An artwork of her Nyota Ndogo's Cover Album - Mpenzi

Born in 1981 in the Kenyan Coastal province of Mombasa, Nyota Ndogo has come from a very humble background. She dropped out of school at a young age and for quite some time, worked as a house help until she was discovered by Andrew Burchell as a talented singer.

Now she has 3 cd's released under her name, CHEREKO, NATOKA MBALI NA WEWE and MPENZI. She has also featured on 3 international compilations WORLD 2003, THE ROUGH GUIDE TO KENYA and OFF THE BEATEN TRACK. She is also holder of two Kenya Kisima Music Awards: Best Taraab Singer 2003 and Best Female Singer 2005.

Her songs which are mostly in Kiswahili with a few in English are sang in the Taarab genre heard mostly in the East African Coast as well as in Kapuka and Genge, music genres heard mainly within the Kenyan mainland.

So how does one with such a background learn to harness the internet to her advantage as a growing Kenyan based Artist? This is the question that comes to mind when you visit her blog.

In it, she shares everything about herself as an artist from a personal perspective as opposed to the edited media stories and information that one will find in the entertainment section of a newspaper or magazine.

From music videos of her songs to lyrics to photos of her performing with fellow artists and fans, one can feel a more intimate connection with Nyota Ndogo through her blog.

Blogging has not been an easy experience for her as she confessed in her blog post on 27th July, 2006 at 1.43pm

wow I’d nearly given up with the blog as it was proving difficult to get a new post up .it turned out to be me using an incompatible browser. So am back with good old internet explorer. If this works expect some pix up soon so much has happend.x

Looking at her current blog posts, one can indeed see that Nyota has known quite well how to use the blogging tool. This unfortunately cannot be said of many other East African Artists as I could not find any other artist blog.

It seems, one need not be learned to know how to blog, it is after all, a tool.

The choir uses humor, which is reflected in their repertoire. They performed children's song “We are Macedonians” (Ние сме Mакедонци) [MKD] at the public holiday of the Day of the Macedonian Revolutionary Struggle, and had a performance in front of the Greek Liaison Office (a de facto Embassy of Greece) with the song “Dirlada” (Дирлада) [MKD] about summer love of a Macedonian boy and Greek girl who encounter difficulties due to visa restrictions.

On a grimmer note, the Singing Skopjans also sang “Kill me” (Убиј ме) by the local band Bernays Propaganda, which includes these lyrics:

Не сум како тебе,
немам иста боја,
омразата е твоја
…
Не сум како тебе
затоа у-б-и-ј м-е
убиј, убиј ме.

…in order to comment on the events of beating up student protesters on a Skopje square a few months ago.

The latest performance includes the Lumberjack Song by Monty Python, related to the cutting of the old trees on the Ilinden Boulevard, an act of Skopje's mayor which caused a lot of anguish and frustration [MKD] among ordinary citizens several months ago.

The word about this innovative commentary source has been spreading mainly through social media, especially through Facebook, and after a few weeks caught the attention of the traditional media: Dnevnik daily published an article about the choir [MKD].

Beckii Cruel started to gain popularity at the end of this year thanks to some videos posted on YouTube where she appears dancing in her room, to the tune of anime songs, attracting the interest of inveterate fans of anime and manga.
After becoming a celebrity on the Internet as user xBextahx, she was invited to perform in Akihabara, the district in eastern Tokyo that is widely acknowledged as the symbol of the otaku culture [en].

bluecafe09k48 sums up Beckii's profile for us.

イギリス・マン島在住の美少女、１４歳ですね～。
マンガ「フルーツバスケット」を読んで以来、
日本のオタク文化に嵌ったのが３年前とのこと。
ベッキー・クルーエル自身が日本のアニメソングなどで踊っている動画を
ＹｏｕＴｕｂｅで公開したのが今年の３月くらいから。
「男女」がニコニコ動画に転載されたのが５月頃で、人気が爆発。

PV of Danjo (男女)

Beckii Cruel's popularity is certainly a Japanese phenomenon, as demonstrated by the fact that the only Wikipedia entry on her is in Japanese. However, the word of mouth has spread also among those foreigners who are passionate fans of Akihabara and the otaku culture in general.

GodLen, at Animevice. com, for example, comments with a bit of mock jealousy on the British idol's career.

Beckii Cruel, oh how I wish I were her, for she is the Cinderella story of the otaku world. This 14-year-old girl from England has won over the hearts of moe-loving otaku in Japan by posting videos of herself dancing to anime and Jpop songs on youtube. Yesterday she had the opportunity to dance in front of over 600 fans at the Enta Matsuri in Akihabara; amazing, and it all started with a youtube video. Now she has a DVD coming out in Japan (which you can pre-order now) that features her dancing her dance, and being overall moe.

Sankei News interview to Beckii Cruel at Akihabara Enta Festival

Beckii Cruel, who was recently chosen by candy and sweets maker Lotte to promote the Fit's Dance Contest together with other celebrities, performed live for the first time at Akihabara Enta Festival on October 25 [here are some pictures of the show].

In hats off for Mekki,
Zeinobia wrote:

After hearing provoking and insulting rap from both Egypt and Algeria attacking each other , Ahmed Mekki ; Egyptian-Algerian Actor/director/rapper released this song which I believe should have been released earlier as it could help a lot in making both sides wake up from this stupidity.

Nawara Negm is falling in love with Mekki:

The lyrics:

Egypt’s chief Egyptologist Dr. Zahi Hawass called American pop-star Beyonce a “stupid person” during her brief tour of the Giza pyramids:

during Hawass’ self-guided tour, he said “I showed her the Sphinx and I gave her a book on King Tutankhamen,” but then his anger and frustration made its way to the forefront.

“Then he stopped being diplomatic and said in anger, ’she’s a stupid person and she doesn’t understand a thing and she doesn’t want to understand’,” wrote Summer al-Gamal for Al Shorouk Newspaper.

Hawass is known for his outbursts. A number of foreigners have told Bikya Masr that he has employed Arabic to insult others at dinner events and gatherings, believing the non-Egyptians will not understand his Arabic. Beyonce, obviously, did not understand his jabs, Gamal said.

And speaking as an honored guest at the Cairo International Film Festival, Salma Hayek described how she was sexually harassed in Egypt when she was 17:

Hayek said she went on a touristic tour of Cairo, visited the Pyramids since her arrival earlier this month and expressed her happiness to visit Egypt for the second time in her life and that she thinks the country is very safe, saying she could accompany her daughter in the streets of Cairo without fear. In her native Mexico, where kidnapping is commonplace, this would be unheard of, the Frida, From Dust till Dawn and Fools Rush In star told the audience.

But, she recalled memories of her first visit to Cairo 26-years ago when she was 17, which immediately garnered the applause of the audience for revealing her age.