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Nigeria’s Davido wins BET Award, urges Africa collaboration
LOS ANGELES, June 25, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Nigerian pop star Davido won Best
International Act on Sunday at the BET Awards and urged greater
collaborations between US and African musicians.
The BET Awards, established by Black Entertainment Television to recognize
the best in African American culture, maintains an international category for
black music from outside the United States.
Davido, 25, thanked his listeners in Nigeria and said that Africa as a
continent “has been so blessed.”
“I’m telling you guys — come to Africa, eat the food, wear the clothes,”
he told the audience full of African American A-list celebrities.
“Let’s collaborate, everybody. Let’s collaborate, man,” he said.
Davido, the US-educated son of a wealthy business mogul, is one of the
leading forces in the Afrobeats movement that has swept the continent’s music
scene.
Not to be confused with the funky Afrobeat of the 1970s, Afrobeats — with
an “s” — brings together sounds from across the continent to create a
danceable, pan-African music.
Other artists nominated for the BET international award included British
rappers Stormzy, J Hus and Stefflon Don, French rappers Booba and Niska and
the French-Congolese soul singer Dadju.
Other nominees were hip-hop producer Cassper Nyovest and house music
innovators Distruction Boyz from South Africa along with Kinshasa-born singer
and guitarist Fally Ipupa and Nigerian singer Tiwa Savage.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1202 hrs