.

Djene Djento had a brilliant music career alongside some heavyweights like Manulo and Salle John.

His passing comes to further sadden the world of Cameroonian showbiz, which has already been scalded by the disappearance earlier this week of Ekambi Brillant.

By Rita Akana

The renowned Makossa legend passed away on Monday, December 12, 2022 at the Laquintinie Hospital in Douala, aged 74.

Ekambi Louis Brillant succumbed to cancer after his return from a medical evacuation in Europe, according to sources close to his family.

Born on 18 June 1948, in Dibombari, a village near Douala, the Cameroonian international super star spent much of his childhood with his maternal grandparents in Djébalè (a suburb of Douala); it was there that his passion for music was born, listening to the pirogues singing on their way back from the sea.

In 1962, he passed the entrance exam and was accepted at the Lycée Général-Leclerc in Yaoundé and under the guidance of Mr. Zane Daniel – a French music teacher he learned how to play the guitar.

 In 1971, at the age of 23, he abandoned his studies to join Les crack’s as a guitarist. They performed in the nightclub Le Domino. He then entered the music competition launched by the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (ORTF) whose jury was composed, among others, of Manu Dibango and Francis Bebey. He won the competition and subsequently released his first single entitled “Jonguèlè la Ndolo”, which recorded 20,000 sales.

When he arrived in France in 1972, he signed with label Phonogram and released his second 45 rpm record which was also a success with 25,000 sales. In 1975, he broke his contract with Phonogram and joined Slim Pezin with whom he released the album Africa Oumba and the track “Elongui” which was later covered by several other African and European artists. This album recorded a record of about 4 million sales. This was followed by collaborations with Slim Pezin as producer for the tracks “Soul Castel” and “Musunguédi”.

By Rita Akana with additional files from Wikipedia

The tune to the song ‘Happy Birthday to you’ is used in many different languages around the globe. There are also a number of other birthday songs, some of which use the same tune but different words.

‘Happy Birthday to you’ was written in 1893 by Patty and Mildred Hill, teachers in Louisville, Kentucky in the USA. The tune came from another song called ‘Good Morning to All’.

The English version: Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear——-, Happy Birthday to you has attracted the attention of Tambendiparrah Tanyi, a native of Kembong, Eyumojock Sub Division in Manyu for ages!

The German trained Engineer and international IT-Consultant who also moonlights as an instrumental author of the Ejagham book – “Nguid Ejagham – Echort Ejagham” and a promoter of Ejagham culture and tradition recently put pen to paper and developed the Ejagham version of the song.

Here goes the lyrics and also do not forget to join Cameroon Concord News on face book and watch how Eyum Anneh performs the birthday song live  

Bhere Oyibhambenghe Ofuh Obliih

1) Bhere Oyibhambenghe Ofuh Obliih

Bhere Oyibhambenghe Ofuh Obliih

Bhere Oyibhambenghe Ofuh Obliih obha ah!

Bhere Oyibhambenghe Ofuh Obliih

2) Oreh Ngyah ebheg Eyih!

Oreh Ngyah ebheg Eyih!

Oreh ngyah ebheg Eyih-ih!

Oreh ngyah ebheg Eyih!

3) Titih Ngya ya, Ngya gya!

Titih Ngya ya, Ngya gya!

Titih Ngya ya, Ngya mbeeh eyah!

Titih Ngya ya, Ngya gya!

Angela Lansbury, the scene-stealing British actress who kicked up her heels in the Broadway musicals “Mame” and “Gypsy” and solved endless murders as crime novelist Jessica Fletcher in the long-running TV series “Murder, She Wrote”, has died. She was 96.

Lansbury died Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles, according to a statement from her three children. She died five days shy of her 97th birthday.

Lansbury won five Tony Awards for her Broadway performances and a lifetime achievement award. She earned Academy Award nominations as supporting actress for two of her first three films, “Gaslight” (1945) and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (1946), and was nominated again in 1962 for “The Manchurian Candidate” and her deadly portrayal of a Communist agent and the title character’s mother.

Her mature demeanor prompted producers to cast her much older than her actual age. In 1948, when she was 23, her hair was streaked with gray so she could play a fortyish newspaper publisher with a yen for Spencer Tracy in “State of the Union.”

Her stardom came in middle age when she became the hit of the New York theater, winning Tony Awards for “Mame” (1966), “Dear World” (1969), “Gypsy” (1975) and “Sweeney Todd” (1979).

She was back on Broadway and got another Tony nomination in 2007 in Terrence McNally’s “Deuce,” playing a scrappy, brash former tennis star, reflecting with another ex-star as she watches a modern-day match from the stands. In 2009 she collected her fifth Tony, for best featured actress in a revival of Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit” and in 2015 won an Olivier Award in the role.

But Lansbury’s widest fame began in 1984 when she launched “Murder, She Wrote” on CBS. Based loosely on Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple stories, the series centered on Jessica Fletcher, a middle-aged widow and former substitute school teacher living in the seaside village of Cabot Cove, Maine. She had achieved notice as a mystery novelist and amateur sleuth.

The actress found the first series season exhausting.

“I was shocked when I learned that had to work 12-15 hours a day, relentlessly, day in, day out,” she recalled. “I had to lay down the law at one point and say `Look, I can’t do these shows in seven days; it will have to be eight days.‘”

CBS and the production company, Universal Studio, agreed, especially since “Murder, She Wrote” had become a Sunday night hit. Despite the long days — she left her home at Brentwood in West Los Angeles at 6 a.m. and returned after dark — and reams of dialogue to memorize, Lansbury maintained a steady pace. She was pleased that Jessica Fletcher served as an inspiration for older women.

“Women in motion pictures have always had a difficult time being role models for other women,” she observed. “They’ve always been considered glamorous in their jobs.”

In the series’ first season, Jessica wore clothes that were almost frumpy. Then she acquired smartness, Lansbury reasoning that, as a successful woman, Jessica should dress the part.

“Murder, She Wrote” stayed high in the ratings through its 11th year. Then CBS, seeking a younger audience for Sunday night, shifted the series to a less favorable midweek slot. Lansbury protested vigorously to no avail. As expected, the ratings plummeted and the show was canceled. For consolation, CBS contracted for two-hour movies of “Murder, She Wrote” and other specials starring Lansbury.

“Murder, She Wrote” and other television work brought her 18 Emmy nominations but she never won one. She holds the record for the most Golden Globe nominations and wins for best actress in a television drama series and the most Emmy nominations for lead actress in a drama series.

In a 2008 Associated Press interview, Lansbury said she still welcomed the right script but did not want to play “old, decrepit women,” she said. “I want women my age to be represented the way they are, which is vital, productive members of society.”

“I’m astonished at the amount of stuff I managed to pack into the years that I have been in the business. And I’m still here!”

Source: AP

This is a celebrated French Cameroun polygamist that even other polygamists from the Ocean Division in the South Region of La Republique du Cameroun disapprove of his ways.

He hails from the South region just like the renowned Professor Joseph Owona a former Biya regime cabinet minister who lives in three homes right next to one another, with each of his two wives getting their own space.

On Tuesday 27 September 2022 in Lekoundje in Ocean Division in the South Region, this notable got married to four wives and the unconventional family opened the doors for an unprecedented peek inside their wedding ceremony.

Cameroon Concord News understands this French Cameroun Casanova will rotate every night among them so that each wife gets to sleep with him.

By Rita Akana

Hollywood newcomer Barack Obama was awarded an Emmy for narrating his Netflix documentary series “Our Great National Parks,” the Television Academy announced Saturday.

The former two-term US president had already won a pair of Grammy Awards — for audio versions of his memoirs “The Audacity of Hope” and “Dreams from My Father” — so he now only needs an Oscar and a Tony to complete the estimable EGOT.

According to an Entertainment Weekly tracker, only 17 people have achieved an EGOT, including Mel Brooks, Whoopie Goldberg, Audrey Hepburn and — most recently — Jennifer Hudson.

One other president had already been awarded an Emmy — Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 — although his was an honorary award.

After leaving office in 2017, both Obama and his wife Michelle have each written best-selling memoirs, and in addition to their non-profit foundation, have established a production company which has inked a major deal with Netflix, reportedly worth tens of millions of dollars.

Their company’s first documentary for the streaming service, “American Factory,” won the Oscar for best documentary feature and an Emmy for directing, though the awards went to the filmmakers and not to the Obamas themselves.

Obama’s successor to the presidency, Donald Trump, did not win an Emmy for his reality competition show “The Apprentice,” although he was nominated twice.

Obama also received the Nobel Peace Prize after his 2008 presidential election win, for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

Source:  AFP

 “Stand by!” shouts the director as actors take their marks. The lighting blinks on. The film crew snaps into action after the order to hurry up.

It’s a sunny day in Tiko, a locality in southwestern Cameroon and a local film crew is gathered to shoot for an action series.

The series which spotlights the ills of drugs and human trafficking is called “Boss Daughters” and it’s expected to be premiered in November.

“We have been filming for like four days now and truly this one is a wonderful experience because I love the story line,” said 32-year-old Jackson Stephanor, director of the show.

Stephanor hopes that “Boss Daughters” will provide new impetus to Collywood, the affectionate nickname for Cameroon’s film industry.

Cameroon’s cultural diversity, tree-lined suburbs and sweeping landscapes, deserts and lakes have increasingly dotted the silver screen in recent years, serving as the backdrop for several popular movies in the country.

“For the last four years, the Cameroon film industry has really evolved. We have moved from the sales of DVDs and CDs to online,” said 31-year-old Montana Peters who has produced and acted in several movies.

The Central African nation has seen considerable growth in its film productions with over 300 movies produced since 2008, said Coach Obi who joined the industry as an actor in 2006.

In recent months, a number of Cameroonian productions have been attracting attention from streaming company Netflix, which has so far purchased four Cameroonian movies.

“We are making some strides,” Obi told Xinhua while shooting an advert in a studio in Buea, chief town of Southwest region which has become the center of film productions in the country.

The growth and popularity of the industry has won the admiration and attention of young Cameroonians like Josiane Shengang, 21, Angel Ntube, 21 and Elyon-Bright Ayuk, 22 who raised funds to produce “Boss Daughters”.

“We are just students who are working so hard to bring themselves up there. I will like to take my career as far as above the sky, as far as I can go,” said Ntube.

“We are trying to hit the limelight. We are all young ladies and we have the talents,” added Ayuk.

There are no official statistics on how much the industry has contributed to the Cameroonian economy, but it has undoubtedly created jobs in a country with an economy that relies mainly on oil and agriculture, said Obi.

“Some persons are cashing out. It might not be that much but really producers are making that effort,” Obi said.

Still, Peters said the industry has a long way to go before its actors and directors have a chance to make millions of dollars.

“We don’t actually have platforms where we can sell our movies. That is where the big problem is. That is where Nigeria is ahead of us,” Peters said, adding that a team was working on a platform that will soon air Cameroonian movies online for Cameroonians to stream.

Fueled by low budgets, whirlwind production schedules and little professional collaboration, the industry is still young but has great potentials, said film editor and producer, Musi Gakehmi.

“As it’s growing, as people are trusting production, more money is going to come in and we are going to have better equipment. Our equipment is not the Hollywood kind of equipment as of now, so whatever we have we make sure that we maximize its use,” Gakehmi said.

“In the next ten years, I see Cameroon film industry like one of the biggest film industries in Africa. It is going to be really big because they are working and achieving a lot,” said Shengang. ■

File photo taken on May 26, 2022 shows the scene of film shooting of Boss Daughters in the Southwest region, Cameroon. (Xinhua/Kepseu)

File photo taken on May 26, 2022 shows the scene of film shooting of Boss Daughters in the Southwest region, Cameroon. (Xinhua/Kepseu)

File photo taken on May 25, 2022 shows Jackson Stephanor (1st L), director of Boss Daughters, giving instructions to actresses while shooting the film in the Southwest region, Cameroon. (Xinhua/Kepseu)

File photo taken on May 25, 2022 shows Jackson Stephanor (1st L, Front), director of Boss Daughters, giving instructions to his cameraman while shooting the film in the Southwest region, Cameroon. (Xinhua/Kepseu)

File photo taken on May 25, 2022 shows the scene of film shooting of Boss Daughters in the Southwest region, Cameroon. (Xinhua/Kepseu)

File photo taken on May 25, 2022 shows Jackson Stephanor (1st R), director of Boss Daughters, giving instructions to his cameraman while shooting the film in the Southwest region, Cameroon.

Culled from Xinhuanet

Three Michael Jackson songs have been removed from streaming sites following longstanding claims that they are sung by someone else, Sony and the late singer’s estate said Wednesday.

“Breaking News,” “Monster” and “Keep Your Head Up” appear on the 2010 compilation album “Michael,” released a year after Jackson’s death from a drug-induced cardiac arrest.

Some fans have long argued that the vocals on the tracks actually belong to an American session singer by the name of Jason Malachi, claims Sony has denied.

The record company and Jackson’s estate said, however, that they had decided to remove the songs “as the simplest and best way to move beyond the conversation associated with these tracks once and for all.”

They added in their joint statement that the removal had nothing to do with whether the songs were authentic.

“Nothing should be read into this action concerning the authenticity of the tracks — it is just time to move beyond the distraction surrounding them,” they said.

Sony and Jackson’s estate added that the seven other tracks on “Michael” would remain available.

On its release in December 2010, “Michael” was billed as containing unreleased songs that were “recently completed using music from the original vocal tracks and music created by the credited producers.”

Jackson is supposed to have written and recorded them with producers Edward Cascio and James Porte in 2007.

But ardent fans and even some Jackson family members expressed skepticism and Sony was forced to release a statement saying it had “complete confidence” that the vocals belonged to Jackson.

Skeptics said the songs were actually sung by Malachi who, according to TMZ, admitted in a 2011 Facebook post that that was the case.

His manager later denied it, claiming the post was faked, reports said.

In 2014, fan Vera Serova launched a class-action lawsuit in California against Sony, Jackson’s estate, Cascio and Porte accusing them of lying to consumers.

An appeals court ruled in favor of Sony and the estate in 2018, removing them from the suit. Serova then appealed to California’s supreme court, according to TMZ.

The judges did not take a stance on whether Jackson had actually sung the songs, and the controversy has not gone away.

Source: AFP