Africahit - Nigeria: Mary J. Blige, Majek Fashek for Thisday Music Festival

Hip-Hop soul music veteran Mary J. Blige is heading to Nigeria to participate in the country's 46th Independence anniversary celebrations. The mammoth line-up, which already features some of the biggest stars in music today, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Missy Elliott, Busta Rhymes, Ciara , En Vogue and a crop of the best local talent, King Sunny Ade, Seun Anikolapo-Kuti, Tu Face, DBanj, Dare Art Alade and Asa, amongst others have also added Majek Fashek to the bill.

"The participation of these two artists will make this the biggest line-up of music stars on any stage in Africa this year" said THISDAY, Head of Entertainment, Ola Joshua.

We feel that the Nigerian fans love music the same way fans all over the world do. What better way to celebrate the development and progress of our nation than to celebrate with the best musicians the world has to offer".she said.

Majek Fashek's addition to the line-up will bring him back into the country for the first time in 7 years. Charles Novia, CEO of November Records quoted Majek as saying "I am very excited about returning home to Nigeria and performing at the THISDAY Music Festival." Majek whose latest album has sold over a million copies since its release last year just recently concluded a tour of Europe.

Mary Jane Blige is a three-time Grammy Award-winning hip-hop soul singer, songwriter and producer who has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide. Born in the Bronx, New York to a jazz musician father and a nurse mother, Mary was exposed to music from an early age. At the age of four, Mary's father, Thomas, left the family, leaving her mother Cora to raise Mary and her older sister Latonya alone. A couple years later, Mary's family relocated to Yonkers, where they resided in one of the cities most dangerous housing projects. Music eventually became Mary's refuge, singing lead in her church's choir, and at seven she won a talent contest singing Aretha Franklin's "Respect."

In 1988, at age seventeen, Mary recorded an impromptu cover of Anita Baker's "Caught Up In The Rapture" at a recording booth in a local shopping mall. Mary's mother's boyfriend at the time later played the cassette for a music industry contact, Jeff Redd, a recording artist and A&R runner for Uptown Records. Redd sent it to the president and CEO of the label, Andre Harrell. At the time, the fledgling Uptown was home to a few noted hip-hop and R&B

acts of the day, including Heavy D & the Boyz and Guy. Harrell met with Mary, and in 1989, she was signed to the label - becoming the company's youngest and first female artist.

On July 18, 1992, Uptown released What's The 411?. That summer, the album's debut single, "You Remind Me", was released to radio and eventually peaked at #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and climbed to #1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks. It was followed up that fall with "Real Love," which fared even better - becoming Blige's second #1 on the R&B singles charts and first top 10 pop single, peaking at #7 on the Hot 100. Both singles were also certified gold.

Subsequent successful albums followed: "My Life", "Share My World", "Mary", " No More Drama", "Love & Life" and finally "The Breakthrough" released in the summer of 2005. The album debuted at #1 on both the R&B albums and Billboard 200 albums charts, selling more than 727,163 copies in its first week - the biggest first-week sales for an R&B solo female artist in SoundScan history, the 5th largest first-week sales for a female artist and was the 4th largest debut of the 2005.

Majekodumni Fasheke, better known as Majek Fashek is a Nigerian reggae musician, one of the most popular in the country. His name means "high priest who does not lie". He first gained national fame on a television show in the early 1980s, then toured for many years with The Mandators. In 1987, he began a solo career and quickly became the biggest reggae singer in the country. He won six awards the PMAN ceremony and then signed to CBS Nigeria in 1988 before moving to Island Records' Mango imprint a label more accustomed to marketing reggae internationally. His first album for the company included a cover version of Marley's "Redemption So-ng".Majek Fashek is one of the increasing number of African artists to be drawn to the music of the Caribbean, specifically reggae, rather than indigenous hybrids such as fuji, juju or highlife. Having grown up in a fervently religious and musical family, he was exposed to the imported sounds of Bob Marley at an early age, alongside the innovations of local stars such as Fela Kuti.

"Tickets for the event will go on sale Wednesday 20 September and will be available from GTB branches nationwide and from THISDAY's website." Joshua added.