Entertainment

Blood Sisters – Ini Dima-Okojie Opens Up About The Emotional Stress of Acting

Ini Dima-Okojie is an exceptional actress in every sense of the word. When she’s on-screen, it’s easy to tell that she is a thorough professional who puts in every effort required to embody her role. The actress butressed these facts in her latest interview with Pulse Nigeria where she spoke about the emotional demands of embodying a character especially one as broken as Sarah, her character in her latest outing – Netflix’s Blood Sisters.

Sarah is a new bride who is emotionally and physically abused by her husband. She excaceberates her woes by killing him and what unfolds for her is an emotional roller-coaster. The producers couldn’t have chosen a better actress for the role. Thanks to her track record of acing similar characters, Dima-Okojie was contacted by producers for the role. She was picked to portray Sarah after what she described as a rigorous process.

When asked by Pulse what her most challenging character was yet, she said;

Sarah definitely was a hugely challenging role on different fronts. There was the physical aspect to it, and it was a different kind of physicality cause it is not an action film where you train and stuff. It was a physicality where she had to struggle in that journey.

It was crazy what we did. We were in Makoko, jumping canoes, going for hours on the run. In Epe we were barefoot half the time. But even more so challenging was the emotional aspect to Sarah.

It was challenging for the character and for me. As an actor, I am unable to emote from the surface. I am not one of those actors that can get their eye ducts to produce tears at will. If I am going to break down, it has to come from within. It is how I am able to perform.

To effectively portray Sarah, Dima-Okojie had to break through a wall she had put up in an effort to protect her emotions after a disappointing experience she had with Ndani TV’s series Oga Police. She had earned the role of Laitan, a character she described as the most beautiful and intense she’s ever had. Having “unlocked” the character and given it her all, she was left devastated after producers canceled the show after airing just a single episode. Speaking on the aftermath of the fiasco she said;

I was in a place as an actor where I had sworn never to break myself for any role and this stemmed from Oga Pastor. I remember that character like it was yesterday. Laitan was the most beautiful, intense character ever and as an actor, I unlocked the door to the character. It felt like a drug, being able to be there but not really be present. There is no way that doesn’t impact your life. There were scenes where I just wasn’t there to a level that it was almost scary.

When the show got cancelled, it hurt more than a heartbreak. I cried for at least a year. Like I would think of Oga Pastor and would literally start crying. It really shattered me. It just didn’t make sense to me. I thought about the point of giving so much of myself to a character that no one got to see, then swore never to go that deep into a character.

So when I got Sarah, I was like Wow! Not again! I knew I was going to have to break that wall and give it everything I could cause you see, Sarah is broken on every level. She’s bullied by her friends and family so much that she is unable to stand up for herself. There are a lot of layers to her which is why the scene when she finally tells Kola no is so monumental.

Her most emotional scene while filming Blood Sisters, the actress revealed, was when Sarah and her best friend Kemi are discussing running away to avoid jail time for the murder they had just committed. “It (the scene) played out completely different to how it was written,” she said. “They were having a conversation and Sarah was more like her gangster self. However when we were filming, Nancy (Isime who portrays Kemi) and I burst into tears. We were crying and they just kept rolling. When they yelled cut we just kept crying.”

Thankfully, Ini Dima-Okojie is able to relief herself from the emotional burden of playing broken characters by immersing in her favorite guilty pleasure – bringing on reality TV shows with a bottle of wine to drown all of the stress that comes with embodying fictional characters. Then, there are also genuine friends on whom she relies for honest feedback.

Dima-Okojie’s performance on Blood Sisters has received rave reviews from viewers across the nation. Many have taken to social media to praise her performance, something that leaves the New York Film Institue alumnus feeling incredibly fulfilled and grateful. In her response to these praises, the actress encouraged people to chase their dreams no matter how late it seemed while referencing that she dumped her investment banking job to pursue her dream of a career in Nollywood starting out as a production assistant.

Entertainment

Tems and Runtown In Scintilating Prformance at Spotify Surround Sound in Lagos

Spotify brought fans closer to Tems and Runtown across two nights of Surround Sound in Lagos, inviting selected Premium listeners based on their listening behaviour to experience the artists and music they care about in an intimate, in-the-round setting.
Held at Livespot in Lagos on 25 and 26 September, the performances brought two distinct catalogue stories into the room. Tems revisited For Broken Ears, while Runtown placed Mad Over You at the centre of a career-spanning set.

Surround Sound is Spotify’s live performance format, launched from Sub-Saharan Africa, which brings artists and fans together at close range and captures those performances as full-length music films for Spotify. Lagos provides the cultural context for these stories, with Nigerian artists and listeners at their centre.

Tems performed For Broken Ears tracks including Ice T and Damages, alongside earlier singles Mr Rebel and Try Me and later material such as Love Me JeJe and What You Need, tracing different chapters of her catalogue.

Ahead of the performance, she reflected on the beginnings of that journey: “I remember making Free Mind on my bed, on my laptop, experimenting with chords and seeing what stuck. The first two chords sounded so good, and it ignited melodies in me. Those melodies I made on my bed are what is in the song right now.”

Spotify’s relationship with Tems also reaches back to that period. In September 2020, shortly after the release of For Broken Ears, she became the third artist to join Spotify’s RADAR Africa programme, following South African singer Elaine and rapper Willy Cardiac. Six years later, Surround Sound revisited that early chapter of her catalogue in Lagos.

During the performance, Tems turned towards the audience and invited them to sing along, making the fans’ voices part of the experience. The following night, Runtown opened with Lagos to Kampala and Gallardo, moving through For Life, International Badman Killa and Unleash. The set also included Kini Issue, drawing together different parts of his catalogue.

Mad Over You became a shared moment between artist and audience. Runtown performed the song during the set before returning to it a second time to close the show, with fans singing along.

Speaking ahead of the performance, Runtown said: “This is the first time in 10 years I am performing with my band, and I am looking forward to seeing my fans.”

Spotify’s September 2026 analysis offers context for the continuing relationship with this music. Of the listeners who played For Broken Ears in January 2022, 21.6% also listened in August 2026. Meanwhile, Mad Over You appeared in more than three million user-created playlists at the time of the analysis.

Surround Sound connected that existing relationship with an opportunity to experience the artists live. There was no public ticket sale; Spotify invited selected Premium listeners directly through the platform, using listening behaviour to identify fans for the experience.

The live room is intentionally intimate and has a fixed capacity,” said Rifumo Mdaka of Spotify. “We use listening signals to reach selected Spotify Premium listeners in Lagos directly rather than running a public ticket sale. The aim is to create a close artist-fan experience while keeping the room suitable for the performance and film capture.”

Across both nights, Premium’s fan value took a tangible form: selected listeners had the opportunity to hear familiar music performed up close, with the audience’s responses becoming part of the experience.Both performances were filmed for Spotify.

Entertainment

Davido, Rema, Fally Ipupa To headline Afro Nation Portugal 2027

Afrobeat icon Davido, Rema and Fally Ipupa will headline Afro Nation Portugal 2027, with Omah Lay, Victony and other stars also confirmed for the festival, continuing Nigeria’s dominant run at one of the world’s biggest celebrations of Afrobeats and Amapiano. The festival takes place in Portimão from 9 to 11 June 2027, on the sands of Praia da Rocha, running about a month earlier than it has in recent years.

The first wave of roughly 30 confirmations describes Davido, Rema and Fally Ipupa as “three giants of African music,” all returning to the festival. Also confirmed for the Lit stage are Omah Lay, Odeal, Shenseea, Valiant, Victony, Bamby and Miimii KDS, with South Gidi (the live project from DJ Tunez and DJ Maphorisa featuring Wizkid and Mavo) closing out the final night.

The Piano People stage returns, led by amapiano pioneer Kabza De Small and duo TxC, with Dlala Thukzin joining as a special guest, alongside 031Choppa, 2woBunnies, Benzo, Thatohatsi, Uncool MC, W4DE, Xduppy B2B Al Xapo, Young Stunna and Zee Nxumalo.

The lineup extends a pattern that has defined Afro Nation Portugal since it launched in 2019 with Nigerian superstars taking the centre stage nearly every year. Past headliners have included Burna Boy, Wizkid, Davido, Megan Thee Stallion, 50 Cent, Chris Brown and Nicki Minaj, with the festival credited with helping push Afrobeats and Amapiano onto global stages.

This year’s edition, the sixth, wrapped in July with Wizkid and Asake leading the lineup, alongside Burna Boy, who launched his album No Sign of Weakness from the festival’s beach stage in 2025. Uncle Waffles headlined the Piano People stage, with Gunna and Kehlani appearing as special guests.

Rema is no stranger to the show either; he headlined the 2024 edition alongside Asake, J Hus and Tyla, riding the global success of ‘Calm Down.’ Davido, meanwhile, returns to a festival he has previously headlined, while Fally Ipupa comes back after main-stage appearances in recent years, including 2024.

Since its debut, Afro Nation has expanded beyond Portugal to Ghana, Puerto Rico, Miami and Detroit, but the Portugal edition remains its flagship, drawing tens of thousands of fans from across the world each summer for a weekend built around African music.

Entertainment

Charly Boy celebrates daughter’s engagement to a Woman

Veteran Nigerian entertainer Charles Oputa, popularly known as Charly Boy, has publicly celebrated the engagement of his daughter, Adaeze, to a woman, drawing a wide range of reactions from Nigerians online. Charly Boy shared a video from the engagement ceremony on his Instagram page on Thursday, referring to the couple as his “beautiful Princess and her Husband” and asking his followers to extend their well wishes. “Folks, wish dem well for me,” he wrote.

Adaeze also announced the engagement herself, sharing a photo with her partner alongside the caption “WE’RE ENGAGED!” and the hashtag #mrsandmrsgray2027. She expressed excitement about the relationship in her post, writing, “Here’s to a lifetime of love, laughter, growth, and making beautiful memories together. I can’t wait for everything God has in store for us. Forever sounds even sweeter with you.”

The announcement quickly drew attention online, with reactions split between congratulatory comments and criticism, reflecting Nigeria’s broader social and legal climate around same-sex relationships, where such unions remain both criminalised and widely stigmatised. Adaeze was previously married to a man, Metu Anu, in a traditional wedding held in Abuja in February 2018, a union that later ended in divorce.

This isn’t the first time a member of the Oputa family has publicly navigated a same-sex relationship. Charly Boy’s other daughter, Dominique “Dewy” Oputa, is also known to be in a relationship with a woman, both daughters currently reside outside Nigeria.

Charly Boy, also known as Area Fada, has built a decades-long career and public persona around unconventional, often boundary-pushing views on social and cultural issues in Nigeria. He has spoken previously about surviving prostate cancer, being sexually abused by a nanny during his childhood, and long-standing tension within his own nearly 50-year marriage to his wife, Diane.

He has also addressed public speculation about his own gender expression and sexuality directly, arguing that embracing traits often associated with femininity does not diminish a man’s identity.

The entertainer has 10 children and 14 grandchildren in total, and has continued to speak openly about his family throughout his public career, even as his views have periodically placed him at odds with more conservative segments of Nigerian society.