Praiz + Seyi Shay in "For You" Valentine Special

With the Valentine’s Season already upon us this year, LOVE is definitely in the air as usual and as we are in a period for sharing love gifts, Nigerian musician, PRAIZ has two gifts especially for his fans and music lovers this year.

First is a duet with the Seyi Shay titled “For You” produced by Dekumzy. The duo harmonizes vocals on a mid-tempo highlife beat giving it a touch of sensuality. Then there's the Wilson J’adore Joel-produced R&B/soul cut titled “I Miss You”.

Praiz will will be releasing his debut album this year, and it features some of the biggest Nigerian musicians with production from Cobhams Asuquo, Tee-Y Mix, Wole Oni and Praiz himself among others. Listen and download the singles below;

Ramsey Nouah - February Man Candy #2

This February, I am making an album of sexy Nigerian male celebrities. It is my Valentine Ode to the handsome and hardworking Nigerian men on the entertainment or sports scene. First up was Lynxx, Nigerian Musician.

#2 is Ramsey Nouah, Nollywood Actor.

Whitney Houston Gets Grammy Special for Anniversary

Grammy organizers plan to mark the first anniversary of the sudden death of Whitney Houston with a behind-the-scenes TV show on how they scrambled to honor the singer just 24 hours after she died.

The Recording Academy said on Thursday that the hour-long special entitled "The Grammys Will Go On: A Death in the Family" will air on February 9, the day before the 2013 Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

Houston, who sold hundreds of millions of records and scored the mega hits "I Will Always Love You" and "I Wanna Dance with Somebody," drowned in a bathtub at a Beverly Hills hotel room on February 11 2012 - the eve of last year's Grammy Awards show.

How to Make Chin-Chin with Eggs and Milk

Chin Chin is one of Nigeria's favorite pastries. It is made from short crust pastry mixture and then deep fried. The result is usually crunchy, but you can switch up the ingredients to have a more textured and soft outcome. I prefer mine not too crunchy, so I use eggs, and more milk, butter and sugar. There is no rising, or baking, rolling and cutting the dough is the only complicated part of the process.

Ingredients
2 eggs
500g of Plain Sieved Flour
75ml of 2% milk
150g of sugar
150g of butter
1/2 a teaspoon of salt
1/2 a teaspoon  of baking powder
1/2 a teaspoon  of Lion Curry mixed spices
Vegetable Oil (enough to deep fry or half your pot)

Is Loneliness a Reason to Get Married?

This question came in through the search keywords and was directed to this post which listed some of the reasons men get married. However, while that post lists loneliness as one reason, it did not say how it worked out for those who married out of loneliness. Also, marrying because one is alone may work for men, but how does it work for women if it was a woman asking Google that question?

Let's be sure of what loneliness is or is not. When you're a private person, an introvert or a loner, you're not necessarily lonely. A lot of us need our me-time or alone-time once in a while, some more than others. Loneliness however, is more deep, more psychological than social.

Loneliness is a constant lack of contact with other people, even when the person wants to be. It is the feeling of isolation, when you find it hard to make a connection with a special someone for intimacy, including physical and emotional.

Can We Find 28 Sexy Nigerian Men [Celebrities]?

So this February, I am making an album of sexy Nigerian male celebrities. It will be my Valentine Ode to the handsome and hardworking Nigerian men on the scene. I wanted to leave it open to all men and start with Atala, but he refused o. Anyway, feel free to send in your own man if he agrees. We'll call them the Valentine Specials :)

First stop is my town man, Lynxx, Nigerian musician extraordinaire.

7 Ways to Tell Someone "I Love You"

Want to tell that special someone how much you really like them? Everyone has their own ideas on the ‘perfect’ way to make the confession, but you’re sure to find a technique that suits you in this list of seven ways to tell someone you love them.

How to express your love, tip 1: Add a little humour

The words “I love you” can be spruced up with all sorts of poetic techniques that don’t sound like they’ve come straight from one of Shakespeare’s classics. Why not add a light sprinkling of humour to your love confession through a creative analogy? Think of something you couldn’t live without and compare the one you love to that. You can make your analogy as silly or as serious as you like and your other half will appreciate the amount of thought you’ve put into your confession. “You are the cream to my coffee, the lamb to my farm, and I love you to little bits” – aww!

How to express your love, tip 2: Creative photography

Dropping the ‘L bomb’ can be equally as nerve wracking whether you’re a hopeless romantic or you have a heart of stone. Sometimes the mere mention of the word “love”, when you’ve never said it to this person before, can make you nervous. If this sounds like you, saying it through photography may be the form of expression you’re comfortable with, and it needn’t be as cheesy as it sounds.

Genevieve Nnaji Cut From Half of a Yellow Sun Movie?

Reports coming out of Nollywood indicate that the adaptation of Chimamanda Adichie's award winning book, Half of a Yellow Sun, will be screened at the 2013 FESPACO film festival, opening in Ouagadougou, February 23. That means it may be reaching the cinemas as soon as summer, if not before.

The feature film has a cast that includes Thandie Newton [who remembers the furor?], John Boyega, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Dominic Cooper, Anika Noni Rose, and Joseph Mawle. Nigerians involved in the project are Biyi Bandele, directing, Cobhams Asuquo and Keziah Jones, both composing original music for the film, and Genevieve Nnaji with small acting part. Most of that small role may have ended on the editing/cutting room floor.

Like I've learned since I started doing movie reviews, all adapted films have three stages - there's the book, then the script, and finally the director's vision. So anything can happen to change around a story during those stages. If you've read the book, you'll know there's a heartbreaking love story involved, but I'm not sure which part Genevieve is playing.

Boiled Potatoes With Celery and Tomato Stew

I love vegetable sauces, I like that between 15 - 25 minutes I have a ready meal when I need it. I can either stir-fry, fry, steam or just saute a mix of my choice of vegetables and voila! Food is ready. Celery is one of those vegetables I got introduced to after I left Nigeria, and I fell in love with it's refreshing taste and flavor. I had to be sure how it is cooked, and unlike most vegetables, this actually requires 15 - 20 minutes to be well cooked.

To make this stew, you need the following;
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
A small bunch of celery stalks with some hearts if possible. Washed and sliced
Four medium sized tomatoes, chopped
Half a medium sized onion, sliced
Ground pepper,
Salt and spices to taste.

When People Say Men Must Rape

I try not to take most things too seriously, but there are issues that get my blood boiling. One of those topics is rape. Women and children continue to be the vast majority when victims of rape are numbered, and I find it galling that our culture would rather blame them or sweep the stories under the carpet, than face the men who perpetrate this hate crime, and deal them full and swift justice.

Now, someone who reads this blog, has written an article for YNaija that seems to be in response to my earlier post, Lets talk to the men who rape, shall we?

In his article, he agrees with my point that a lot of Nigerian men struggle with thoughts of rape, or may have raped before. [This I think is due to the heavily partriarchal culture in Nigeria, where women are expected to be subservient to men, and women's bodies are seen as owned by their men or the society].