Celebrity Buzz
Celebrity news from Ghana, Africa and Hollywood — interviews, relationships, red carpets, milestones and behind-the-scenes stories.
Celebrity Buzz 32 Premier League goals in his first season at Liverpool: the year Mohamed Salah rewrote the record book
In 2017-18, his first season at Liverpool, Mohamed Salah scored 32 Premier League goals, a record for a 38-game season at the time. He went on to win the Champions League and the Premier League, and became one of Africa's most celebrated players.
Celebrity Buzz He had barely played basketball when he left Lagos. Hakeem Olajuwon won two NBA titles and invented the Dream Shake
Hakeem Olajuwon grew up in Lagos playing football and handball, took up basketball as a teenager and moved to Houston in 1980. He won back-to-back NBA championships with the Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995 and was named MVP in 1994.
Celebrity Buzz For thirty years her name was misspelt in the credits. Thandiwe Newton took back the “w”
Thandiwe Newton, the British actress with a Zimbabwean mother, was credited as "Thandie" for most of her career. In 2021 she reclaimed the correct spelling of her Zulu name. She won an Emmy in 2018 for her role as Maeve in Westworld.
Celebrity Buzz He lost the use of his left hand as a teenager. Black Coffee became the first African to win a dance Grammy for original work
Black Coffee, born Nkosinathi Maphumulo, won the Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Album in April 2022 for Subconsciously, becoming the first African to win the category for original work. He was injured as a teenager in 1990, the day Nelson Mandela was released from prison.
Celebrity Buzz “Forgive, forgive, forgive”: the dressing-room speech Didier Drogba made to a country at war
In October 2005, minutes after Côte d'Ivoire qualified for the 2006 World Cup with a 3-1 win in Sudan, Didier Drogba knelt with his teammates in the dressing room and begged the country's warring sides to lay down their weapons. The clip was played on Ivorian TV day and night.
Celebrity Buzz His father wanted a priest. Pascal Siakam left the seminary in Cameroon and became an NBA champion
Pascal Siakam was sent to a Catholic seminary in Cameroon at 11 and was expected to become a priest. He discovered basketball as a teenager, joined the NBA in 2016 and won the championship with the Toronto Raptors in 2019.
Celebrity Buzz Under apartheid, his birth was illegal. Trevor Noah called his memoir Born a Crime
Trevor Noah was born in Johannesburg in 1984 to a Xhosa mother and a Swiss father, a relationship that was illegal under apartheid. He hosted The Daily Show from 2015 to 2022 and wrote the bestselling memoir Born a Crime.
Celebrity Buzz The first African-born UFC champion: how Kamaru Usman went from Auchi to the top of the welterweight division
Kamaru Usman, born in Nigeria and raised in Texas from the age of eight, beat Tyron Woodley at UFC 235 on 2 March 2019 to become the first African-born UFC champion. He held the welterweight title until Leon Edwards's last-minute head kick in August 2022.
Celebrity Buzz The son of Nigerian immigrants sold sunglasses on the streets of Athens. He scored 50 to win an NBA title
Giannis Antetokounmpo, born in Athens to Nigerian parents, helped his family survive by selling goods on the street. He won back-to-back NBA MVP awards and, in July 2021, scored 50 points in the deciding game of the NBA Finals.
Celebrity Buzz “I don’t know if I’m going to have a career after this”: John Boyega’s Hyde Park speech
On 3 June 2020, Star Wars actor John Boyega spoke at a Black Lives Matter protest in London's Hyde Park, saying he did not know whether he would still have a career afterwards. The Nigerian-British actor went on to work more, not less.