Diamond, Sidibe, Phy featured on CNN’s African Voices

Diamond Platnumz (née Naseeb Abdul Juma) is appearing on the show few weeks after his outstanding performance at the 2016 Glo-CAF Awards gala night held in Abuja on 5 January.

Born in 1989, Diamond, renowned for his hit song, ‘Number One’, is reputed to be Tanzania’s most celebrated artiste at the moment.

In 2014, he set a new record at the Tanzania Music Awards by winning seven awards, including Best Male Writer, Best Male Artiste, Best Song Writer and Best Male Entertainer of the Year. He also won the Best Live Act at the 2015 MTV Africa Music Awards as well as Artiste of the Year and Best Male Artiste, East Africa, at the 2015 African Muzik Magazine Awards.

Senegal’s Sidibe grew up in Dakar where he started the dancehall crew, BBC Sound System.  In 2012, he opened his own music and video production company, Mao Production, and was nominated by France national radio RFI for their annual African Music awards Prix Découvertes 2015.  Mao is reputed for his eclectic mix of reggae, pop and dancehall beat fused with Senegalese traditional drums and instruments.

Phy is a Nairobi-based musician who started singing at a very young age. Her incredible talent came to the fore when at only eight years old she won the overall number one position at the Kenya Music Festival for the solo classical piece in her age category.  In 2011, Phy came together with a group of friends to form PHY AND THE BAND and their sound was heavily influenced by the Afro/Urban genre.  In 2014, Phy went solo by creating her own musical genre which is a diverse array of varieties with her muse being a cross of Mali music, India Arie and Kenyan artist Fena Gitu. The result is a genre she calls PHY-music.

Glo invited viewers to watch African Voices on CNN International at 10.30am and 4.30pm on Friday and repeat broadcasts at 4.30 pm on Saturday, and at 12.30 am and 7.30 pm on Sunday. There are further repeats at 11.30 am on Monday and 5.30 am on Tuesday.