Davido's next hit? Nollywood
Plus: Wild Lagos night, AMVCA 2025, New Zikoko documentary, New Tayo Aina video, Asa Asika's wedding, Tems in Billboard, Fido's "Joy is Coming" video and more...
Welcome to The Feed, where Dennis is excited for the weekend. I had a long weekend last week, attending the AMVCA in person and dived right into a new week of work. Just like I said earlier, you can count on the AMVCA to be better planned. However, I'm not sure what the noodles and egg served after was about. A bit too aggressive cost-cutting if you ask me. There were a few glitches here and there, especially when the presenters for the Best Directing category came out confused, the nominees weren’t announced, and of course, the occasional teleprompter malfunction.
My fashion coverage and the full list of winners are in this edition.
Davido is coming for Nollywood. The musician said at the African CEO Forum that he is working on some movies and a series. He also said he will be…acting in one. I have all the details below.
Then I have been thinking about people who do multiple parties in Lagos for months now, and I finally nailed one down. Queen did seven in one night. See an excerpt from my story below:
On what she thought would be one of her worst birthdays — broke, bored, and with no plans — Queen ended up having the wildest night of her life in Lagos. By a random stroke of luck, she linked up with a group of Lagos party monsters, and between 8:30 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. the next day, she hit eight locations: a house party, a bachelorette, four clubs, a bar, and finally, a Chinese restaurant.
Read my story on what happened to her that night here.
Also, Zikoko has launched a new documentary series called Her. The first subject is Ibukun Akinola, the director of payments at Piggyvest.
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Celebrity
→ The rise of Tosin Adeyemi: By Nollywood’s metrics, Tosin Adeyemi is still a rising star, but she’s already making waves. She has featured in blockbusters like House of Ga’a and the AMVCA-nominated Tokunbo. She appears in both Akinola Davies Jr.’s My Father’s Shadow and James Omokwe’s Osamede, the two Nollywood films selected for this year’s Cannes Film Festival. I spoke to her about how she pulled it off. Please read the interview here.
→ Where is Durella? My colleague Marv Tomide interviewed Durella, during which he spoke about what happened years ago in Paris that stalled his career.
Before he went to Paris, he said he didn’t make friends in the industry. “I only offered assistance to people, I didn’t make friends with them except those who came before me, like Tony Tetuilla and 2Baba. They still pick up my calls. Someone like Timaya is looking for people to use to climb to fame. He tells me he’s busy whenever I call. Olamide too, but when he wanted me to give him a spot on my ‘Buddy Hanging’ song back then, he wasn’t busy, and I didn’t claim to be busy.”
Read the full story here.
→ Consciously coupling: Davido’s longtime manager, Asa Asika, posted these images from his engagement to Leona Adesanya.
Online Entry
→ Black and rich: Tayo Aina visited Atlanta, the city with the most black millionaires in America.
→ Miss World 2025: Joy Mojisola Raimi will represent Nigeria at the 72nd Miss World pageant, which will be held on December 12, 2025, in Telangana, India.
Bops
→ Tems in Billboard: Tems is on the cover of Billboard magazine.
→ Joy is here: Fido has dropped the video for his December hit “Joy is Coming.”
→ The Best New Music This Week:
>> Darkoo dropped the video for her new song “Like Dat.”
>> Falz has dropped the video for his new song “Round Of Applause.”
>> BamBam and Uzor Arukwe play Achalugo and Odogwu Parara in the video for Boy Spyce’s “Achalugo.”
Cine Club
→ AMVCA 2025: It was a great night for Seven Doors, with Femi Adebayo and Chioma Akpotha winning Best Actor and Best Actress, respectively. Also major was Adedamola Adeyemi, who won Best Costume Design for Christmas in Lagos. Best Movie went to the TIFF selection, Freedom Way. See all the winners here.
→ Chude vs Diezani Allison-Madueke: Chude Jideonwo’s Joy Inc. has filed an appeal after a judge in Bayelsa awarded former oil minister Diezani Allison-Madueke N500 million in a defamation case against his documentary Is It Your Money? Jideonwo said that he wasn’t afforded the opportunity to respond to the court action in the Bayelsa case.
We have filed an appeal in a higher court against the judgement given in Diezani’s favour in Bayelsa without our knowledge.
→ Davido comes for Nollywood: Davido had answers for days after YouTuber Fisayo Fosudo asked him what he was doing for Nollywood at the African CEO Forum. “I want to invest in some movies. I want to invest in a series. We are working on three projects. I want to star in one but not in a major role,” he said.
→ Yemi My Lover: What happened to Yemi from the movie Yemi My Lover? The veteran actor, Yemi Ayebo, opens up in a new interview about how piracy made him broke.
→ Nigerian box office:
→ Recommendation:
>> The 10 Best Nollywood Movies to Watch On Netflix (May 2025)
>> The 10 Best Nollywood Action Movies On Netflix
>> The 10 Best Chioma Akpotha Performances in Nollywood Movies, Ranked
Pod Gems
→ Tems on music: Tems spoke about her music with Billboard Magazine.
→ The underbelly of making content: The hosts of The Bro Bants Show talk about the dark side of being a content creator.
→ Loan sharks: The hosts of ISWIS spoke with actual loan sharks.
→ Joeboy on being a boss: Joeboy dropped by Joey Akan’s Afrobeats Intelligence podcast, now hosted by Okay Africa, to talk about being a boss in music.
Baffs
→ AMVCA Fashion: See some of the looks your fave wore to the AMVCA.
>> Check here for their scores.
→ Kai giveaway: Fisayo Longe’s Kai Collective will dole out ₦1,000,000 each to 5 entrepreneurs as part of its KAI COMES HOME Lagos pop-up next week. See more details below.
Bookshelf
→ 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize: Ugandan writer Joshua Lubwama has been named the Africa region winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for his short story, “Mothers Not Appearing In Search.”
→ Things Fall Apart Festival: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will headline the inaugural Things Fall Apart Festival in Enugu, Nigeria, from June 29 to July 5, 2025. Organised by the Centre for Memories – Ncheta Ndigbo, the festival expands on the annual Things Fall Apart Day to honour Chinua Achebe’s literary legacy. Adichie will deliver the keynote on “Masculine, Feminine, Human: The Dialogue of Complements in Things Fall Apart.”
One Good Article
This week, My One Good Article is the story I wrote about Queen, a Lagos nightlife queen who went to seven parties one night in December and had the wildest experience of her life. I probably shouldn’t be posting my stories as my One Good Article, but forgive me this one time.