AFRICAN ARTISTS DOING BIG WORLDWIDE...

Akon

1. Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam (born April 16, 1973), professionally known as simply Akon, is a Senegalese American R&B and hip hop recording artist, songwriter, record producer and businessman. He rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of "Locked Up", the first single from his debut album Trouble.According to Forbes, Akon grossed $13 million in 2011, $21 million in 2010, $20 million in 2009 and $12 million in 2008. Forbes ranked Akon 80th (Power Rank) in Forbes Celebrity 100; in 2010 and 5th in 40 Most Powerful Celebrities in Africa list; in 2011. Billboard ranked Akon No. 6 on the list of Top Digital Songs Artists of the decade.He has worked with numerous performers such as Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Eminem, Whitney Houston, Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Gwen Stefani, Snoop Dogg, Wonder Girls and many more artists. He has had five Grammy Awards nominations and has produced many hits for artists such as Lady Gaga, Colby O'Donis, Kardinal Offishall and Leona Lewis. Lady Gaga and T-Pain are two artists who were given their chance at fame by Akon.



Idris Elba

 Idris Akuna Elba born 6th september 1972 ,from a  father, Winston, is Sierra Leonean and worked at a Ford factory, and his mother, Eve, is Ghanaian and had a clerical job.we have all seen Idris in various roles given by the biggest directors in Hollywood.some of the movies Idris acted are :Daddies little girls by Tyler Perry , 28 days later , this is Christmas , the unborn ,obsessed ,Takers ,Losers ,In June 2012, Elba portrayed the captain of the Prometheus.


Dapo Daniel Oyebanjo (popularly known as D'banj, born June 9, 1980), is a Nigerian singer-songwriter and harmonica player. He has won several music awards including the awards for Best African Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2007, Artist of the Year at the MTV Africa Music Awards 2009. and BET Awards of 2011 for Best International Act; Africa. He adopted the stage name D'banj, a combination of his first name Dapo and his surname Oyebanjo. D'banj is currently best known internationally for his 2012 summer hit Oliver Twist, an uptempo dance fusion of Afro-Beats and electronic dance music that topped the African charts 2011 and was a top 10 hit in the UK singles chart in 2012 reaching #2 on the UK R&B chart.In June 2011, D'banj along with his producer Don Jazzy of the Nigerian record label, MoHits Records, were both signed to Kanye West's G.O.O.D Music record label as artiste and producer respectively. On June 9, 2011, D'banj wrote on his Twitter account, @iamdbanj, "Just like yesterday, myself and my brother did Tongolo. 7 years later, Mo'Hits signs with GOOD Music. Best Birthday gift ever. God thank you."



4.Nneka Lucia Egbuna (born 24 December 1980) is a Nigerian-German hip hop/soul singer and songwriter. She sings in both Igbo and English.Nneka is the daughter of an Anambra state Nigerian father, and German mother She was born and raised in Warri, in the Delta region of Nigeria, and went to the primary school of the Delta Steel Company, then the secondary school at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Nneka relished the experience of singing from an early age in her school and in the church choir. After relocating to Hamburg, Germany, at the age of 18, she pursued a career in singing alongside a degree in Anthropology at the University of Hamburg. She now divides her time between Nigeria and Hamburg.
 
5.K'naan born Keinan Abdi Warsame (Somali: Keynaan Cabdi Warsame, in 1978) is a Somali Canadian poet, rapper, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist. He rose to prominence with the success of his single "Wavin' Flag", which was chosen as Coca-Cola's promotional anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Besides hip-hop, K'naan's sound is influenced by elements of Somali music, Ethio-jazz and world music. He is also involved in various philanthropic initiatives.
Born in Somalia, K'naan spent his childhood in Mogadishu and lived there during the Somali Civil War, which began in 1991. His aunt, Magool, was one of Somalia's most famous singers. K'naan's grandfather, Haji Mohammad, was a poet. He is Muslim, and his name, Keinan, means "traveller" in the Somali language. He spent the early years of his life listening to the hip-hop records sent to him from America by his father, who had left Somalia earlier. When he was 13, K'naan, his mother, and his three siblings, older brother, Liban, and Sagal left their homeland and joined relatives in New York City, where they stayed briefly before moving to Canada, to the Rexdale neighbourhood of Toronto, where there was a large Somali community and his family still resides. There, K'naan began learning English, partly by listening to hip hop albums by artists like Nas and Rakim. Despite the fact that he could not yet speak the language, the young K'naan taught himself hip-hop and rap diction, copying the lyrics and style phonetically. He then also began rapping. While growing up in Rexdale, K'naan lost many friends to murder, suicide, prison and deportation.
K'naan married Deqa, a pharmacy technician, with whom he has two sons, born in 2005 and 2007. They divorced before he started touring for the 2010 FIFA World Cup with Coca-Cola.

 
 6.Michael Kiwanuka is a British soul musician who is signed to Communion Records. He has been compared to Bill Withers, Randy Newman, and Otis Redding, as well as Van Morrison and the Temptations. In January 2012 he won the BBC's Sound of 2012 poll.Kiwanuka grew up in Muswell Hill, North London, the son of Ugandan parents who had escaped the Amin regime. He attended Fortismere School, leaving there in 2005 after completing his A-Levels. He was regarded as a very friendly and modest student with a huge circle of friends and a great appreciation for all different genres of music. He could regularly be seen in school concerts and recitals playing bass guitar and jazz guitar. He then went on to study at the School of Media, Arts and Design at the University of Westminster.Kiwanuka supported Adele on her Adele Live 2011 tour.
 
 7.P-Square are a Nigerian R&B duo composed of identical twin brothers Peter and Paul Okoye.
In 2009, P-Square released their fourth studio album, Danger. The album features collaborations with 2face Idibia, J Martins and Frenzy. The first single called "Danger" is a hip hop song with cutting synths and a frog bass baseline similar to an Eminem song. The video affirms this with the presence of clowns and staggered movements in front of the camera reminiscent of comical videos by Eminem. They are also known for the close resemblance which the twins have to American R&B Superstar, Usher Raymond.
On 4 April 2010, P-Square was named the Artist of the Year at the KORA All Africa Music Awards in Ouagadougou, Burkina-Faso while they were in London for a Concert at the Troxy, and they will receive a whopping sum of $1 Million Dollars as the Award Winners, in Ebebiyin City.Now there hitting the box by doing tracks like chop my money alongside Akon and Beautiful onyinye alongside one of the biggest MC Rick Ross.




 
 8.Tumi Molekane, born in 1981 in Tanzania, is a popular musician from South Africa. A poet, musician and MC, he is famous as the lead singer/rapper of Tumi and the Volume.
Boitumelo (Tumi) Molekane was born in Tanzania and lived in exile with his parents until 1992 when he arrived in Soweto.
While also a noted poet, Molekane has made his fame with the Hip Hop band Tumi and the Volume, backed by the musical component of Mozambiquean band 340ml.
Molekane's poetry has been published in a variety of countries. His project, The Tao of Tumi was completed in 2001. In 2006, he was published in the American literary journal, Subterranean Quarterly.
 
9. Djimon Hounsou was born in Cotonou, Benin, in 1964, to lbertine and Pierre Hounsou, a cook.^[2] He emigrated to Lyon in France at the age of thirteen with his brother, Edmond. In 1987, he became a model and established a career in Paris. He moved to the U.S. in 1990.Director Tim Story recently mentioned to IGN that if he was to do a third Fantastic Four movie, he would like to have Hounsou as the Black Panther. In November 2008, it was announced that Hounsou will be providing the voice of the Black Panther in the upcoming animated series of the same name. David Jaffe, Game Director of God of War, expressed interest in seeing Hounsou portray the hero and main character, Kratos, in a possible upcoming movie based on the hit video game of the same name. However, it is believed that plans for the movie have been scrapped because nothing has been said of the movie since 2005. He has signed on to play Abdiel in the film version of John Milton's Paradise Lost with Benjamin Walker and Bradley Cooper.we all know him well from Blood Diamond.

 
 10.Nnaji was born in Mbaise, Imo State, Nigeria and grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. The fourth of eight children she was brought up in a middle class environment. Her father worked as an engineer and her mother as a teacher. She attended the Methodist Girls College Yaba before heading onto the University of Lagos. While at the university Genevieve began auditioning for acting jobs amongst the many Nollywood projects. Nnaji started her acting career as a child actress in the then popular television soap opera Ripples at the age of 8.In 1998 at the age of 19 she was introduced into the growing Nigerian film industry with the movie “Most Wanted”. Her subsequent movies include Last Party, Mark of the Beast and Ijele. In 2010 she starred in the award winning film Ijé: The Journey. Nnaji has starred in over 80 Nollywood movies. Genevieve Nnaji is considered to be one of the best paid actresses in Nollywood^. In 2004 she signed a recording contract with EKB Records, a Ghanaian record label, and released her debut album One Logologo Line,a mix of R&B, Hip-Hop and Urban music.