{"id":66466,"date":"2014-04-04T17:10:26","date_gmt":"2014-04-04T17:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=66466"},"modified":"2014-04-04T17:10:26","modified_gmt":"2014-04-04T17:10:26","slug":"sierra-leonean-soul-star-azania-ready-to-rock-africa-now-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=66466","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Leonean soul star Azania ready to rock Africa Now Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Some dreams do come true.\u00a0 On Saturday, April 5, 2014, International soul singer Azania will realize her childhood dreams when she performs at the world famous Apollo Theater\u2019s four-day Africa Now Festival. \u00a0(<em>Photo<\/em>:\u00a0<i>Azania at WBAI 99.5 FM Studio in New York during a radio interview on the No Questions Asked show.\u00a0 From left to right-producer Faida Aliki Godi, Azania-center, and Sizo Kunene-intern producer)<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Seeing my name up on the Apollo marquee was literally a dream come true for me. An amazing blessing,&#8221; Azania told No Questions Asked radio show listeners during last week\u2019s interview broadcasted live on WBAI, 99.5 FM, Pacifica Network Station in New York City.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Azania says she will perform lovely, soulful, jazzy and funky songs from her acclaimed album \u201cRising\u201d as well as new songs from her next album to be released this year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">She will be accompanied by her six-piece band, which includes Shawn Whitley (bass), Justin Mathews (guitar), Lucianna Padmore (drums), Yeissonn Villamar (keyboards) and Gbianka Kotee &amp; Staren Soanes (vocals).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This year\u2019s Africa Now Festival entire acts are from West Africa with Sierra Leonean artists dominating the lineup.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Sierra Leonean famous hip-hop artists Baja and the Dry Eye Crew will open for Azania who is also originally from Sierra Leone.\u00a0 While Sierra Leone Refugees All Stars, an Afrobeat and root, rock reggae band will share the spotlight on Apollo\u2019s Main stage with Senegalese trio Les Freres Guisse and Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;I&#8217;m very excited and proud to see Sierra Leonean\u2019s gaining recognition on the music front. Many very talented artists from Sierra Leone deserve more exposure so I am happy we will have three excellent groups representing us at the world renowned Apollo on April 5, 2014.\u00a0 Come celebrate with us at the Apollo MusicCaf\u00e9 in Harlem, New York,\u201d Azania said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Apollo Music Cafe is located at 253 West 125th Street in New York City. For tickets information visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.apollotheater.org\/apollo-music-cafe\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.apollotheater.org\/apollo-music-cafe<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_66467\" style=\"width: 346px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/sem.lamtech.sl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Azanias_performance_announcement_on_Apollo_Theatres_Marquee_in_Harlem_New_York.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-66467\" class=\"size-full wp-image-66467\" alt=\"Azania's performance announcement on Apollo Theatre's Marquee in Harlem, New York\" src=\"http:\/\/sem.lamtech.sl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Azanias_performance_announcement_on_Apollo_Theatres_Marquee_in_Harlem_New_York.jpg\" width=\"336\" height=\"448\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-66467\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Azania&#8217;s performance announcement on Apollo Theatre&#8217;s Marquee in Harlem, New York<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i>By Dennis Kabatto<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b><\/b><b><i>Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<hr align=\"center\" size=\"2\" width=\"100%\" \/>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some dreams do come true.\u00a0 On Saturday, April 5, 2014, International soul singer Azania will realize her childhood dreams when she performs at the world [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":66468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,745],"tags":[13732,14968,18480,18481,18482,18483],"class_list":["post-66466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-life-and-entertainment","tag-apollo-theater","tag-azania","tag-baja-and-the-dry-eye-crew","tag-fatoumata-diawara","tag-les-freres-guisse","tag-sierra-leone-refugees-all-stars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/66468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}