Over the past two decades, Michael Blackson has made a name for himself as one of the most prolific comedians in Hollywood. From starring alongside Hollywood big wigs like Hip Hop icon Ice Cube in Next Friday and showing off his roasting chops on Nick Cannon’s Wild ‘n Out on MTV, to sold out shows in comedy clubs all over the United States, he is now a household name in the country he was once considered an immigrant.   



If someone told Michael Blackson, Hollywood actor and comedian, that he would one day be sitting in his $4 million penthouse in the middle of Sunset Boulevard in California, with his own sitcom months from airing on BET+ and produced by none other than billionaire TV mogul, Tyler Perry, he would have answered with one word – impossible. And nobody would have blamed him.



After all, this is the stuff of miracles and dreams. But for Blackson, that is exactly what happened. Raised by a single mother and the fifth of eight children, Blackson spent his early years in Ghana moving from village to village on account of his mother’s calling as an evangelist. His early childhood was spent between Nigeria and Liberia, where his mother remarried.



“We traveled so much that I missed several grades and when I got to the US at 13, they put me in the eighth grade even though the last class I took in Liberia was the sixth grade,” says Blackson.



That is when everything changed for him.



“My mother called the US ‘the Promised Land’ but I hated it when I came to America. I was homesick and I missed my brothers and I was now in this cold place and kids were making fun of me. Back home, we didn’t see anything wrong with a lot of things because we are all the same people.



“They said I was blacker than them and we never saw complexion back home. I didn’t realize that there were lighter Africans or darker ones and the kids made me realize that we were all different. They said things like ‘you have a gap in your teeth, your hair texture is different’ and it made me insecure,” says Blackson.



Channeling that insecurity and a natural affinity for speaking in public, Blackson eventually fell in love with comedy and the rest, as they say, is history. During his meteoric rise to the top, which includes starring alongside Eddie Murphy in Coming 2 America and making between $40,000 and $100,000 a night at his sold-out shows, Blackson returned to Ghana to visit his brothers who he had not seen in over 15 years.



“In 2001, I went back to Ghana. Walking around the area I grew up, I said ‘why does this place look the same?’ It had been over 27 years and nothing had changed. The kids were not in school and I found out that their parents could not pay their tuition fees which was $80 for the year. I remember going down the road and I paid for about four kids to go to school for a year. I then went to the village and the same problem was there. I said I am going to do something about this,” recalls Blackson.



It took him until 2019 to save up the $500,000 needed to build the Michael Blackson Academy in the village he once called home. The Ghanaian government has made senior secondary education free but the problem for parents who are struggling is that they still need to educate their children from kindergarten to junior secondary school.



“As African kids, we treasure education and we love to learn but for some reason, not everyone can afford to go to school. Whether they can’t afford the tuition, or they can’t pay for their uniform, there is always some problem that prevents many kids from going to school. I knew that if I was given the opportunity as a kid, I would go to school and I felt like every African felt this way. That is the main reason I always wanted to do something in education – to give back,” says Blackson.



The Michael Blackson Academy has a vision of providing free education for impoverished children in Ghana. The school currently has a capacity of 200 students and the entire program from feeding, to school uniforms, teacher’s salaries and tuition fees is self-funded by Blackson.



“My goal is that the top four students get the opportunity to study abroad through a partnership with a private school in the US, go to high school in the US and get an opportunity. All they have to do in return is to promise to go back home eventually and contribute to Ghana,” says Blackson.



The school officially opened its doors in January 2021. Students are selected with the help of a consultancy which ensures that Blackson’s goal of helping the most impoverished and in need families is achieved. His next goal is to expand The Michael Blackson Academy to Liberia as well as set up a not-for-profit foundation that will give back resources to those in need.



“You owe it to others to be a blessing. But my goal is to make an impact and it gives me so much joy to see the lives we are changing. We are currently in the process of raising money for another academy in Liberia.&#8221;

3rd Annual Hollywood Unlocked Impact Awards

From Hollywood To Africa: The Comedian Creating Impact With Education

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Streaming giant Netflix quietly eliminated its cheapest advertisement-free plan for new U.S. and U.K. customers this month, pushing new users toward either a more expensive monthly plan or a cheaper offer with ads, the latest streaming platform to adjust its pricing.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Netflix’s changes, which do not affect existing customers, leave new customers with the&nbsp;<a href="https://help.netflix.com/en/node/24926" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">choice of</a>&nbsp;a $6.99 per month “Standard with Ads” plan—the cheapest Netflix offers—as well as a $15.49 “Standard” plan, which allows for two simultaneous streams and 1080p full HD video quality, or a $19.99 “Premium” plan, with up to four simultaneous streams and 4K Ultra HD video.



The company eliminated its $9.99-a-month “Basic” plan and now&nbsp;<a href="https://help.netflix.com/en/node/24926/gb" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">states</a>&nbsp;on its support page it “is no longer available for new or rejoining members,” a change multiple news outlets spotted Wednesday—as of July 5, the streaming giant still listed the basic subscription tier on its U.S. support site, according to an&nbsp;<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20230705193321/https://help.netflix.com/en/node/24926" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">archived version</a>&nbsp;of the webpage.



Under Netflix’s “Standard” plan, customers can opt to pay up to $23.48 a month for an extra member, while Premium users can pay $27.98 per month for one extra member or $35.97 for two.



The platform’s decision to cut its “Basic” plan comes one month after it cut the same offering for customers in Canada, and in the same fashion allows existing customers to stay on the plan.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



The change puts Netflix, a stalwart in the decade-long streaming wars, roughly on par with Disney-controlled rivals Hulu ($7.99 per month with ads, or $14.99 ad-free) and Disney+ ($7.99 with ads and $10.99 ad-free). Warner Bros. Discovery’s platform Max, which&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/04/12/new-max-streaming-service-combines-hbo-and-discovery-shows-heres-what-you-need-to-know/?sh=6a11dfa037c8">launched</a>&nbsp;this spring as a mega-service combining HBO Max and Discovery+, offers monthly subscriptions starting slightly higher, at $9.99 per month with ads and $15.99 without them, and $19.99 per month for “Ultimate Ad Free,” which allows for up to four simultaneous streams. Some legacy broadcasters have cheaper services: NBCUniversal’s Peacock and CBS owner Paramount Global’s Paramount+ both charge $5.99 per month with ads or $11.99 per month without (in Paramount’s case, the ad-free service includes SHOWTIME). And Amazon Prime Video costs $8.99 a month, but it’s included in a $14.99 Amazon Prime membership.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-news-peg">NEWS PEG</h2>



Netflix’s price change follows a series of price hikes by rival streaming services, including Peacock, which announced plans on Tuesday to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/anafaguy/2023/07/18/peacock-raises-its-rates-heres-how-it-compares-to-rivals-netflix-paramount-and-more/?sh=26e692db19c5">raise rates</a>&nbsp;from $4.99 per month to $5.99. The price for ad-free “Premium” subscribers is set to increase next month from $9.99 per month to $11.99, while Peacock’s annual premium plan will jump $10 per year to $59.99. Peacock ended its free streaming tier earlier this year.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Netflix, as well as Max and Disney+, have raised rates in recent months and launched cheaper ad-based subscription options for customers, in a bid to boost revenue in a challenging era and remain competitive with more price-sensitive customers. Netflix’s rate of subscriber growth stalled in the first half of 2022 after two consecutive quarters of declining memberships, spooking investors, though the company ended the year with more subscribers. Meanwhile, rivals like Disney+ remain unprofitable. Despite previously swearing off ads on his streaming service, Netflix co-founder and former co-CEO Reed Hastings&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/19/23032869/netflix-ads-streaming-reed-hastings-lower-price" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;in an earnings call last April he would be “quite open” to low-cost streaming tiers with ads. Last year, Netflix also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/08/12/heres-how-much-more-you-have-to-pay-for-streaming-services-compared-to-last-year/?sh=714d2a1f6dfe">raised prices</a>&nbsp;for its streaming tiers by between $1 and $2 per month, bringing the basic option to $9.99 from $8.99 and its premium option to $19.99 from $17.99. Netflix has also cracked down on password sharing, a well-known secret the platform had once promoted, imposing restrictions in Canada, New Zealand and Spain, and announcing plans in May to prohibit U.S. customers from sharing accounts with people they don’t live with. In October, Netflix boasted&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2022/10/18/netflix-adds-24-million-subscribers-after-months-of-declines/?sh=5211728577be">2.4 million</a>&nbsp;new paid subscribers over the prior quarter, bringing its total subscribers to 230.75 million after months of decline, putting it above Disney+ (161.8 million), Paramount+ (56 million), Hulu (48 million) and Peacock (20 million).



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/anafaguy/2023/07/18/peacock-raises-its-rates-heres-how-it-compares-to-rivals-netflix-paramount-and-more/?sh=26e692db19c5">Peacock Raises Its Rates: Here’s How It Compares To Rivals Netflix, Paramount+ And More</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/anafaguy/2023/05/23/netflix-starts-long-awaited-password-sharing-crackdown-heres-how/?sh=79780274f884">Netflix Starts Long-Awaited Password-Sharing Crackdown—Here’s How</a> (Forbes)

Netflix

Netflix Scraps Cheapest Ad-Free Plan Amid Streaming Wars—Here’s How It Stacks Up With Hulu, Max, Disney+

Early this year, there was talk about Hollywood A-lister Idris Elba looking to build a major movie studio in Tanzania. More homegrown filmmakers and professionals are also working to create new paradigm shifts and give the African film industry the boost and blockbuster attention it deserves.



The experience of every filmmaker in Africa is – creating stories from the ground up, immersing themselves in the communities they are in, telling stories and working laboriously with crew who only have the conviction of their art to keep going. Most times, you are on a tight budget and with limited infrasructure, but you make it work and try and get on to the festival circuit too. But grants are limited and so also distribution networks. Such is the story of the film industry in most parts of the continent, despite the zeal and enthusiasm from creatives on the continent, as well as their supporters abroad.



For renowned Tanzanian filmmaker, Amil Shivji, these issues hit close to home.



While he has been able to make significant progress on multiple big movies locally, he often had to outsource editing to a different country, for instance, or struggle with the infrastructure and crew available. And for the students he teaches at the University of Dar es Salaam, making a film of festival-caliber seems like a distant dream – at least for now.



“Our students don&#8217;t have access to equipment, they have to do a lot of theory and are unable to get production experience – the markets are the ones that dictate the kind of content that&#8217;s coming out,” he rues. “But the markets are dependent on the infrastructure as well… we are losing out on making original productions and telling our own stories.”



There is funding for filmmaking and infrastructure building coming in especially from the NGO sector, but they have agendas that do not always give filmmakers the flexibility to tell their own stories, he adds.



“I mean, take your pick, there is help needed across the board – financing, infrastructure, training, distribution. There&#8217;s a lot of work that needs to be done,” echoes Tambay Obenson, an African-American filmmaker, journalist and entrepreneur of Nigerian and Cameroonian descent, who started Akoroko, a subscription streaming service that offers a hand-picked and curated selection of arthouse, independent, and international films telling African stories, supported by contextual materials.



For Ethiopian-American filmmaker, Mehret Mandefro, despite her film, Difret (2014) being the first film to win the audience awards at both the Sundance Film Festival and the Berlinale Panorama, and be selected as Ethiopia’s submission to the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Annual Academy Awards, she struggled to find her audience and distribution in Africa, despite telling an important story of a young Ethiopian girl and a tenacious lawyer embroiled in a life-or-death clash&nbsp;between cultural traditions and their country’s advancement of equal rights.



Obenson emphasizes that the underappreciation of African cinema at home and abroad is the reason he started Akoroko.



“As an African, I almost also kind of felt like I was coming home, metaphorically, figuratively, to do this. I&#8217;ve been in the business for so long, and this is the first time that I decided to really focus on Africa. I decided to do it for those reasons. There&#8217;s a need and I&#8217;m passionate about the art form. And as an African, I think there&#8217;s a lot of work that could be done.”



Yet the industry varies so much across the continent, making the challenge of building a robust film industry and culture from the ground up even more difficult. “I wouldn’t even use the word industry, I&#8217;ll say African film industries, says Obenson. “Some countries are more developed and have more prominent industries than others.”



Nigeria, home to Nollywood, boasts the most-prominent and varied industry of its kind today.



&nbsp;Northern Africa with Arab cinema has also been active since the 1950s. And then, there is South Africa, featuring a strong service industry and large production and post-production operations.



Kenya is also an up-and-coming industry with a strong middle class and making waves in the film festival circuit.



It is no surprise that large streaming services like Netflix have made these regions their new hubs for investment and talent development, notes Shivji.



Netflix’s socio-economic impact report for Africa released in April highlights key productions and an investment of $175 million in content and the local creative ecosystems in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya combined.



But Netflix seems to be aiming for more.



“At Netflix, our work is not only about investing in local creative partners to produce exciting stories and bringing them to members around the world – it’s also investing in skills development and capacity, building opportunities that will ultimately contribute to the growth of Africa’s film and TV industries. This is a work in progress, and we’re excited to be a key part of this journey on the African continent,” says Ben Amadasun, Director of Content, Middle East and Africa at Netflix, to FORBES AFRICA.



While veterans like Mandefro have been trying to build out these ecosystems in a pan-African way with the co-founding of spaces like the Realness Institute, one of the continent’s best incubators for African filmmakers, she sees Netflix as a significant partner in creating opportunities for filmmakers on the ground.



“[Netflix] is thinking about upstream stuff, trying to incentivize and help out who goes into film in the first place. And then also really thinking about all those things that you need, like the story editors and development executives in order to build out a market,” emphasizes Mandefro. “So, I think that&#8217;s really commendable.”



But for filmmakers like Shivji, such reports and promises come with a grain of salt. For him, the growing middle class in Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya already bolster Netflix’s subscriber base, leaving out many other countries.



“We are selling ourselves short to just have one country from each region. We should really get past the stage of just being happy with what we&#8217;re given and be able to argue for more, because this is a platform that prides itself on showing international films. So, we want to be able to show more films, and we want to sell our films to Netflix and be able to get a fair deal,” he says.



And if not a Western financing giant like Netflix, then who?



“It&#8217;s really coverage and access. African cinema has been grossly undervalued on the international stage and international film marketplace,” says Obenson. There is the need to tell African stories to the world, and despite the content overload for audiences, governments need to step up, he emphasizes. Not only are there few film journalists, but the consistency is also missing as also the incentives for filmmakers to excel.



Obenson believes self-funding and creating opportunities locally is the way forward, making it less easy for western institutions to dictate African storytelling. “As a whole, I think that the potential is just immense,” he adds. “And the rest of the world is increasingly interested in African stories.



“…just to allow African filmmakers to be able to tell African stories in Africa with African money without having to rely on others.”



There is more than one reason this matters. “We as Africans need to start to value filmmaking as a craft and as an art form and recognize the power of storytelling. We talk about soft power; the United States has been using this since the beginning of Hollywood,” he says.



“Hollywood films travel, they dominate theaters across the world. I don’t know if African films will ever get there, we will get there but just realizing that there is power in the fact that filmmakers can have an impact on how the rest of the world sees the continent.”



And while Mandefro recognizes more African countries setting up film commissions, there is a need to acknowledge the urgency western institutions are already seeing while rushing to the continent. Africa has a median age of 19 years and consumer spending is set to reach&nbsp;$2.5 trillion by 2030, and by 2050, a quarter of the world&#8217;s population will be in Africa.



“Every business, if you don&#8217;t have an Africa strategy, you&#8217;re gonna miss out on a lot of growth, or potential for growth.”



Yet, unemployment levels are high on the continent, up to 60% on average, according to the World Bank.



“Investing in stories means increasing exposure for all of the countries, it does more for tourism than anything else. And I often, when I find myself in policy circles, talk a lot about investing in storytellers, investing in films, TV and media. The media entrepreneurs are really the new infrastructure investment. This is where the jobs of the future are coming from, especially for young people,” says Mandefro.



“So, governments need to be really smart about incentivizing and setting some policies up that make it easier for these entrepreneurs to be successful, so it means not being so heavy-handed with regulations, for instance.”



Shivji also mentions the importance of building state-funded film festivals and institutionalizing them, especially as something filmmakers can always fall back on.



“This is where we&#8217;re able to educate new audiences, we&#8217;re able to travel with the films, we&#8217;re able to invite new filmmakers and new artists. And those collaborations are happening at festivals for filmmakers almost half of your life. It&#8217;s where you really build your career, you&#8217;re able to network and all the events around it are super important,” he opines.



But whether it is cinema under the stars in the middle of an open field, or a phone on a commute in the daily bustle of the city, or in the comfort of your home or at the theater, African cinema is finding its place, both on the festival circuit and in people’s hearts across the globe.



“This is the golden age of African cinema. Our continent has great talent and world-class creatives,” echoes Amadasun.



“Whether you liked or hated Black Panther, it certainly did something for the world. It&#8217;s like people discovered Africa all of a sudden. But that&#8217;s how it works when you&#8217;re not exposed. And so, I think it’s the appetite,” says Mandefro.



“And even the realization that storytelling has been so incredibly closed for so long, right? There were no real global stories in the sense of, like us being able to consume, so this is where obviously platforms like Netflix have also changed the game. So, a series like the Squid Games makes us realize there&#8217;s a whole world out there.”



Yet, for Shivji, the focus should remain on the development of authentic African cinema, which can be poetic, experimental, and give a platform to independent African stories.



“Film is supposed to be a mirror to our society and present our culture… African filmmakers need to always be at the decision-making table,” he adds.



Obenson hopes these new shifts in the industry work to inspire local favor towards financing films and film infrastructure, whether that is local companies, local production companies or just local financiers.



“Let&#8217;s put our heads together and try to create something that competes [abroad],” he says. “I&#8217;m hopeful as there is a paradigm shift. I think there&#8217;s no going back from here.”



The development of cinema continues to be challenging, but there is a bright light at the end of the cinematic tunnel.



“One of my pet peeves is, you know, development doesn&#8217;t happen in Africa,” says Mandefro. “In many ways, there&#8217;s never been a better time to be an African filmmaker.”

Young Black Man Operating Video Camera

The Big Ticket: New Paradigm Shifts In African Cinema

She’s here, she’s there, she’s every pinkin’-where. With Margot Robbie’s summer blockbuster arriving in theaters and ubiquitous merchandise collaborations, the world’s favorite doll is about to launch the Mattel cinematic universe.



Last June, photographs of beach blonde Margot Robbie and bleach blonde Ryan Gosling, stars of the upcoming&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;movie, went viral after they were spotted filming a scene dressed as the world’s favorite doll and her feckless boyfriend Ken, decked out in matching ‘90s neon workout gear and bright yellow roller skates.



A year later, with the arrival of the&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;movie on July 21, superfans can now buy the exact gear they’ve been obsessing over. The $190 Barbie x Impala Rollerskates, are among more than 100 collaborations and branded partnerships parent company Mattel has signed to capitalize on the excitement for the Greta Gerwig-directed film, one of the tentpole movies of the summer.



Barbie is at “the beginning of yet another chapter for the evolution of the brand, which is now recognized as an idea,” Mattel President and COO Richard Dickson tells&nbsp;Forbes,&nbsp;while wearing a Barbie t-shirt. “Barbie has transcended from a doll into a franchise. The ability for us to extend and market the brand is far bigger than any one product itself.”



So if it seems that the world is turning pink lately—very, very pink—that is by design. There is everything from Barbie-branded Crocs, to hot pink luggage from BEIS and Barbie x Moon electric toothbrushes. Fans can shower with Barbie x Truly soap sets put on Barbie x OPI nail polish, slip into on Barbie bras from MeUndies and get dressed in Barbie x Gap clothing. They can listen to the film’s original soundtrack, which features new hits from Dua Lipa and Nicki Minaj–whose fans have famously been dubbed “Barbz.” They can even spend the night at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonemelvin/2023/06/27/heres-everything-we-know-about-airbnbs-new-barbie-house-in-malibu/?sh=5ddba02c5475">Airbnb’s real-life Malibu DreamHouse</a>. (John Legend and Chrissy Teigen&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CuK5qoKSQ6G/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">already took</a>&nbsp;their family.)



Oh, and there are frozen treats from—of course—Pinkberry



The movie, which also stars Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, and Hari Nef as Barbies, Simu Liu, John Cena, and Kingsley Ben-Adair as additional Kens, and Will Ferrell, as a meta Mattel CEO, is&nbsp;<a href="https://deadline.com/2023/06/barbie-oppenheimer-box-office-projection-1235427370/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">expected to make</a>&nbsp;between $80 million and $100 million in its opening weekend. And AMC theaters announced that some 20,000 moviegoers have already purchased tickets for a cosmically curious opening day double feature of&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;and&nbsp;Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s drama about the invention of the atomic bomb.



For a doll approaching retirement age—Barbie will turn 65 next year—she’s showing no signs of slowing down, despite a lengthy career as a fashion model, nurse, ballerina, Army medic, astronaut, paleontologist, dentist, florist, yoga teacher and President of the United States The dynamic dilettante did $1.7 billion in annual sales in 2021, a record high. That same year, Barbie&nbsp;<a href="https://corporate.mattel.com/news/barbie-named-2021-top-global-toy-property-of-the-year-per-npd" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">was named</a>&nbsp;the No. 1 toy in the world.



And that was before this summer’s Barbiemania.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Family Affair: Ruth Handler named famous creations after her daughter, Barbara, and son, Kenneth.MATTEL, INC.



Mattel was started in 1945 by Ruth Handler, her husband, Elliot, and Matt Matson. (The brand’s moniker was a portmanteau of the men’s first names.) While Elliot handled the design, Ruth was all business. “She was the chutzpah, she was the driving force behind the company,” Tanya Lee Stone, author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Good-Bad-Barbie-History-Impact/dp/0147516064" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie </a>tells Forbes. “She was the reason they went from working out of their garage to being able to rent space.”


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GettyImages-1538031252.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-58845" width="770" height="511" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GettyImages-1538031252.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GettyImages-1538031252-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GettyImages-1538031252-768x511.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Cast and filmmakers of Barbie Movie. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images for Warner Bros.)</figcaption></figure></div>


As president of the company, Ruth was “the embodiment of her doll,” that “women can be anything,” adds Robin Gerber, author of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Barbie-Ruth-Worlds-Famous-Created/dp/0061341320/ref=asc_df_0061341320/?tag=hyprod-20&amp;linkCode=df0&amp;hvadid=343209923405&amp;hvpos=&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=14326293869328454488&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvdvcmdl=&amp;hvlocint=&amp;hvlocphy=1018127&amp;hvtargid=pla-492352792520&amp;psc=1&amp;tag=&amp;ref=&amp;adgrpid=67797265663&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvadid=343209923405&amp;hvpos=&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=14326293869328454488&amp;hvqmt=&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvdvcmdl=&amp;hvlocint=&amp;hvlocphy=1018127&amp;hvtargid=pla-492352792520" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World&#8217;s Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her</a>.&nbsp;“This woman was an entrepreneur, corporate leader, in an industry where there were no women at that level, at a time when women weren’t supposed to do that.”



Handler got the idea for Barbie when watching her daughter, Barbara, and her friends play with paper dolls, whose outfits and tabs were constantly tearing. Of particular fascination for Handler was that the girls weren’t pretending to be children or mothers with their creations, rather they pretended to be librarians and teachers. “It hit her that little girls just wanted to be big girls,” Gerber says. But adult dolls made for children to play with didn’t exist.



The inspiration for Barbie’s design came to Handler on a family trip to Lucerne, Switzerland, when she and Barbara spotted a doll in a toy store. Her name was Bild Lilli, and she was modeled after a gold-digging cartoon character in a local newspaper. Handler purchased three and started designing a wardrobe for her own incarnation of the doll. “She immediately got it—that you make this doll, and then you can make separate clothes,” says Gerber.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img decoding="async" src="https://imageio.forbes.com/specials-images/imageserve/64b197a7077db792fb534a0b/2019-Barbie1959Doll--1--removebg-preview/0x0.jpg?format=jpg&amp;width=96" alt="2019_Barbie1959Doll__1_-removebg-preview" width="-16" height="-25"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Serious Plastic: A mint condition Barbie from 1959 sells for more than $27,000.MATTEL, INC.</figcaption></figure></div>


“The goal for Ruth was to make a teeny-tiny mannequin and make it very easy for girls to be able to pop off the head and change the clothes without getting frustrated,” Stone adds. That way, “girls can just imagine being anything they want to be.”



Barbie debuted in 1959 at the American Toy Fair in New York City, but it wasn’t until children saw her first TV commercial later that year that the toy really took off. Some 300,000 dolls were sold in the first year, for $3 each (or about $31 in today’s dollars). Today, an original Barbie doll in mint condition sells for upwards of $27,000 and the range of contemporary Barbies spans from about $10.99 for Fashionista Barbie to a one-off doll created by Australian jewelry designer Stefano Canturi, which sold for $302,500 in 2012 (or about $400,000 now).


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://imageio.forbes.com/specials-images/imageserve/64b185562baa910e43de7b71/ken-doll-removebg-preview/0x0.jpg?format=jpg&amp;width=96" alt="ken_doll-removebg-preview" width="367" height="574"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Himbo: Ken was introduced in 1961. The most valuable are Dress Box Ken, released between 1963 and 1965.MATTEL, INC.</figcaption></figure></div>


Soon after Barbie’s arrival, the company was inundated with letters asking if she could have a boyfriend. In 1961, Ken—named after the Handlers’ son, Kenneth—debuted. (Kenneth Handler died at age 50 in 1994. Barbara Handler is now 82.)



“If you owned Mattel stock in the Sixties, you were getting double-digit returns every year,” Gerber says. But the next decade brought trouble for the Handlers. Ruth, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, resigned in 1975—three years before she and several other former Mattel executives&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1978/02/17/archives/4-exofficers-of-mattel-among-5-indicted-on-conspiracy-charges.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">indicted by the Securities and Exchange Commission</a>&nbsp;for making false financial statements. She eventually pleaded no contest.



After some lean years in the 1980s—during which Barbie found work as an aerobics instructor, cashier, travel agent and a veterinarian—another renaissance occurred. “It took 28 years to get Barbie to $430 million in sales and just three years to get her to $700 million,” John Amerman, Mattel’s chairman, told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;in 1991. The brand represented half of Mattel’s sales at the time.<a href="https://www.forbes.com/"></a>



In the 2000s, Barbie entered the digital era. Dickson oversaw the creation of Barbie Entertainment. Barbie’s first film, the animated feature&nbsp;Barbie In The Nutcracker, was released in 2001. Barbie.com, her first website, was also launched.



Dickson left Mattel in 2010 and rejoined in 2014 when it was facing one of its worst periods yet. Barbie had reached its lowest volume of sales in 25 years, with only $900 million. “One of the most shocking headlines when I first came back was [on] CNN—literally the headline was&nbsp;<a href="https://money.cnn.com/2015/04/16/investing/mattel-barbie-earnings-versus-hasbro/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">‘Is Barbie Dead?,’”</a>&nbsp;Dickson recalls. The beauty standard that Barbie represented for more than 50 years—thin, white, blonde—no longer resonated with consumers. “Her personification of perfection became out of date,” he says.



So Barbie needed a major image makeover. Mattel started with her skin tone and ethnicities. “The actual methodology behind doing it was not just introducing dolls with skin tones, but changing all the graphic identity of the brand,” says Dickson. Mattel’s packaging and commercial advertising was updated to reflect the new diverse range. And Barbie’s super unnatural body was reimagined for the 21st century—tall, petite and curvy versions of the doll were launched. But with Barbie being a different size, her clothes, her cars, her houses had to change too. “Everything had to be reshaped.”



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



The&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;movie reflects the complicated relationship the audience has had with Handler’s 11.5-inch icon over the decades. “Greta Gerwig is an advocate for telling strong, female-led stories where women are celebrated,” says Dickson. “The Barbie brand is no exception, and shows Barbie is a very strong female protagonist in control of her own story. That wouldn’t have been served up or possible if we hadn’t done the incredible work prior.”



Or, as one of the film’s trailers proudly touts: “If you love Barbie…if you hate Barbie, this movie is for you.”



As Margot Robbie&nbsp;<a href="https://time.com/6289864/barbie-time-cover-story/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told CEO Ynon Kreiz during production</a>: “If we don’t acknowledge certain things—if we don’t say it, someone else is going to say it.” Adds Dickson: “We were ready to feel comfortably uncomfortable.”



Deciding to make a&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;movie wasn’t simply a brand extension, it’s a longterm business strategy that will be played out again and again with the rest of Mattel’s portfolio, which includes some 400 toy brands.



And it’s not an entirely original playbook. Hasbro released a G.I. Joe movie in 2009. The first film,&nbsp;G.I. Joe: The Rise Of The Cobra, starring Channing Tatum, grossed $300 million worldwide. The sequel, which added Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Bruce Willis to the cast, did even better with $375 million.



So if Mattel aims to create the next Marvel Cinematic Universe, Barbie is its Iron Man. “We’ve got over 13 film projects in development. We have over 30 television shows in production,” Dickson says. The slate includes a Daniel Kaluuya-produced film for adults about Barney the purple dinosaur, a Hot Wheels movie produced by J.J. Abrams, and a Vin Diesel-led live-action take on Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots.”


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GettyImages-1528502009.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-58847" width="810" height="540" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GettyImages-1528502009.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GettyImages-1528502009-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GettyImages-1528502009-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Margot Robbie (R) and Ryan Gosling attend premiere of &#8216;Barbie&#8217; (Photo by Wiktor Szymanowicz/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>


The release of&nbsp;Barbie&nbsp;also comes at a time when Mattel’s balance sheet could use a boost. The company ended Q1 in April with $814.6 million in net sales, down 22% year-over-year. Barbie did $177 million in gross sales worldwide, down 44% from a year ago, but representing nearly 58% of Mattel&#8217;s gross sales for dolls overall. “We couldn&#8217;t be more confident and excited about the brand&#8217;s future,” Dickson said on a recent earnings call.



His positivity about the brand remains rosier than Barbie’s beloved pink. “We’re working with the best of the best in console gaming, in mobile gaming, in a variety of other digital experiences that put Barbie on the forefront,” Dickson says. Barbie is now on the blockchain and was the first toy brand to become an NFT. “We’re accepting crypto currency,” Dickson says. “Barbie is a canvas for artists and influencers and collaborations.”



And as she approaches 65 next year, Barbara Millicent Roberts’ heart is kept beating by the same spirit Ruth Handler instilled in her six decades ago.



“Barbie’s not just a toy,” Dickson says. “She’s a source for inspiration.”

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Barbie, Inc: How A $3 Toy Inspired A Multi-Billion-Dollar Dream World

Kojo Anim, a name to reckon with in the UK comedy club scene, says he has a new autobiography about to be launched, as we meet up with him in his new base in Los Angeles.



The world of stand-up comedy is not for the faint-hearted. One has to master the ability to perform under high pressure armed with original material, ensuring your audience is laughing every minute the entire duration of your set.



Sadly, the compensation most stand-up comedians receive for many years of their career is barely enough to make ends meet, but for the lucky few who have made it to superstardom such as Eddie Murphy, Kevin Hart, Chris Rock or Dave Chappelle.



It takes grit, persistence and most importantly, talent, to be able to compete at the highest level of this game and for Kojo Anim, popularly known by his stage moniker, ‘Kojo the Comedian’, this is what he always dreamed of ever since he decided to drop out of university almost three decades ago.



His story was one of overcoming impossible odds. By age five, Anim and his sister had to move into a foster home. Anim recalls the early years as we sit down in a restaurant in the middle of Beverly Hills in Los Angeles for our chat.



As he ponders his move to Hollywood, one sentiment dominates.



“You know I have been self-employed for 25 years? I was thinking about it the other day and I had to pat myself on the back because I have been able to support myself, my family, travel and do everything through just comedy.”



And he is right. Not many comedians make it past their first decade as a professional let alone achieve some of the impressive milestones Anim has under his belt.



And it almost didn’t happen.



Foster care opened Anim up to the promise of a brighter future. The plan at that time was to go to university and then move into sports science because he loved football and if that failed, he would become a teacher. However, a summer in the United States (US) proved to be the catalyst that would set him on an entirely new course.



“I went to the US for a program called Camp America in the summer. My mum was living there at the time so it was an excuse to go there. On the weekend, I got into comedy watching Martin Lawrence on TV and I fell in love with what he was doing. I saw him on stage and he was making people laugh and I knew from then that this is what I wanted to do. I had never laughed more honestly in my life apart from that moment. I felt like my life was about to change,” says Anim.



When he returned to the United Kingdom (UK), Anim was a changed man. He joined a comedy workshop for about two months to hone his skills and then hit the comedy clubs to cut his teeth in the unforgiving world of stand-up. And he has not looked back since.



His journey from that point has been one of many firsts. He was one of the first Africans with his own prime-time radio and TV show in the UK, the first black British comedian to join the cast of MTV’s biggest comedy improv show, Wild ‘N Out, as well as one of the pioneers of the UK weekly comedy club scene.



“In the US, they were doing stand-ups in comedy clubs every Sunday at the Boston Comedy Club and I said ‘why don’t we have this in the UK’? We only had one big show every three months and I said we need something regular every week in the UK.”



The UK versions were held at local night clubs every Sunday and Anim invited some of the biggest up-and-coming comedians at the time like Hart and Chapelle to perform alongside some of the best in the UK. His audience grew rapidly from 90 people to over 300 each night and for the next eight years, Anim dominated the UK comedy scene.



However, things took a turn for the worse. In an industry where relationships are key, a series of unfortunate events including a movie which took nine years to get off the ground, had a negative impact on Anim’s brand on account of the finance for the project falling through and as a result, nobody, including Anim, who was the writer of the project, got paid.



“That business fell apart and that is when I met my son’s mum and that was my hiding place. So, I started posting videos online. She was my escape, my hiding place and the person that helped me get up a little bit. That film really damaged me. But my mum said I should let it go because the size of the loss is the size of the gain. I had to get rid of it and do a lot of therapy to recover,” says Anim.



The setback stifled Anim’s growth and the once-promising comedian fell on hard times. But through it all, he never lost his resilience and persistence. The light at the end of the tunnel came in 2018 when the Britain’s Got Talent team reached out to Anim to participate in the program.



He was suddenly faced with a very tough decision.



“I had only £30 ($40) in my bank when I did the audition. I was thinking ‘how do I get to the show’. I was like ‘I took a risk coming here’. I was on Wild ‘N Out, I had my own radio show on Capital XTRA and I’ve done all these things, why am I on Britain’s Got Talent? People thought I should be a judge. But I realize if you act like you are somewhere you are not, how can people help you?”



He won the coveted Golden Buzzer from Simon Cowell on his first audition for the show and that catapulted Anim again back to comedic superstardom.



“That was the most vulnerable I’ve ever been because it was about I can let myself down but I can never let my son down. Never, it’s impossible, so don’t act like you are bigger than the opportunity, I had to humble myself. This was a chance to be the new guy again but with 20 years’ experience and that is what rose me back up to the surface.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Following his success, he lined up a string of comedy tours across the UK until Covid-19 shut everything down.



Off the back of that momentum, he sits in Hollywood today with a new autobiography about to be launched as well as opening up for Chappelle while waiting patiently to dominate Hollywood and leave his unique mark once again.

Kojo Anim, image supplied

On All the Laughs And More: Ghana’s Kojo The Comedian

TikTok has seen several viral success stories in Nigeria. Content creators speak about the impact any restriction on the app might have on them. 



The TikTok app enjoys widespread popularity worldwide for its innovative short-form video-sharing features that have transformed everyday individuals – leading seemingly normal lives – into viral sensations and overnight celebrities.



In Nigeria, Africa’s biggest and most populous economy, too, it has made creators – lucky enough to garner a following – millions of dollars.



The platform’s most-followed creators are known to reportedly command as much as $500,000 for a single post on the app and marketing companies simply cannot get enough.



In 2021, the country had issued a ban on the app on the basis of concerns regarding the “use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence”. This was according to the national communications regulator. But the ban was soon lifted.



The country is now reportedly taking a more stringent stance against TikTok and other internet intermediaries, asking them to operate under a number of conditions or face a complete ban.



According to a directive by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in Nigeria, TikTok, and other internet intermediaries, are to, among other things, establish a legal entity in Nigeria, appoint a designated country representative to interface with Nigerian authorities, abide by all regulatory demands, and comply with all applicable tax obligations, or risk getting banned.



“A lot of young people earn from social media and TikTok. A lot of music promotion [is] done on TikTok and it has created extra income for young people to fend for themselves. It will affect a lot of young people if the app gets banned,” says Enioluwa Prince Adeoluwa, who goes by the moniker ‘Eni’ on social media, and has a following of about 1.9 million on TikTok.



“It also gives people a very big sense of hope. TikTok helps bridge [the] gap to music. You don’t need a lot of money or fancy equipment like a ring light or a studio or a professional camera to succeed on TikTok or to go viral. If TikTok is banned it removes the access for an average individual to have that breakthrough.”



Eni’s big break came during the Covid lockdown period when a video he created on the platform, where he donned lip gloss and provided a satirical account on topics in Nigeria, went viral.



“I was probably one of the first group of people on TikTok in Nigeria. A team member of TikTok reached out to me to make TikToks and said that it will help reach other audiences, and that was very impressionable to me as a creator. I would wake up and see 100,000 followers and that was great for me, and that helped me create more TikToks. With the app, you can have 5,000 followers and have videos that get millions of views. People are not as conscious about following other people like they are on Instagram. With TikTok, people just follow each other without any pressure,” says Eni.



Others corroborate his sentiment.



“I have about 1.6 million followers on TikTok and as a result I have over 20 brands who pay me as an influencer to help sell and promote their brands on my platform. These brands range from skincare brands all the way to waist trainers,” says Anita Natacha Akide, an influencer and serial entrepreneur in Lagos popularly known as ‘Symply Tacha’ on social media.



The app has also helped launch her successful career as a reality TV star. Some of her credits include Big Brother Naija and the American reality TV series The Challenge. In addition, her growing presence on the app has also meant Nollywood has come knocking.



“I have two movies coming out in 2023 all thanks to TikTok because on the app you can show so many different sides of your personality. I have landed four movies already so far thanks to the app. As long as you are being funny you will keep multiplying your followers. Social media has been my full-time job since 2016,” says Symply Tacha.



One of the biggest draws of the app is its ability to give the average person the tools to go viral. Take Khabane ‘Khaby’ Lame for example, one of the most followed accounts on the platform with over 161 million followers. Lame went from being a factory worker to becoming a brand ambassador for Hugo Boss with his face plastered on billboards all over the world, by simply mocking other people’s videos.



With all its pros, it was a big surprise for all the creators when the parent company of TikToK, ByteDance, started receiving banning threats from the Trump administration in 2020. It cited concerns of a security breach due to the company being Chinese-owned.



Very soon other countries followed suit, claiming security and privacy concerns.



On June 4 last year, the Nigerian government suspended social media platform, Twitter, and only reinstated the app on condition that it implemented the new NITDA directive for internet companies in the country, some seven months later.



For many influencers who are making a living on TikTok, these are tense times and a ban will also spell disaster for a number of ancillary industries.



“TikTok influencers are signing up as brand ambassadors to create content. Through laughing, we are also indirectly selling a product and TikTok works well with this. Banning TikTok will have a huge negative impact because a huge percentage of influencers use the platform to make a living,” says Symply Tacha.



“Restricting these people will make it harder for African creators to succeed. Rema featuring Selena Gomez, for example, was pushed and succeeded, globally, because of TikTok and that shows the power of the app.”

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‘Bridging The Gap To Music’: The Influence And Reach Of Nigeria’s TikTok Stars

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Khabane “Khaby” Lame, known for TikTok videos in which he silently mocks complicated &#8220;life hack&#8221; videos, holds the title of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@khaby.lame?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">most followed TikToker</a>&nbsp;for the first half of the year with more than 160,500,000 followers, holding his lead of about 10 million followers over dancer and social media personality Charli D’Amelio.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Lame, a Senegalese-Italian social media personality, got popular on the short video app for duetting “life hack” videos and silently either making fun or simply showing a simpler way to address the issue “solved” by the hack.



Lame passed D’Amelio as the most followed TikToker in June 2022 and has held the title since then.



Since achieving fame on social media, Lame has been named a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/khaby-lame-worlds-followed-tiktok-creator-joins-italias-got-talent-jur-rcna73112" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">judge</a>&nbsp;on&nbsp;Italia’s Got Talent, signed a multi-year&nbsp;<a href="https://peopleofcolorintech.com/front/tiktok-star-khaby-lame-signs-multiyear-deal-with-the-hugo-boss/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">contract</a>&nbsp;with Hugo Boss and has a voice&nbsp;<a href="https://leganerd.com/2022/11/04/black-panther-wakanda-forever-khaby-lame-ha-un-cameo-vocale-nella-versione-italiana/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cameo</a>&nbsp;in the Italian-dubbed version of&nbsp;Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.



On June 27, Lame presented his short film “I Am Khabane,” which documents Lame’s story of finding social media success, at the Taormina Film Festival in Italy.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-top-five-accounts">TOP FIVE ACCOUNTS</h2>



As of June 29, these are the five TikTok accounts with the most followers, according to SocialTracker:



<ol>
<li><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@khaby.lame?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Khaby Lame</a>: 160,100,000</li>



<li><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@charlidamelio?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Charli D’Amelio</a>: 150,700,000</li>



<li><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@bellapoarch?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bella Poarch</a>: 92,700,000</li>



<li><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@addisonre?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Addison Rae</a>: 88,600,000</li>



<li><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@mrbeast?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MrBeast</a>: 83,200,000</li>
</ol>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Lame, 23, first started posting TikToks in 2020 after being laid off from his job as a factory worker in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. His comedy videos have been praised for having an “everyman” appeal. In an interview with the&nbsp;New York Times, Lame&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/02/style/khaby-lame-tiktok.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;his silent reactions to the absurd life hack videos he duets or stitches is a “global language” and that his “comedic facial expressions and the simplicity of his content” helped him grow into such a large influencer.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



Though TikTok users are growing in popularity and the app is becoming a growing place for companies to reach new audiences and sell products, it still faces challenges and people fear the Chinese-owned app is collecting data from American users it could give that to the Communist Party. While there’s no nationwide ban on TikTok, the majority of American states—and Congress—have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush/2023/04/15/montana-bans-tiktok-heres-why-its-probably-unenforceable/?sh=1e3d2e92b38b">banned</a>&nbsp;the app from government devices, and Montana recently became the first state to pass a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/05/17/montana-governor-signs-tik-tok-ban-but-legal-challenges-are-expected/?sh=4c97c6da4dc9">law</a>&nbsp;banning the app completely. That law drew legal challenges from the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/05/22/tik-tok-sues-montana-after-state-passes-law-banning-app/?sh=79b6c9865da1">company</a>&nbsp;and criticism from free speech advocates who argue the ban “unlawfully abridges one of the core freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



1.677 billion. That’s how many&nbsp;<a href="https://www.demandsage.com/tiktok-user-statistics/#:~:text=TikTok%20has%20over%201.677%20billion,are%20its%20monthly%20active%20users." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">users</a>&nbsp;TikTok has, and more than 1 billion of them are considered active monthly users, according to data intelligence company Demand Sage. In March, TikTok passed 150,000,000 American&nbsp;<a href="https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/150-m-us-users" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">users</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/02/style/khaby-lame-tiktok.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">How Khaby Lame Took Over TikTok</a>&nbsp;(New York Times)



<a href="https://www.socialtracker.io/toplists/top-10-tiktok-users-by-followers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Top 10 Most Followed TikTok accounts in 2023</a>&nbsp;(SocialTracker)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/05/17/montana-governor-signs-tik-tok-ban-but-legal-challenges-are-expected/?sh=4c97c6da4dc9">Montana Governor Signs TikTok Ban—But Legal Challenges Are Expected</a> (Forbes)

69th Taormina Film Festival – Day 6

Khaby Lame—Known For Mocking ‘Life Hacks’—Top TikToker Of 2023

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Only “human creators” can be nominated for Grammy Awards, according to new eligibility requirements released Friday by the Recording Academy, as the music industry adds new limitations for songs produced by artificial intelligence.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Any work that features elements created by AI must also feature a “human authorship component” that is “meaningful” in order to be considered for a Grammy Award, according to new&nbsp;<a href="https://www.recordingacademy.com/awards/awards-updates" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">requirements</a>&nbsp;released Friday by the Recording Academy.



The Recording Academy previously&nbsp;<a href="https://www.recordingacademy.com/advocacy/news/ai-copyright-protecting-music-creators-united-states-copyright-office" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;it “embraces advances in technology,” adding it wanted to ensure “human creativity and passion is protected.”



Other eligibility changes require artists to account for at least 20% of a work in order for it to be considered.



The number of people eligible for the Grammy’s “Big Four” categories—best new artist and best new album, song and record—was also decreased from 10 to eight.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



Paul McCartney&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/06/13/ai-you-need-is-love-artificial-intelligence-helps-create-final-beatles-song-paul-mccartney-says/?sh=5c3ce17b1275">announced</a>&nbsp;Tuesday that a “final” Beatles song would be released later this year after it was completed with the help of AI. McCartney—who did not name the song—said the technology was used to “extricate” John Lennon’s voice from a demo tape, while Lennon’s “pure” vocals” were used to complete the song.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h2>



Researchers at Meta&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/FelixKreuk/status/1667086356927901696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;an open-sourced AI program—<a href="https://huggingface.co/spaces/facebook/MusicGen" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MusicGen</a>—last week that allows users to generate music based on text input.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



AI-generated music&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/05/03/ai-generated-music-is-here-sung-by-stars-like-drake-and-ariana-grande-but-it-may-be-very-illegal/?sh=42692453aa32">became</a>&nbsp;a social media trend this year, including AI-created songs that featured Drake, Kendrick Lamar, the Weeknd and others. Universal Music Group sent a letter to streaming services—like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and TikTok—in April requesting they prevent AI programs from accessing their platforms to train on copyrighted lyrics and melodies,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/aec1679b-5a34-4dad-9fc9-f4d8cdd124b9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the&nbsp;Financial Times. The U.S. Copyright Office&nbsp;<a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/03/16/2023-05321/copyright-registration-guidance-works-containing-material-generated-by-artificial-intelligence#:~:text=And%20in%20the%20current%20edition,any%20creative%20input%20or%20intervention" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">will only</a>&nbsp;offer copyright to works “created by a human being,” adding it will not “register works produced by a machine.” The Recording Academy—which presents the Grammy Awards—<a href="https://www.recordingacademy.com/advocacy/news/ai-copyright-protecting-music-creators-united-states-copyright-office" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;it is working with the copyright office to discuss possible regulations for AI-generated music, adding it wants to “ensure human creativity is always at the forefront of copyright policy.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/06/13/ai-you-need-is-love-artificial-intelligence-helps-create-final-beatles-song-paul-mccartney-says/?sh=5c3ce17b1275">AI You Need Is Love: Artificial Intelligence Helps Create ‘Final’ Beatles Song, Paul McCartney Says</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/05/03/ai-generated-music-is-here-sung-by-stars-like-drake-and-ariana-grande-but-it-may-be-very-illegal/?sh=42692453aa32">AI-Generated Music Is Here—‘Sung’ By Stars Like Drake And Ariana Grande—But It May Be Very Illegal</a> (Forbes)

Chicago Chapter 60th Anniversary Concert

Grammy Awards Restrict AI: Only ‘Meaningful’ Human Work Will Be Recognized

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Netflix users in the U.S. will no longer be able to share accounts with others who don’t live with them, the company&nbsp;<a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/news/update-on-sharing-may-us" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;Tuesday, after the same password crackdown was instituted in four other countries earlier this year.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Netflix&nbsp;<a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/news/update-on-sharing-may-us" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;U.S. users an “account is for use by one household,” urging subscribers to sign out their accounts on devices that “shouldn’t” have access to the user’s account, and set a primary location for the account.



Netflix users who want to share their account with someone outside their household can either pay $7.99 for a “sub account” or they can transfer a profile to a new membership that someone else pays for—a move that would allow users to keep their watch history and saved list.



Users will still be able to watch Netflix from their personal devices or log into new TVs at hotels or other locations, the company&nbsp;<a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/news/update-on-sharing-may-us" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Earlier this year, Netflix&nbsp;<a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/news/an-update-on-sharing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;it was instituting password-sharing restrictions in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain. At the time, Netflix said similar measures would be coming to the U.S. in the coming months. Netflix began testing paid sharing, with the same restrictions U.S. users will now face, in its Latin America market last year. Netflix is one of the first major streaming services to start cracking down on password sharing, in a move likely prompted by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2022/08/09/netflix-loses-subscribers-as-disney-catches-up-heres-how-the-major-streaming-services-are-faring-so-far-this-year/?sh=2f446c22a1c4">last year’s</a>&nbsp;loss of subscribers and the need for additional revenue.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



100 million.&nbsp;As of February, that’s how many households share their passwords, Netflix&nbsp;<a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/news/an-update-on-sharing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/anafaguy/2023/02/08/netflix-password-crack-down-begins-in-canada-new-zealand-portugal-spain/?sh=3ff300a22f34">Netflix Password Crack Down Begins In Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonytellez/2023/02/02/netflixs-password-sharing-crackdown-and-what-amazon-prime-hulu-others-are-doing-explained/?sh=61031c7d56ea">Netflix’s Password Sharing Crackdown—And What Amazon Prime, Hulu, Others Are Doing—Explained</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2022/08/09/netflix-loses-subscribers-as-disney-catches-up-heres-how-the-major-streaming-services-are-faring-so-far-this-year/?sh=2f446c22a1c4">Netflix Loses Subscribers As Disney+ Catches Up: Here’s How The Major Streaming Services Are Faring So Far This Year</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



CORRECTION (5/23): This story has been updated to clarify that Netflix users will not have to set a primary location and to clarify that users will not need one-time access codes to log into Netflix from other locations.

In this photo illustration the Netflix logo seen displayed

Netflix Starts Long-Awaited Password-Sharing Crackdown—Here’s How

Rwandan cinema is coming of age, with a new wave of artistes and filmmakers bent on reiterating the country’s indomitable creative spirit and putting its movies on the international map. 



By Ridhima Shukla



The first feature film to ever come out of Rwanda was in 2001 titled 100 Days, a love story set against the backdrop of the brutal genocide against the Tutsi of 1994 directed by British filmmaker Nick Hughes.



In the years since, there have been more movies made in the tiny East African nation, although this has been a journey of risk and resilience in nabbing the top honors on the big screen .



Still busy building itself from scratch since the horrific events of 1994 that saw almost a million dead, as also building the capacity and infrastructure for large-scale movie production in tande with other development projects, Rwanda had not had a prevailing cinema culture in general. 



Mazimpaka Jones Kennedy, a veteran of the African film industry, says to FORBES AFRICA: “Rwandans did not have the culture of buying a ticket and going to the cinema, but things are changing. There is so much talent in the country and everyone loves films; we have come a long way!” 



With the spurt of growth and development in Rwanda, the nation’s artistes and creatives are exploring the myriad possibilities.



The creative sector has changed its narrative and today, Rwandans are being recognized for their work in international projects; their faces are on big budget films and their names are being played up across Over-The-Top (OTT) streaming platforms.



But this story began with the pioneers in the early 2000s.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/332099011_210837238143155_5126690596300338503_n-819x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-58243" width="540" height="675" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/332099011_210837238143155_5126690596300338503_n-819x1024.jpg 819w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/332099011_210837238143155_5126690596300338503_n-240x300.jpg 240w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/332099011_210837238143155_5126690596300338503_n-768x960.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/332099011_210837238143155_5126690596300338503_n.jpg 1080w" sizes="(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Elaine Umuhire. Photo by Nadia Melii </figcaption></figure></div>


In 2004, Eric Kabera, a name synonymous with the Rwandan film industry, established the Rwanda Cinema Centre for training local talent and providing a launchpad for future filmmakers. He is focused on telling a new tale of hope and resilience in Africa.



At the same time, a larger influx of foreign producers, directors, actors and film crews made their way into Rwanda, instigating a passion for filmmaking among Rwandans and leading to the rise of a new wave of creatives who see cinema as a tool to tell their story and assist in the healing of the country’s people.



“We started by telling stories around the genocide. Because it was important for healing, and commemorating the lives that were lost,” says Eliane Umuhire, an award-winning Rwandan actress known for her role in the BAFTA-nominated Bazigaga.



Whilst Rwandans were beginning to take an interest in cinematography, and the passion for the craft was becoming more prevalent, the industry still lacked the necessary skills needed to create full feature films.



Authentic and compelling stories were being written but with a massive skills gap, the industry was struggling to scale up and become more lucrative. 



Christopher Marler, who founded the Africa Digital Media Academy in Rwanda in 2014 to bridge the necessary gaps in the industry, says: “The industry is still young and does not have a lot of money. On the other hand, how can the industry make more money if it does not have the skilled workers it needs? There are plenty of people that have the vision for film, but making it happen… that’s another story.”



He says his graduates are doing well. 



“It’s a bit old now, but in 2018, we did a tracer survey and discovered that we had a 91% employment rate amongst our graduates, not just because of their technical skills, but because they also know how to be professionals.”



But even before the inception of such institutes, Umuhire, the protagonist of Trees of Peace, paved the way with the help of likeminded and passionate artists, a tremendous testimony to Rwanda’s creative spirit.



“I started in theater and there was no cinema industry as such, even theater was in the early stages. There were two theater companies both led by women. They are the ones who walked me on [my] artistic journey,” says Umuhire from her film set in an international production studio in London where she is shooting her yet-to-be-announced next project.



“I want to share my story to inspire others that anything is possible. By working in international productions I can say that I can be black, with no hair, short and not the normal standard of beauty, yet make an impact on someone… all these people are testimony to that. We can tell our own stories.”



The story of the African people told by African people is becoming the norm and Rwanda has a major role to play in it. Today, the land of a thousand hills is a shining beacon of political and economic stability – and its cinema landscape is a reflection of a modern society embracing its past and channeling it into unity, growth and development.



Cinema has taken up the role as a medium for Rwandans to own their story and change the perception of the world about Rwanda.



Umuhire shares what it has meant for her to work on a story that does not simply focus on the chaos and brutality of the past but also bring to light the humanity of the continent’s people. 



“I played a character in a short film that played at the BAFTA, about a Rwandan shaman, a traditional healer who saved 200 Tutsi people. It’s beautiful to tell a story like that, about people who were the light in the deep dark history of Rwanda and who did good. Without this story, no one would have known. It portrays an African woman not as a victim but as a winner, saving lives.”



By being the compass and propellers of the African narrative, Rwanda is looking to create more buzz globally and within the continent with bigger productions portraying a new, fast-growing and changing Africa.



This ambition has opened doors for OTT content to thrive.



Moving hand in hand with improved access to mobile devices and the internet, OTT films and series are the new trend in East Africa; one that is here to stay and grow exponentially. Wilson Misago, the Founder and CEO of Zacu TV, a production and distribution house in Rwanda, says: “According to a report by Africa Business Communities, the OTT market in East Africa is projected to grow by 17% annually, reaching a value of $392 million by 2025.”



The rise of OTT has compensated for the lack of distribution avenues in the region by serving as a valuable distribution channel for local content creators, who are able to reach wider audiences and monetize their content through ad-supported or subscription-based models. “In Rwanda, there is a growing interest in locally-produced content, particularly in the Kinyarwanda language. Viewers are interested in stories that are relevant to their culture and experiences, including dramas, comedies and documentaries that address social issues,” adds Misago.



“Rwanda, by itself, is a small market. Now we have, through Canal+ and other efforts, a way to distribute and promote films to all of Africa. This, in turn, makes it more interesting for investors to finance production. The other big change is that we are finally getting some international attention. Distribution plus exposure equals the funding of productions,” concurs Marler.



In a matter of 20 years, the country has gone from having not a single movie theater to having several, and from having no homegrown productions to a thriving movie industry with the potential to grow into one of the biggest sectors of the economy.



In contrast to the past when actors were hired from other parts of Africa to play Rwandans, today, many Rwandans work in international projects as actors. Actor Arthur Nkusi considers it a natural progression. He played a supporting role in the film Fight Like A Girl with Rwandan actress, Malaika Uwamahoro.



“Rwandan actors have grown in terms of the experience of participating on international sets; today, the chances of being cast are much higher,” says Nkusi to FORBES AFRICA. Beyond acting, Rwanda’s directors are also shaking up the international market despite budget constraints.



This growth and recognition has not gone unnoticed by the government of Rwanda which has identified films as an important medium to strengthen its identity globally and also to enhance film tourism in the country.



Clare Akamanzi, CEO of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), says: “We have set up the Rwanda Film Office; the idea is to reduce the cost for producers who come to shoot in our country.



This package includes tax incentives, and we have also built an audio visual studio at the ICT Innovation Centre to enable talent and quality in production, under the Rwanda Tourism Board.”



This move by the government is a strategic step towards creating the right atmosphere for filmmakers and other creative talent to spend more time in the nation, and assist directly or indirectly in raising the standard of the craft among local talent while building niche skillsets to aid the sector’s growth in the years to come.



Keeping an eye on the future of Rwandan cinema, in 2022, the Rwanda Film Office commissioned RWF184 million ($170,000) to support the development and production of 33 films/series.



Pioneers of the industry are ecstatic at the prospect of such initiatives as it paves the way for the strengthening the sector.



“The Rwanda Film Office under the RDB will support the ecosystem to grow. The film festivals such as the Mashariki African Film Festival, Rwanda Film Festival, Urusaro International Women Film Festival, the Rwanda International Movie Awards etc are putting the Rwandan film industry on the map,” says Misago. Umuhire is ecstatic: “Everywhere I go and tell people I am from Rwanda they tell me they have eyes on Rwanda. I feel there is no limitation in life as Africans. We can fly to the moon and dance with the stars, and still stay authentic to our true selves!”



Hollywood, here they come

Kwetu Film Institute in Rwanda

Celluloid Reality: The New Wave Of Rwandan Cinema

With his recent album, Timeless, making waves, Nigerian Afrobeats star Davido’s much-anticipated performance at the Forbes Under 30 Summit Africa in Botswana did not disappoint. The internationally-acclaimed singer, songwriter and producer also sat down with FORBES AFRICA to talk music and life.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-text-align-center is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
“To see Africans relate with other business pioneers is just great. There has been a lot of recognition of Africans.”
</blockquote>



The last time he stepped on a stage in Botswana, his album A Good Time was at the top of the charts with over one billion streams across various digital platforms.



Returning to Gaborone in Botswana’s capital from April 23-26 with his first new album in over three years, David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, walked off the stage, smiling gratefully as the crowd continued to sing the hit song Unavailable from his new album Timeless – which incidentally also features 2022 FORBES AFRICA 30 Under 30 list-maker Musa Keys (Musa Makamu).



“I&#8217;m unavailable (unavailable). Dem no dem see me (dem no dey see)…” the attendees at the Forbes Under 30 Africa Summit continue to chorus long after the award-winning artist has made his way to his VIP tent around 11PM on a beautiful Botswana night.



The superstar Nigerian Afrobeats singer attended the four-day summit in Gaborone this week, participating in an on-stage interview on day two of the event and signing off the ‘Bushfire Party’ on the final day with an electrifying performance.



“This is one of my first performances of the year,” Davido says to FORBES AFRICA backstage after leaving his fans wanting more at the Waterstone Events and Conferencing venue in Gaborone.



“It was really about me getting back to doing my job. The thing I love most about being an artist is being on tour. I love it. So the fact that I could not perform, I felt very [cloistered].”



This is in reference to the fact that for six months, Davido halted his performances and public appearances after the tragic loss of his son last year.



“God put a full stop to everything I was doing,” he said during his on-stage interview at the summit.



“I never thought I would be able to perform or sit here again. I never thought I would be the same… I had a lot of time to reflect and make changes.”



So the 2023 Forbes summit has been special.



“I mean the fans will always scream,” Davido laughs.



“It was fun to be on stage but being able to sit and listen to people’s visions and their businesses has really been amazing. To see Africans relate with other business pioneers is just great. There has been a lot of recognition of Africans,” he says of the summit sessions that brought together young entrepreneurs.



Davido was a surprise adjudicator for the ‘Pitch Battle’ which had aspiring entrepreneurs selling their ideas to some of the continent’s top venture capitalists in a small group setting on the grass at the Waterstone venue.



“I am just happy that [Forbes] have been recognizing young Africans,” Davido tells FORBES AFRICA. “To put young Africans and creatives together has been amazing to see.”



Although Davido is primarily an Afrobeats artist, for his ‘Bush Party’ performance, the singer/songwriter showed “love” for Amapiano artists like Lethabo Sebetso, professionally known as Focalistic, who made the FORBES AFRICA 30 Under 30 list this year.



Who is his favorite Amapiano artist, we ask.



“Oh no, that is a hard one,” Davido says. “Amapiano has so many great artists but if I had to choose just one, right now it would need to be Musa Keys [Musa Makamu]. But can I just say I have always loved music from South Africa like Mafizola and Askido.”



Collaborating with more South African or southern African artists, he admits he will be “dropping an EP in September”.



His recent new album, Timeless, which he calls “his miracle album”, debuted with 3.61 million streams, more than the previous record on Spotify for first-day streams (4.91 million).



“I would be lying to you if I told you I knew the business-end of music early on in my career,” he laughs. “But it is something I had to learn over time. I don’t think it is something that you already know when you get into the industry but I think it is something you really do need to take seriously, that is very important,” says the star on his early days in Africa’s burgeoning music industry.

Ilan Godfrey for Forbes-3899 (1)

‘Getting Back To Doing My Job’: Nigerian Superstar Davido Opens Up

In 2018, Oluwatosin Ajibade, better known as Mr Eazi, made the FORBES AFRICA 30 Under 30 list. The journey to that began in 2016, when Ajibade took the world by storm with his Afrobeats hit single Leg Over.



Following his success as an artist, as a serial entrepreneur and founder of emPawa Africa (a talent incubator program that funds and mentors emerging African artists), Ajibade is back in South Africa. For this interview from his sun-sea-sand base in Cape Town, he talks about his business ventures and upcoming albums.



Q. What can fans expect from your forthcoming albums?



A. A lot of things changed since the last time [FORBES AFRICA] spoke to me [which was when I had just made the 30 Under 30 list]; things even changed for me musically. Part of it has been that I founded something known as Chop Life Ministries. I was tired of doing the same thing; I was bored of the routine, and needed a new challenge. So I went to spend more time working on my entrepreneurial activities… It was like Chop Life (which had a massive turnout in Rwanda and Sweden) is an African Tomorrowland (electronic dance music festival), you know, with me as host and MC. So this album, Chop Life Volume One, which for the first time is dropping on March 31, is like that whole spirit [of Tomorrowland]…



Q. A lot of young people who enter the music industry do not realize they need to understand the business side of things. How important is it to be business-savvy in the entertainment industry?



A. I think in fairness to most artists, they know they need to be savvy, or they want to be savvy, but it&#8217;s not an easy job mixing, you know, the creativity and the business because both are actually creative endeavors. And both take a toll on the mind. You must write this record and you must focus on writing these beautiful melodies and focus on representing yourself as a creative, as an artist, and as a superstar. But at the same time, you still have to be thinking about some emails, being on some Zoom calls and all of those things. But I feel my talent really is creating stuff. Whether it&#8217;s in the boardroom, or on the Zoom call, it’s business, it’s music. I was just born to create.



Q. What does the future of music in Africa look like?



A. I think the future for African music is very great. It continues to be a growing market. We see more artists breaking globally, undiluted, which gives more power to the creatives. By power I mean for them to have more freedom to create what they want to create, and then be in a better position to not just take any deal. Because I think it&#8217;s just amazing how 90% of African artists are still independent in some form or the other. So, I think it&#8217;s positive.

IMG_2115 2 (1)

‘I Was Just Born To Create’: Mr Eazi On The Future Of African Music

Angélique Kidjo, five-time Grammy award-winning Beninese artist and songwriter, has been announced as one of the three winners of the 2023 Polar Music Prize.



The Polar Music Prize, often called the Nobel Prize of Music, is a Swedish international award founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, the manager of the band ABBA. The award ceremony will take place on Tuesday, May 23, in Stockholm.



“My passion for music has always been unwavering. Being on stage for me is like being in paradise – it’s my sanctuary. It’s my place to link and to connect with my fellow human beings. That is something that I’m grateful for every day,” said Angélique Kidjo in a statement on being awarded the prize.



“To be awarded the Polar Music Prize is humbling. I have no words to say how important this is for me. It comes with a sense of responsibility that is bestowed upon me as an artist to continue to do great work. I will do my best to be a proud recipient of the Prize through my work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, on behalf of the children, and as an ambassador of music, to help create a world in which we can all live in peace.Thank you so much for making me part of this prestigious Prize, in such prestigious company.”



Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records, one of the UK’s greatest independent record labels, and Estonian Arvo Pärt, known as the world’s most performed living composer, also won the award this year.



Previous recipients have included the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Miriam Makeba and Youssou N&#8217;Dour.



Each laureate will receive a prize money of 600,000 Swedish Kroner (approximately $57,384).



Since the inaugural ceremony in 1992, the Polar Music Prize has been renowned as music’s most prestigious honor. The awards committee that selects the laureates is an independent 11-member board. It receives nominations from the public as well as from the International Music Council.



Kidjo created the Batonga Foundation dedicated to supporting the education of young girls in Africa. She also travels the world advocating on behalf of children in her capacity as a UNICEF and OXFAM



Goodwill Ambassador.



She also made the 2023 50 Over 50 list on FORBES AFRICA in the February/March issue of the magazine.



She blends together jazz, hip-hop, zouk, Zairean rumba, samba, salsa, funk, gospel, Cameroonian makossa, and various Beninese traditions.

64th Annual GRAMMY Awards – Arrivals

African Sounds Reign: Angélique Kidjo Takes Home The 2023 Polar Music Prize

By Tiana Cline



One of the most data-intensive industries is entertainment. Streaming services like Netflix or Apple TV are driven by data, collecting information about what you watch and for how long and using it to make personalized recommendations to keep you online. But that is only one side of how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) is used.



Filmmakers today use data science to forecast box office success and, on the rare occasion, a TV show can be picked up before a pilot has been showed – all thanks to technology. 



But there is another part of the movies where data matters – visual effects (VFX). Even though computer generated images have been popular since the 1990s when films like Jurassic Park and Terminator were released, the amount of data generated today by production houses is unfathomable.



Gretchen Libby is an American visual effects artist who worked at Industrial Light &amp; Magic, the VFX company founded by Star Wars writer and director George Lucas. While she is known around the world for her work on award-winning films like Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, Iron Man, and Avatar, she decided to join Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2020 as the director of visual computing to help those who create film and television content do so in the cloud.



Avatar: The Way of Water, most recently, was rendered in AWS. The movie was so computer-intense it couldn’t be stored in the production company’s data center. “Many of us who know about visual effects, computer-generated water is some of the hardest work [you can do],” said Libby at an Amazon’s re:Invent panel.



“My first meeting on Avatar was in 2013,” explains David Conley, an executive VFX producer of Wētā FX, to FORBES AFRICA Conley says that Avatar: The Way of Water pushed Wētā FX to the edges of what computers cand deliver.



“We got to the point where the requirements for rendering this movie were we needed to partner with someone. It has been a huge transition in the history of Wētā FX because we’ve had one of the largest data centers to render all the movies that we’ve been making over the last six years, seven years,” he adds. “And we make about 10 to 15 movies a year.”



With Avatar: The Way of Water, the render workload doubled. The VFX team went from shooting 24 to 48 frames per second, never mind the complexity of the water or other simulations. According to Jon Landau, the film’s producer, most of the scenes in the first Avatar film had two characters.



“Now we have five, 10, 12 characters with hundreds of background extras that need to be generated and rendered,” he says. While someone watching the movie will see a final shot that’s been rendered, behind the scenes, every single shot averages around 500 iterations. “All of those need to be rendered, one after the other… and [Wētā FX] outgrew their capacity to do that on the ground. And it’s not just their capacity – we blew the power grid!” laughs Landau.



GLOBAL PRODUCTION



There are, of course, security concerns that come with having such a big IP in the cloud. “We care very much about protecting our IP at all costs,” explains Landau. “There was a learning curve at the beginning for everybody to understand how to feed the machine and once we got there, the throughput transformed and we were able to – even in the later stages of the film – turn around iterations that really just upped the ante on everything.”



For Landau, the door of possibility has been opened for what the cloud can really do. “It is important to understand the artistry of requiring a project like this is wholly dependent on large amounts of teams coming together and providing lots of different iterations and solutions,” says Conley. “It requires a huge amount of compute power.”



Because Avatar: The Way of Water came together during the pandemic, cloud solved Wētā FX’s big data problem. “We couldn’t architecturally expand our data center because that may require infrastructure that would go to the city council and we all know what it’s like to deal with local government,” Conley says.



Cloud was the only solution – especially considering the stringent content security protocols Disney has on an IP like Avatar. “And I knew that a single frame of this getting out at the wrong time would be devastating not only to Wētā FX but to the project,” he adds. “It took about 14 months to get the first frame and then in eight months, we delivered 3.3 billion thread hours’ worth of content.”



“It’s hard to put in context… there were shots that are so complex, and I’m talking about a four second shot, not an hour-long shot, that would take two weeks to render.



The intense work was daunting and the difference when we went to the cloud was truly powerful,” says Landau. To make movies at a global scale with teams around the world requires combing big data together in a way that connects post-production with distribution and rendering. Through a cloud-based infrastructure, the Wētā FX team have found a way to bring all the entertainment expertise together from inception to script writing, shooting and using the metadata that’s captured on set to deliver final visual effects.



“And that’s what’s exciting for me, those are the next steps. We’re paying the future as opposed to reacting,” says Conley. “What we’ve done here is create a system that allows us to be able to expand the physical and capacity constraints that we want and it gives us the flexibility to move beyond the traditional mortars that restrict us in the post-production space.”

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Big Data, Bigger Movies: Does The Future Of The Film Industry Sit In The Cloud

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



The number of top-grossing movies starring women and women of color increased slightly last year, according to <a href="https://assets.uscannenberg.org/docs/aii-inequality-1600-films-20230216.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">an annual study</a> released Thursday from the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at USC, but the number of films starring people of color decreased.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



Of the 100 top-earning domestic movies released in 2022, 44% featured female-identified actors in leading or co-leading roles, compared to 41% that did in 2021—under the 50% of the U.S. population women make up.



This is an improvement from 2007, when just 20% of the top 100 movies had women in leading or co-leading roles.



Of those same 100 films, 29% featured an actor from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group in a leading or co-leading role, down from 32% in 2021 but up from 13% in 2007, and notably below the 40.7% that these groups make up in the U.S. population.



The largest increase was for women of color: 16 of the top 100 movies in 2022 featured a woman of color in a leading role, up from the 11 that did in 2021; two movies also featured nonbinary actors in leading or co-leading roles.



Women over the age of 45 starred in 10 of the top films last year, compared to 35 movies that featured men in this age group in leading roles.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h2>



31%. That’s how many of the top 100 films per year since 2007—1,600 in total—starred a woman or girl.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Women and people of color have historically been excluded from leading roles in films, as well as in the director’s chair. In 2015, the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite went viral, when the Academy—whose&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/22332389/oscars-academy-diversity-membership-2021" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">voting members</a>&nbsp;were overwhelmingly white—nominated 20 white actors for its honors. The creator of the movement, April Reign, wrote for&nbsp;<a href="https://variety.com/2020/film/news/oscarssowhite-nominations-diversity-april-reign-1203467389/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Variety</a>in 2020 that she has often received pushback along the lines of: “Well, there just weren’t enough diverse films to nominate.” And while people of color are still underrepresented, there has been progress, making their exclusion from awards shows a noticeable problem. “When we have this wealth of talent in front of and behind the camera, and they are still not recognized by what is considered the pinnacle in the industry, then we need to take a closer examination” of the Academy and the industry, Reign wrote. In 2018, Natalie Portman made headlines when she called out the “all-male nominees” when presenting the Golden Globe for Best Director. The Oscars did not nominate any women in its Best Directing category this year.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“The pace of industry change is certainly not a breakneck one,” the Annenberg study said. “The advocacy and activism that may have fueled change in the mid- to late-2010s may have had a short-term impact, but more is needed to achieve lasting improvement.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h2>



Some of the 2022 films led by women of color included&nbsp;Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,&nbsp;Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,&nbsp;Nope,&nbsp;Scream,&nbsp;Everything Everywhere All At Once&nbsp;and&nbsp;The Woman King. These performances were awarded at last month’s Golden Globes, where winners included Michelle Yeoh (Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy) and Angela Bassett (Best Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture), who were both also nominated for Oscars.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2023/01/10/golden-globes-2023-abbott-elementary-the-banshees-of-inisherin-win-big/?sh=bd44b0d59c58">Golden Globes 2023: ‘Abbott Elementary,’ ‘The Banshees Of Inisherin’ Win Big</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="http://forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2023/01/24/oscar-nominations-2023everything-everywhere-all-at-once-leads-pack/?sh=282621a435e2">Oscar Nominations 2023: ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ Leads Pack</a> (Forbes)



By Marisa Dellatto, Forbes Africa

Category: Entertainment

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

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