City Johannesburg Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Christopher Vourlias From its 2018 launch in Johannesburg as an industry event rooted in the local community, the Africa Rising Intl.

Christopher Vourlias As a young, Black woman growing up in Soweto, the sprawling township built by South Africa’s apartheid government on the outskirts of Johannesburg, Lala Tuku had dreams of making movies. But after making inroads into the local industry in the mid-2000s, she found her path to the director’s chair blocked.

Congratulations to Dr Mmamontsheng Dulcy Rakumakoe, an inspiring member of the LGBTQ community, who’s won the prestigious 2020 Santam Woman of the Future award.

The start of Pride Month in Gauteng was marked with the raising of the LGBTIQ+ Rainbow Flag at Johannesburg’s Constitution Hill on a cloudy and chilly Friday morning.

If you fancy yourself representing the LGBTQ community internationally, now’s the time to enter the Mr Gay World South Africa 2020 contest.

Trevor Noah discusses life under quarantine and why he’ll never “complain” about the pandemic.

With Dolby On, artists don’t need professional equipment to record richer, studio-quality performances. Last month, we challenged FADER readers to use the mobile app to perform an original song from home.

The lives and livelihoods of transgender and gender-diverse individuals have been devastated because Home Affairs has deemed vital gender-affirming services not “essential” during the lockdown.

Beefcakes, one of South Africa’s premier LGBTQ and bachelorette party venues has been unable to open its doors due to the strict lockdown rules imposed by the government.

In May, Def Jam launched Def Jam Africa, a new division based in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Lagos, Nigeria focused on the continent's hip-hop, Afrobeats and trap talent. Just two months later, the division is expanding into three new markets in French-speaking Africa: Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Cameroon. The expansion brings additional A&R, marketing and digital resources to parent Universal

Christopher Vourlias Moonyeenn Lee, the acclaimed South African agent and casting director who cast films such as the foreign-language Oscar winner “Tsotsi” and Oscar-nominated “Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom,” died in Johannesburg on Saturday due to coronavirus-related complications. She was 76.Lee’s company, Moonyeenn Lee & Associates, announced the news in a statement on its Facebook page on Sunday.

Andreas Wiseman International EditorVeteran South African casting director and agent Moonyeenn Lee has died aged 76 in Johannesburg, following complications from the coronavirus.Lee worked for almost five decades in the industry, building a formidable and illustrious career working on movies including The Bang Bang Club, Disgrace, Oscar-winner Tsotsi, Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, Machine Gun Preacher, Hotel Rwanda, Blood Diamond, Eye In The Sky, Mandela And De Klerk, Life, Above All and Black

A new initiative, called the Global Diversity Pride Network, has been launched with the aim of ensuring that people of colour and others who have been marginalised and excluded are empowered and included in the global LGBTQ+ community.

Zindzi Mandela, the youngest daughter of South Africa’s first black president and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, has died aged 59, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Monday. Daughter to Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, she was South Africa’s ambassador to Denmark at the time of her death.

«Ambassador Mandela passed away in the early hours of today, 13 July 2020, in a Johannesburg hospital,» Ramaphosa said in a statement.The cause of her death was not immediately revealed.She had been designated to become South Africa's envoy to Liberia after her stint in Copenhagen, which started in 2015.She was born and raised in Soweto and was educated both at home and in neighbouring Swaziland.Zindzi grew up while her father was incarcerated by the apartheid regime for 27 years.Like her

While many Pride events around the world have been cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Johannesburg Pride still hopes to hold its annual Pride street march at the end of October.

Raymond Motadi, writer of Feminine Lotus

Def Jam is going international. A little more than a half a year after launching Def Jam South East Asia, Universal Music Group announced Def Jam Africa, a new division based in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Lagos, Nigeria, that will focus on "hip-hop, Afrobeats and trap talent in Africa" and report to Universal Music Sub-Saharan Africa & South Africa managing director Sipho Dlamini.

Today, Universal Music Group announced that it is launching Def Jam Africa, a new label division that operates within the continent to represent the best hip-hop, Afrobeats and trap talent in Africa. To start, the label will be based in Johannesburg and Lagos; the entirety of its starting roster comes from either South Africa and Nigeria.

By Jem Aswad

Def Jam is going international. A little more than a half a year after launching Def Jam South East Asia, Universal Music Group today announced Def Jam Africa, a new division based in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Lagos, Nigeria, that will focus on "hip-hop, Afrobeats and trap talent in Africa" and report to Universal Music Sub-Saharan Africa & South Africa Managing Director Sipho Dlamini.

South Africa’s largest city Johannesburg has been chosen to host two editions of Mr Gay World – the posponed 2020 and the 2021 events. The double bill event will be held from March 21  to March 28, 2021.

Former Mr Gay World 2019 Janjep Carlos (centre), flanked by Oliver Pusztai (left) and Francisco Alvarado (Pic by Neil Coulson)

people chats to Stephen McGown, who from 2011 until 2017, was held hostage after being kidnapped in Timbuktu in Mali by Al Qaeda. We asked Stephen how his experience of dealing with captivity has helped him cope with the all the uncertainty and difficult emotions the global COVID-19 pandemic has brought on.

Christiaan Otto has been accused of religious homophobia

Our country is home to the Endangered Wildlife Trust, a world respected conservation body we are fortunate to call our own. The EWT, which started out back in 1973, was founded by Clive Walker, along with James Clarke and Neville Anderson, and operated from a house. Originally the three worked together to save the cheetah – already in decline in the 1970s.

JOHANNESBURG — The South African Music Rights Organization, the largest and oldest collecting society in Africa, has hired Mark Rosin, a lawyer and music industry veteran, to tackle a turnaround of the troubled organization.As SAMRO’s CEO, Rosin, 61, faces the stark challenge of reducing costs while boosting revenues in an organization stained by its origins in the apartheid era.

A Johannesburg man has had to face the devastating death of his beloved grandfather from the coronavirus, made worse by not being allowed to be by his side.

Will there finally be justice? The Constitutional Court has confirmed it will hear the decade-long Jon Qwelane homophobic hate speech case next month.

A new report on violence perpetrated against LGBTQI individuals in Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa and Uganda has been published.

Blank Spaces artist, Fake Ano has just dropped his debut project 24 EP. The project is made up of seven tracks, including the Intro, Outro and an Interlude.

Off Boyz member, Fake Ano has just dropped his debut project 24 EP. The project is made up of seven tracks, including the Intro, Outro and an Interlude.

Fans of the hit reality show ‘The Real Housewives Of Johannesburg’ will know that star Christall Kay has been working hard to launch herself as a singer. Now, she’s ready to make her mark on the local music space as she launches her brand-new single ‘Underwater’.

As the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause havoc around the globe, local governments are putting preventative measures into play as the world tries to lessen the number of transmissions and infections. In South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa revealed last night that public gatherings of over 100 people are officially banned and, with that, Bebe Winans has decided to postpone his 2020 tour of South Africa.

This previous week, one of SA’s most-skilled DJs, Black Coffee turned 44-years-old and celebrated this milestone in style at a star-studded Luncheon at a mansion in Johannesburg on Sunday.

Twenty-eight-year-old Charl-Jaquairdo van Helsdingen from Johannesburg was recently named Mr Gay World South Africa.