Mzansi Life & Style showcases the best that South Africa has to offer in terms of entertainment, fashion, lifestyle, culture, cuisine, travel, beauty and celebrity news. Subscribe to my website by adding your email address in the "follow" button below.
Rihanna recently released an official trailer, teasing her highly anticipated return to music as the headliner for the first ever Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show, taking place on Sunday, 12 February 2023.
With the Halftime Show just a few short days away, fans can get “Rih”-acquainted with all things Rihanna on Apple Music HERE and with the new Apple Music Sing fans can now sing their favorite Rihanna songs with adjustable vocals and real-time lyrics with multiple lyric views to help fans take the lead, perform duets, sing backup, and more.
The multi-year partnership between The NFL and Apple Music brings together the Super Bowl Halftime Show, the most-watched musical performance of the year, with Apple Music, which celebrates musicians, songwriters, producers and fans, and offers the world’s best music listening experience with a catalog of over 100 million songs, and immersive sound powered by Spatial Audio.
Apple revolutionized the music experience with iPod and iTunes, and continues the award-winning tradition with Apple Music.
This week I attended the launch of the new Samsung Galaxy S23 Series at Artistry in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. unveiled the Galaxy S23 Ultra, Galaxy S23+, and Galaxy S23, marking a new era of Galaxy’s ultimate premium phone experience. Samsung Galaxy’s most epic camera gives users more freedom to explore their creativity, like capturing truly cinematic Nightography videos with transformative artificial intelligence (AI). The Snapdragon® 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy unleashes a future-ready mobile gaming experience and powerfully sustained game play, supported by exclusive chipset enhancements made possible by Samsung’s close collaboration with Qualcomm. Galaxy S23 series’ new standard-setting innovations are housed within a striking design that advances Samsung’s sustainability commitment with the more recycled materials of any Galaxy smartphone.
“The most impactful technology is measured, not just by what it enables for people today, but also how it contributes to a better future,” said TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics. “Galaxy S23 Ultra and the entire Galaxy S series line-up are the new standard-bearers of a trustworthy premium smartphone experience that merges industry-leading innovation and future-forward sustainability.”
Tapfuma Makina, one of South Africa’s favourite news and sports anchors, has been announced as the new Ultimate Braai Master (UBM) host for Season 8 (S8).
Rhodes University scholar, Tapfuma Makina’s plans to continue on and study medicine after completing his BSc in Biochemistry and Microbiology changed direction after becoming a presenter on campus radio revealed a natural talent for storytelling.
Now, after almost two decades in radio and television, as well as hosting and presenting premieres and awards across sports, enterprise and entertainment, broadcasting is in his professional DNA.
His distinctive voice, familiar to many from HeartFM, Top Billing, eNCA and beyond, has captured many SA broadcasting highlights in recent years.
With exclusive access to high-end music, great concerts, documentaries and never-seen archived interviews, the global music streaming platform, QWEST TV, officially launched on DStv channel 330 recently.
Music lovers will now be able to access QWEST TV via the DStv bouquet (channel 330) as well as on the Showmax platform. The Channel will be included in all the DStv packages in 44 countries across the continent.
Available exclusively to DStv customers, the channels offering includes:
Exclusive concerts from legendary artists as well as Rising Stars from across the globe
Premium music documentaries
Archived artist footage
Unreleased interviews with music icons including Erykah Badu, Questlove, Salif Keita, Gregory Porter, Marcus Miller, Seun Kuti, Kamasi Washington and Fatoumata Diawara
Founded in 2017 by musical genius, the legendary Quincy Jones, alongside TV and music producer and programmer Reza Ackbaraly, Qwest TV plans to bring genre-agnostic musical content to the African continent.
Following the successful Cape Town edition, the highly anticipated Cotton Fest returns to Johannesburg and has a confirmed line-up.
Taking place in the inner city on Saturday, the 4th of February, the festival will once again merge both established and young emerging local talents performing live across three energy packed stages.
Founded to showcase the diversities in various popular music genres with the aim of fusing the gaps within the different local movements, the event platform also celebrates fashion and sport.
The Joburg Film Festival powered by Multichoice, taking place in the heart of Egoli from 31 January to 5 February 2023, is excited to announce the opening film, the Moussa Sene Absa directed masterpiece “XALE”.
Tickets for the 60+ films being screened across Gauteng are now on sale via the JFF website, www.joburgfilmfestival.co.za.
The festival will showcase some of the finest films from over 35 countries across the globe, including 20 African premieres and 27 South African premieres, and will run until Sunday, 5th February 2023 at various locations across the city.
The opening film XALE follows the life of Awa, a 15-year-old African schoolgirl who is happily living her teenage years alongside her twin brother Adama, who dreams of Europe. This beautiful Senegalese feature immerses the viewer into a storyline of family values, love, life and betrayal.
The Joburg Film Festival line-up includes films from South Africa, Tunisia, Brazil, Seoul, USA, Japan, Morocco and more, with a mix of feature films and documentaries showcasing stories that cross cultural boundaries.
The culinary panorama in the Mother City has been elevated with the opening of Urchin Restaurant, located at The Hyatt Regency Cape Town on Buitengracht Street.
There is a complexity to achieving true simplicity in a restaurant setting. It is an art. At Urchin Restaurant it is a beautifully and precisely choreographed ballet in which sustainable fresh fish and seafood are the prima and danseur. The hallmarks of the Urchin elemental ocean dining experience are underpinned by excellent, unobtrusive service, locally sourced and produced ingredients, and world class wine from a carefully curated wine cellar.
The Chef
Throughout his life, Chef Gerard van Staden has strived to achieve greatness within his chosen field, and so far, his personality and inquisitiveness have allowed him to achieve many great things in South Africa and abroad. Growing up in a single parent family in Zimbabwe, Gerard taught himself to cook out of necessity, not knowing that he was following a path which would eventually lead him to becoming acclaimed Chef of the Year on three occasions, alongside South Africa’s Number One restaurant in two different locations.
I’ve had the privilege of seeing the Ndlovu Youth Choir live on at least 3 separate occasions at corporate gigs, and each time they blew the audience away with their energy, audience interaction and sheer talent!
Image by Mishkah Roman-Cassiem
From humble beginnings, in the Moutse Valley, in rural Mpumalanga to performances at the 94th Academy Awards (Oscars) and across the globe, South Africa’s ever popular and most loved choir, Ndlovu Youth Choir were recently invited to perform at theAmerica’s Got Talent All-Stars competition in Los Angeles earlier this month. The Choir’s exemplary performance was broadcast on NBC Eastern time in the USA on Monday, 23 January 2023. Local fans can catch the Ndlovu Youth Choir’s performance tomorrow, Tuesday, 24 January 2023 after the NBC broadcast. Tune in to YouTube, Twitter and Facebook on Tuesday morning after the broadcast. Website: https://www.youtube.com/@AGT
One of the greatest voices of our generation, two-time GRAMMY® Award winning singing sensation Gregory Porter returns to South Africa this month for his first solo concert tour ‘An Intimate Evening with Gregory Porter brought to you by Liberty’. He performed in Cape Town at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens today, Saturday, 21 January 2023.
Johannesburg concerts take place at Montecasino’s Teatro on 23, 24, 26, 27 and 28 January 2023 at 8pm.
Brought to you by Liberty and Showtime Management in association with Cape Talk and 702, the SA concert tour dates, including two additional Johannesburg shows, sold out within days of going on sale.
Cape Town based South African singer, actress, storyteller, playwright and inspirational speaker, The One Who Sings (Zolani Mahola) is the opening supporting act at Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden and local musician, composer, producer and curator Msaki is the supporting act for the Johannesburg concerts.
Every day, Shazam receives tens of millions of requests from users around the world who want to know more about the artist behind the song they’ve just discovered. These Shazams can come from anywhere—social media, car commercials, coffee shops, the mall —making them a powerful tool for predicting the next class of global superstars.
Today, Shazam unveils its annual Predictions 2023 playlist, a 50-track selection of artists that are perfectly poised to have a breakthrough year. Additionally, Shazam is spotlighting 5 artists from the list who have the potential to break out globally in 2023 and, for the first time, 5 artists who are gaining popularity regionally. Based on Shazam’s uniquely predictive data and algorithms, and coupled with the expertise of Apple Music’s global editorial team, this incredible selection of artists show early indicators of future growth — early and consistent momentum in Shazam activity, as well as discovery trends in more than one country.
Looking back at last year’s predictions, Shazam demonstrated, once again, its ability to uncover talent from every corner of the world earlier than any other service. Artists like the incredible Ayra Starr, who was one of Shazam’s five featured predictions last January, made Shazam’s Global Top 10 in October and is now being heralded as an artist to watch in 2023 by other platforms. Looking at streams, several listed artists saw their plays more than double on Apple Music worldwide from Dec. 1, 2021 through Nov. 30, 2022, compared to the previous 12 months, including Ivan Cornejo (+329%), DannyLux (+189%), Mina Okabe(+217%), La Zarra (+308%) and Lojay (+696%)
Overall, around half the artists featured in the Shazam Predictions 2022 playlist made Shazam’s Top 200 National charts and Apple Music’s Daily Top 100 charts. These artists were featured on 44 Shazam charts and 148 Apple Music charts. Three artists made Shazam’s national Top 10 and 13 made Apple Music’s. And two artists made national No. 1 on Shazam, and seven did the same in Apple Music, showing a plethora of amazing accomplishments by these artists over the course of 2022.
This year’s selection represents another remarkably global and diverse group of talented artists, hailing from all corners of the globe including Japan, Colombia, Spain, France, and Nigeria.
Mzansi Life & Style by Mishkah Roman-Cassiem 