singers

"When you ask someone who inspires you they always say Bill Gates or Steve Jobs - there are no African names and we (Africans) have great African people doing great things."

"As a kid I was bullied when I came to the UK because I was dark-skinned had short hair and just didn't fit in. I didn't speak that much English and was dyslexic so I had many challenges. But my mum was my inspiration as she encouraged me and said you can be whoever you want to be. I was always looking for inspiration and people who could inspire me, I wanted to listen to people's journeys."

"Communication is key in any relationship and journalists are no different; for the more and clearer the information you give the better the relationship."

"Know your audience. The better your understanding of your audience the better you can communicate with them."

"Understanding what it is that a journalist needs; if you can make it any easier for a journalist to do his/her job it always helps."

"Try not to influence what a journalist writes, as long as they have the facts."

"I don’t have any specific thing I’m going to do now. The one thing I can tell you is I’m definitely not going into retirement. I’m just going to have fun exploring and growing outside of my home, Muvhango"

"You have touched my heart in such a special way. And I wish each and every one of you the best in all that you wish and pray for."

"I’m looking forward to spending quality time with my husband, not the kind of time where you just see each after work then have to go off and read your lines"

"After 20 years‚ I’ve decided to give the Thandaza character a break in order for me to grow as an artist‚ venture out to explore new opportunities and discover what I can do as an actress and as a human being"

"The sky will never be the limit for you because you are destined for greater heights"

"I think it’s lazy to think chemistry is about sex. This is not the industry I joined; this phenomenon of nudity is new. Thankfully, I was cast with someone who shares the same sentiment with me."

"Generally, men are not well represented in South African media. It is hard to watch TV and look at a man and wish your son would grow up to be like him or for your daughter to marry a man like him"

"My team and I put together a special luncheon where I got to meet and personally thank an amazing group of people for their love and support. We ate, we sang, we laughed and we cried."

"I think things have their own ways of operation in different period or times. [Formerly], each entertainer was well polished before they were shown to the public. They were well protected. Now, with the effect of social media platforms, each entertainer is expected to present themselves very honestly. Live interviews are getting popular on social media now. The good side of it is that you can let your audience know what you are really like."

"I’m still learning how to be a good person. I feel that sometimes, I’m not objective enough. When you think of situations from a different point of view, you’ll discover that it might be the reason why disagreements occur in the first place. Learning to be more accepting of different points of views and mindsets is very important."

"Being knowledgeable is a prerequisite, only then can you be good at acting. Otherwise, you are just a flower vase."

"I had high expectations of myself from the start. I think I had a rather smooth journey in showbiz — I always had work opportunities knocking on my door, but rather than being stressed over a lack of work, I put pressure on myself because I wanted to do better. When you want to become better, you put more pressure on yourself as well."

"There were too many unknowns, and that caused me to doubt myself. At the time, I also took awards more seriously. But after some time in the industry, I realised that it’s more important to treat your job seriously every day. Everything else is just a bonus."

"I really get the hang of it when I feel like my soul is intertwined with the character I’m playing. That excitement is beyond what words could describe. I feel the character’s pain, her helplessness, her everything. When I’m there, I secretly feel happy for my own acting."

"I have liked fashion since I was small. Only after becoming the creative director of my fashion brand, did I realize that making a piece of apparel is nothing easy. The entire process starts from conceptualization, deciding on the materials, to production and sales and marketing, which are all very interesting to me. Most importantly, I believe fashion coexists with films. I actually have got many of my creative inspirations from films. Good fashion is timeless."

"If you’re happier, you’ll be healthier, and you’ll live longer too."

"I’d say never give up on your dreams. Destiny strikes you when you are least prepared, but as long as you are prepared your dream will come true."

"A hard-working person might not end up being successful, but a successful person is most definitely a hard worker."

"I need to see charisma, X-factor or something unique about the person. Something that will make me go ‘Wow’ the moment he or she walks on stage. Just like how it was when I was a rookie."

"What attracts people is the aura that you exude, rather than just good looks."

"I have friends that find during flights and when you ask where they are going, they say they are headed to Kenya to tour yet we have all that Kenya has. It is high time Ugandans started visiting their own country."

"We can’t boycott other people’s music because we also go to their countries. Those who say that Nigerians have dominated our industry, it is just their opinion. I also travel to Congo, Tanzania, Nigeria, and so many other countries to perform. It is a form of music exchange but we need to plan for a way to have a fair trade so that our music also gets to be played in their country often. In this era, you can no longer say that you’re going to boycott music from other nations. Even when we do so, it will still infiltrate us through social media platforms whether we like it or not."

"I am a big attraction to this country musically but now is the time to attract people to Uganda in terms of tourism. Uganda is a beauty with a lot of attractions for the world to visit and explore."

"I keep a group of close-knit friends who inspire, build and challenge me to grow in my career."

"I know I am my greatest enemy. But the good thing is, I was able to harness into my heartbreak positively and create a great product."

"I would love for anyone who is on their parenting journey...maybe consider that the world has been optimized for brains that conform to societal norms but there are other brains that have helped us move forward in creativity, in laughter, in joy and there's a place for them.*"

"Your slow motion is better than No Motion"

"Exceptional talent, (not nudity) is what guarantees one’s relevance in this industry; we all come to that realisation over time."

"Music is just like art. And both talents are innate. You must be artistically inclined to be creative. So, it’s the art in me that has found expressions through music."

"It started with Husbands of Lagos and Mary Njoku kept on calling me that she had me in mind to play her mother in law. I was going to be mother to Kenneth Okoli, I couldn't be that much older than Kenneth. But this is make believe. But guess what? When I did it, it was a success, and what happens with such characters is that everybody now writes characters with you in mind to play that. So you find that you see a lot of my movies where I play mother and people start to look at you [as if you're older than you are]. Was I worried for a bit? Yes, I was because you find, especially in our industry, that nobody wants to grow old. It doesn't matter, it's okay how old you decide to be. It's in the mind."

"When people say you're forever young, I laugh, becaus people judge you based on how long they've seen you on screen so they assume that you are as old as the length of the career. I don't bother trying to explain it, it doesn't make sense. So some people will see me and say "oh, you're aging gracefully", and I'm like are you kidding me right now? What happened to starting out early? But hey, the fact that I'm still here 25 years. I came to the industry in 1997 but I actually started acting in 1998."

"Getting back into the industry [after I had gone to get married and have my children] was difficult, because there was this bridge between the young girls, my set of girls, and the mummies. You don't have a lot of roles where my set of girls - let's call us 'ladies' - so girls, ladies, mamas, there were not a lot of roles for we ladies. It was a little tough because most of the roles then were between young girls (sweet 16, 18, 25) or you're playing the mummy role. So you don't have a lot of roles where we easily fit in. And then after a while, roles would come and people would say "please play this person's mother" and I was like play who's mother? Initially, I didn't want to play it because I was like I can't come and be borning people that are almost my age. But then after a while, I was like give it a shot."

"Rwanda is in me, it’s very deep. My creativity is linked to the past, my childhood there. There is much to be said and told, not just through dance and music, but that is one way to address it. It’s a question of creating, mending, performing, witnessing, sharing."

"It’s true that men who invade territories also want to annihilate the physical body, the social body. But I decided to zoom into the stories of the Rwandan women and let that spread out and speak of the others."

"The choreography was about digging into the physical memories of these women’s tension, their rage, their sorrow. I tried to honestly remember my feelings and the emotional journey I went through in their presence. I am not trying to reproduce rape; I want to cut through the trauma so that people can receive and understand these experiences. The body speaks when testimony has been suspended."

"I would ask if I could take a photo after talking to them, and most would change into a beautiful dress. They wanted me to carry beauty and hope with me."

"I recorded their voices and really tried to capture how they held themselves, how they walked, how they wiped away their tears. It all became physical, choreographic, material. We hear some of their testimonies in the piece, and I had to find a way for the body to navigate through these spoken words"

"My latest song, “Ganja,” is a love song, love inspired it and the way I see it, love is intoxicating."

"One should always be true to oneself. Nothing lasts forever and nothing is do or die. Also, one should always value relationships."

"Sometimes isolation is a gift , learn how to be grateful when God separates you from the wrong people. Don't push to get back in their lives."

"I have learnt that one can ‘switch up’ one’s flow and style but one should never change one’s core values."

"I like to work with different musicians also, and so all of that takes time."

"In continuing to build a community that is suitable for all, we must continue to liberate ourselves from within ourselves because it leads to education and to the sanctity of the home.(Mu gukomeza kubaka umuryango ubereye bose rero, ahakiri ingutu dukomeze tuhabohore duhereye MU MBERE IWACU kuko ijya gutera uburezi irabwibanza kandi n’ijya kurisha ihera k’urugo.)"

"I am tired of people being told ‘ihangane’ (sorry),”"