TIPTOPSTARS

Anxiety has risen among fans of Daphne in particular and Cameroonians in general, as they await the release of the frontline contemporary singer’s maiden album. “Until this album is made public, I can’t close my eyes for a moment,” Delmine, a Daphne USA-based Cameroonian fan told TIPTOPSTARS at press time. “Daphne had since found a comfortable spot on my music taste bud and I consume every track this artist serves like mad,” she revealed. Delmine went on: “An album with several tracks will just be a precious end-of-year gift, I can’t wait.”

To Yolanda, another fan of the young, yet talented singer, Daphne’s upcoming album is what she had impatiently yearned for. “That it’s finally coming is a welcome relief, I’m uncontrollably excited,” said Yolanda who is based in Ohio, USA.

Like Delmine and Yolanda, scores of other Cameroonian contemporary music lovers are receiving the announcement of Daphne’s maiden album with sugary hearts, at a time the singer has won admiration with a fan base that grows geometrically. Here to Stay, the said album will officially see the light of day on Wednesday, December 30, 2015 during a concert billed for L’Impala in Douala, says Daphne’s team. The 19-track album is a brilliant blend of Afrobeat, Makossa, Bikutsi, Pop, Salsa, Hip-Hop and R&B. In them, the author of Rastafari (Daphne’s debut Single that propelled her to fame) has conveniently exploited themes such as mistrust and hope which she thinks, characterize our everyday experiences.

Produced by Steven’s Music Entertainment (SME), Here to Stay has been described as a masterpiece, thanks to the contributions of some of Cameroon’s leading music makers including AnyKindbeats, Philbillbeats, Winney, Kezzy, Slimbeats, Shawn Styler and CFX Music.

It should be noted that Daphne hit the professional music road in 2014 and interestingly became one of those artists Cameroon counts on in terms of the country’s new generation. Less than two  years after making coming to the lime light, the Afrobeat queen has been internationally recognized, with a 2015 All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) nomination and a 2016 KORA nomination. Amongst Daphne’s already-released well-crafted tracks are Gunshot, Mother’s Love, Reflection and Ndolo.

Meantime, Daphne will be main guest on the USA-based Apex 1 Radio’s (www.apex1radio.com) African Fiesta on Wednesday, December 30, 2015 from 10am EST (4pm Douala time).

2015 came with sufficiently good tidings for Cameroonian actress Ade Kelly. The Buea-based star in Bad Angel had not completely recovered from the joyous stupor of a TV series accomplishment when yet another remarkable achievement came beckoning – a Bachelor of Arts, BA in Bilingual Letters from the University of Buea in Cameroon.  

“Yes! Finally, it went down today,” Kelly wrote on Facebook on December 19, 2015, the day of her graduation from Cameroon’s first Anglo-Saxon university. “I thank God for giving me the strength to pull through,” she went on.  Understandably, the movie actress whose recent strides have conveniently placed her on the front roll of her country’s film industry, had to ingenuously interweave acting and studies, one would conjecture. But her conscious attachment to both lanes, hard work and the support from her peers, ferried Kelly across. “Thanks to everyone who believed in me,” she wrote.

Congratulatory messages from colleagues, friends and even news editors have since thronged the actresses social media space. In one of such messages, the editor of TIPTOPSTARS wrote: “TIPTOPSTARS is usually proud of young people who genuinely display mastery in their respective gifted areas of art. We are glad and ready to encourage them when they make limitless efforts in exploring these talents as a way of contributing their own little quota to the country's art and culture development. We are even more pleased when these young and dynamic people show proof of a sound academic backing. This helps us defend our thesis that music/movies/fashion designing/modeling/painting, etc, are not for unfocused people. In fact, artists are some of the most brilliant people we can think of. It takes ingenuity to be productive. So, as you guys help us in dislocating such erroneous claims, we wish to extend our heartfelt congratulations to actress Ade Kelly…”

Ade Kelly who now becomes a first degree holder in Bilingual Letters told Apex 1 Radio (www.apex1radio.com) recently that language versatility is one of her acting strengths. “I can perform in both English and French with no difficulty,” she had stressed. Bilingualism is naturally an added impetus to Cameroonian performing art due to the country’s linguistic background and actors such as the new grad would easily cut across both divides.

In recent months, Ade Kelly has become even more familiar to the ordinary Cameroonian TV viewer through Bad Angel, a Premier Films series, currently being screened on CRTV and directed by Elvis Tanwie aka De Dadies. Before the series, the young actress who draws inspiration from Solange Yijika featured in other movies including My Gallery, A Little Lie, A Little Kill and Coffee for The Dead. She has also starred in Chasing Tails, produced by Syndy Emade and directed by Elvis Tanwie.
 

Mouth-watering Cameroonian music videos are the order of the day today. If in the diaspora, Cameroonian singers and their videographers have stepped up the game, back home the young boys and girls have literally beautified the pudding to extents where they are savoured with inexplicable appetites. That Cameroonian music videos are masterpieces is no deniable fact anymore. They are simply great!

Belgium-based Suh Clovis is not an exception. His Troweh is a fine piece of artistic work that pricks the music taste bud. The track itself injects music pleasure irrevocably, yet it pins a strong message that clams down on evil doers. In the track, the young contemporary singer reminds perpetrators of evil that life is too short to rubbish it. The rest of the story is what you would grasp fro the beautifully crafted piece. Enjoy Troweh!