Entertainment
Africa Magic @20: MultiChoice Nigeria Rolls Out New Exciting Contents for Viewers’ Pleasure
In keeping to its promise of providing wholesome and mouthwatering programmes for its teeming viewers, Africa Magic, the home of movie entertainment, has unveiled a bumper chain of indigenous and international content for customers across DStv and GOtv channels for the new calendar year.
The exciting catalogue of content includes news, music, sports, reality TV shows, documentaries, drama series, movies, and children’s programmes, which were unveiled at the company’s Victoria Island office during a Content Discovery event.
Speaking at the well attended event held on Thursday, Executive Head of Content and West Africa Channels, MultiChoice Nigeria, Dr. Busola Tejumola, said customers should expect a new and diverse set of captivating and relatable indigenous stories across Africa Magic channels.
“It’s been 20 years of Africa Magic and Nollywood growing together, building global careers and talents. In 2003, we began the journey of telling authentic Nigerian stories on Africa Magic to build a platform where everyday Nigerians see themselves in relatable stories reflecting our culture. In 2023, we are celebrating 20 years of creating and telling Nigerian stories.
“This year, we intend to break more boundaries and find new frontiers in local storytelling. We look forward to ensuring Africa Magic remains at the forefront of Nigeria storytelling. We are adding 28 more series titles and 20 original Africa Magic movies for our customers, starting from April 2023. This year, we are also investing more in our indigenous productions across our language channels: Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo,” she said.
Touching on the investment by MultiChoice in growing content on its platform, Tejumola stated that Africa Magic launched with a single channel in Nigeria and has since expanded to a cluster of seven channels
“From April 2022 to March 2023, we had over 2,500 hours of production and licensed 10,000 hours of authentic Nigerian stories.We have stories in English, and indigenous languages, Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo, broadcast to over 42 African countries,” she added
Highlighting some of the new content customers can look out for, Head of Production, West Africa, MultiChoice Nigeria, Victor Aghahowa, said the new roll call of content includes, The Residence, Ripples; Igbo drama series, Ugwu and Iwe; Yoruba series, Apo (The Bag), among others.
He disclosed that Africa Magic will now premiere new 130 episode series every six months as opposed to 260 episode series every year. The list of new programmes also include brand new unscripted game show, ‘Mind and Body’, and new drama series, Simbirella.
Customers will also continue to enjoy local and international sport entertainment contents across SuperSport channels, including EPL, FA Cup, CAF Champions League, Europa League and UEFA Champions League matches and WWE specials.
Tamunosoye Karibi-George has been crowned Miss World Nigeria 2026 after emerging winner at the pageant’s grand finale held at Balmoral Hall, Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos, on Saturday, June 6, 2026.
The 26-year-old beauty queen, who represented Bayelsa State and hails from Port Harcourt, Rivers State, beat 19 other contestants in the competition themed “Pride, Power and Purpose.”
She succeeds Joy Mojisola Raimi, Miss World Nigeria 2025, and will represent Nigeria at the 73rd Miss World Festival scheduled to hold in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from August 9 to September 5, 2026.
Miss Karibi-George is the founder of Beyond Labels, an initiative that supports children with special needs and promotes inclusion and equal opportunities.
Joining Karibi-George in the top five were Dionne Chisom Nwagbo of Anambra State, who finished as first runner-up; Shuntell Ezomo of Edo State, who emerged second runner-up; Irene Irene of Abuja; and Gold of Rivers State.
Miss World Nigeria, organized by the Silverbird Group, is one of Nigeria’s leading beauty pageants and selects the country’s representative for the international Miss World competition.
Award-winning artiste – Davido – is scheduled to perform at FIFA’s World Cup 2026 Countdown Concert in Los Angeles, adding another major global platform to his career.
Davido will perform alongside Major Lazer, the music project led by producer Diplo.
FIFA announced the lineup on Instagram, noting that more special guests will be unveiled in the coming days.
The concert is part of FIFA’s first synchronised live entertainment series across the tournament’s three host nations: the United States, Canada and Mexico.
“Featuring Diplo’s Major Lazer and Davido, and more special guests to be announced soon,” FIFA wrote.
The Los Angeles show will open doors at 5:00pm PT, with the live broadcast beginning at 6:00pm PT.
The series is designed to link audiences across the host countries, with simultaneous live performances streamed from Mexico City and Toronto.
FIFA said the event will stream globally across its digital platforms, including an exclusive livestream on TikTok.
Full concert and behind-the-scenes footage will be available on VuMe Live the following day.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup begins June 11, 2026.
Peabo Bryson has died at the age of 75. The singer was known for singing soul ballads, and particularly duets. In 1991, “Beauty and the Beast,” his duet of the title song from the Disney film with Céline Dion, became a massive hit. A year later, he and Regina Belle released “A Whole New World” from Aladdin, and it became the first song from an animated film to reach No. 1 on Billboard‘s Hot 100.
Bryson died Tuesday, June 2 surrounded by family, just days after suffering a stroke.
“We are tremendously moved by the outpouring of love, prayers and support from fans, friends, and colleagues around the world,” Bryson’s family said in a statement shared with PEOPLE. “While our hearts are broken, we find comfort in knowing how deeply Peabo was loved and how many lives were touched by his voice and his generous spirit. His legacy and music will live on for generations to come.”
Bryson was born Robert Peapo Bryson in Greenville, S.C., in 1951. “And, as far back as I can remember, I’ve always been into music,” he told Soul magazine in 1978. “It’s all I ever wanted to really deal with, and of course, like everyone else, I had to make that decision — I guess when I was around 14 — as to what I was going to get into, career-wise. Well, I’d thought about being a doctor or something like that, but I really felt that music was my thing.”
His mother was concerned: “She figured I’d turn into a drug addict or something like that!” he told the outlet.
Bryson began performing professionally as a teenager, singing backup with a local group called Al Freeman and the Upsetters, an outfit he described as “terrible” in the Soul interview. Freeman had trouble pronouncing Peapo, and Bryson began using the name Peabo instead.
Later, Bryson toured the Chitlin’ Circuit with Moses Dillard and the Tex-Town Display. Bang Records heard them perform and was impressed with Bryson. He released one album, Peabo, with the label in 1976 before moving to Capitol Records.His first Top 10 hit on the R&B chart was 1978’s “Reaching for the Sky.” In 1979, “Gimme Some Time,” his duet with Natalie Cole, hit No. 8 on the chart, a preview of his duet success to come. They released “What You Won’t Do for Love” a year later, and it reached No. 16. Bryson also had a Top 20 hit with “Minute by Minute,” a cover of the Doobie Brothers song. In 1980, he released his first duet with Flack, “Make the World Stand Still.” It hit No. 13 on the R&B chart. They would also release the duets “Love Is a Waiting Game,” “You’re Lookin’ Like Love to Me,” “I Just Came Here to Dance” and their most successful, “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love,” which reached No. 16 on the Hot 100. They also released the 1983 duets album Born to Love.
“I think the secret to a really good duet is that you have to fall a little bit in love with your duet partner,” Bryson told Tatler Asia in 2015. “I was very fortunate in finding a duet partner in Roberta Flack who really knew what a duet was and knew how to play to a person’s strengths and weaknesses equally. I learned how to do a great duet from working with Roberta Flack because she’s that great.”
In 1984, “If Ever You’re in My Arms Again” was Bryson’s first Top 10 single on the Hot 100. He released “Show & Tell” in 1989, and it hit No. 1 on the R&B chart; he scored another R&B chart-topper with 1991’s “Can You Stop the Rain.”
1991 also brought “Beauty and the Beast.” Initially, Dion had been chosen to sing the song solo, but execs worried that she was too new and wanted a more established artist. “When you’re a great singer like [Dion], oftentimes you find yourself in situations where you have to dial back,” Bryson told the CBC in 2017. “I learned that from doing duets. The key to it is to play to your duet partner’s strength and weaknesses equally. So essentially that renders into a situation where there are no weaknesses because you’re playing to them both equally.”
He said Dion was very tentative at first, but they slowly built a rapport in the studio.
He remembered: “I looked across at her, and she looked back at me and what went on from the point of becoming relaxed was extremely intimate. You can’t buy that. You can record it, though.”
Their duet became a massive success, reaching No. 9 on the Hot 100 and winning them both a Grammy. Bryson told the CBC, “I never ever got tired of listening to it.”
Disney turned to Bryson again for 1992’s “A Whole New World,” which he sang with Belle. Bryson and Belle had also worked together on the song “Without You” for the 1988 movie Leonard Part 6, and she wanted Bryson to join her on the track because she knew they worked well together.
“That ‘Whole New World’ concept… that is what really took us over the top,” Belle told ABC Radio in 2019. “Because when you think about it, a ‘whole new world’ can be ascribed to most… everything… that has made a difference in your life.”
Bryson added: “It’s a song that represents every hope and every promise that you will ever have. I sang it in South Africa for the first time they allowed Black South Africans to enter into the Miss South Africa beauty pageant.”
Their version of the song hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 and would remain the only song from an animated film to do so until “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Encanto in 2022. Bryson and Belle also won a Grammy.
He returned to Disney again in 1997 and sang “As Long As There’s Christmas” with Flack during the end credits of Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, a direct-to-video sequel.
Bryson at times felt dissatisfied with how the music industry prized youth over experience. He and singers like Flack were never played by MTV, which he believed was “detrimental” to the industry.
“I don’t think there’s anything I can’t do,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1994. “I see myself as a true Renaissance man. I don’t like one-dimensional concepts of myself.”In total, Bryson released 20 studio albums. He was an eight-time Grammy nominee.
Bryson suffered a heart attack in 2019 but made a full recovery.
Bryson welcomed a daughter, Linda, in 1968. He wed Tanya Boniface, a member of the British girl group The 411, in 2010, and they welcomed a son, Robert, in 2018.
