Celebrity Buzz Page 7 of 29
Celebrity news from Ghana, Africa and Hollywood — interviews, relationships, red carpets, milestones and behind-the-scenes stories.
Celebrity Buzz He played volleyball in Yaoundé until he was 15. Joel Embiid became an NBA MVP and an Olympic champion
Joel Embiid, born in Yaoundé, Cameroon, took up basketball in his mid-teens and was discovered at a camp run by Luc Mbah a Moute. Injuries delayed his NBA career, but he won the MVP award in 2023 and an Olympic gold medal with the United States in 2024.
Celebrity Buzz The finger wag, four Defensive Player of the Year awards and a hospital in Kinshasa: Dikembe Mutombo’s life
Dikembe Mutombo went to Georgetown from Kinshasa intending to study medicine and became one of the greatest shot blockers in NBA history. He built a hospital in Kinshasa named after his mother and died in September 2024.
Celebrity Buzz Born in Ibadan, raised in Essex: Sade Adu and the quiet voice that outlasted the 1980s
Helen Folasade Adu was born in Ibadan, Nigeria, in 1959 to a Nigerian father and an English mother. As the voice of the band Sade, she sold tens of millions of records with songs such as "Smooth Operator" and "No Ordinary Love", while giving almost no interviews.
Celebrity Buzz Two trebles in a row with two different clubs: Samuel Eto’o’s run at Barcelona and Inter
Samuel Eto'o won the treble with Barcelona in 2009 and again with Inter Milan in 2010, becoming the first player to win back-to-back continental trebles with different clubs. He was African Footballer of the Year four times and later became president of Cameroon's football federation.
Celebrity Buzz “Kiss from a Rose” was nearly left off an album. Seal’s Nigerian roots and the song that won three Grammys
Seal, born Henry Olusegun Adeola Samuel in London to a Nigerian mother, reportedly almost left "Kiss from a Rose" off his 1994 album. After it appeared in Batman Forever, it won Record and Song of the Year at the 1996 Grammys.
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.