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

Davido & Omah Lay’s ‘With You’ Is The Most Googled Song Lyrics in Nigeria

Davido and Omah Lay’s smash hit single ‘With You’ led to Nigerians frequently using Google to search for the lyrics, eager to sing along to what is effectively the Song of the Year.

Released in April 2025 as part of Davido’s fifth album, ‘5ive,’ the song quickly became a fan favourite due to its stimulating melodies and catchy lyrics, especially Omah Lay’s verse, which has everyone straining to understand him.

This curiosity to learn the lyrics to the song that dominated the charts and speakers propelled it to the top of the Google search list. Not even Davido, Omah Lay, or ace producer Tempoe could have predicted the massive impact of their collaboration. Buried at the bottom of Davido’s fifth album, ‘5ive,’ the song almost didn’t cut, yet it turned out to be by far the biggest song on the album and the leading contender for Song of the Year.

How did this happen?

‘With You’ simply enjoyed the combination of factors that consistently help rocket songs to era-defining success.

A song is not automatically a hit just because it is good or meets the requirements of memorable lyrics and a catchy melody to score as an Afrobeats song. Consumers must willingly gravitate towards the song en masse and propel it to super-smash status.

This is the story of ‘With You.’ The classic easy-to-digest Afrobeats lyrics and sticky Highlife-inspired melodies, which borrow from the iconic Bright Chimezie classic ‘Because of English,’ combined to create an anthem that the people embraced.

Listeners handpicked the song as the single of choice, even though it was buried at the bottom of the album. The organic support and massive user-generated content created consumer-led marketing that propelled the song to smash-hit status.

Entertainment

Flavour Releases 7th Studio Album

Flavour’s latest album, ‘AfroCulture’, is a testament to his contribution to African music, which spans 20 years of hit songs, collaborations, and impact.
Two decades into a career that redefined indigenous Igbo and African sounds, Afrobeats innovator Flavour unveils his eighth studio album, ‘AfroCulture,’ marking a bold new chapter in his musical journey.

The thirteen-track project arrives on the fifteenth anniversary of his breakthrough album, ‘Uplifted,’ and follows his recent recognition at the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF).

With ‘AfroCulture,’ Flavour delivers one of his most intentional and expansive bodies of work yet. The album effortlessly weaves highlife, soukous, Afrobeats, Amapiano, gospel, and Afro-soul into a cohesive sonic journey, serving as both a celebration of heritage and a forward-facing statement on the evolution of African sound.

The project features a powerful line-up of collaborators, including Pheelz, Kizz Daniel, Qing Madi, Azzy, Odumeje, Baba Maal, and long-time creative partner Waga G, each adding a distinct texture to an album rooted in unity, culture, and innovation.

The album unfolds with clear intention on the title track, ‘Afro Culture,’ featuring Baaba Maal, where ancestral chants set a tone deeply rooted in heritage and identity.

The lead visual for this track offers a cinematic introduction and has already tallied more than seven million views. That sense of purpose continues into ‘Bam Bam,’ featuring Pheelz, a warm, melodic love record highlighted by the seamless blend of Igbo and Yoruba languages.

Built just as much for reflection as it is for celebration, ‘AfroCulture’ brings high energy to the dance floor through highlife-driven standouts like ‘The Eagle Has Landed’ and ‘BMO (Big Moves Only).’

Entertainment

Asake’s ‘Mr Money With the Vibe’ Is Charting Top 50 On Spotify

Three years after its release, Asake’s Mr Money With the Vibe is still doing numbers. At the time of press, the track ‘Nzaza’ currently ranks 23rd on Spotify Nigeria’s Top 50 songs, that’s 148 weeks and counting, nearly three years of nonstop streaming for a debut project.

For most artists, a first album fades after its moment. For Asake, it’s really that moment that refuses to fade.

Released September 8, 2022, through YBNL Nation and Empire, Mr Money With the Vibe arrived when the streets already knew Asake’s name. He had already spent months turning singles like Sungba into hits. This 12-track debut built on that momentum, and he managed to do even more.

The project blends Afrobeats, Amapiano, and Fuji influences, creating a sound that can be global yet deeply Nigerian. Songs like Joha, Terminator, and Organise became instant hits, setting the tone for Asake’s larger-than-life run that would define Afrobeats in the mid-2020s.

From its first day out, Mr Money With the Vibe shattered expectations and redefined what a Nigerian debut could do.

Apple Music Africa: The album broke records for the most first-day and most opening three-day streams ever by an African project.Apple Music Nigeria Top 100: For a brief, almost unbelievable stretch, every single track on the album occupied the first 12 spots on the chart. Global Reach: The project reached #1 on Apple Music Album Charts in 26 countries, including six across Europe.

Albums fade, trends change, and new stars rise every quarter. Yet Mr Money With the Vibe remains glued to the top. That consistency says something about both Asake and his audience. For one, the project captured a moment in time, the rise of a new street-pop generation that blurred the lines between amapiano and Yoruba-rooted rhythm. Every track carried Asake’s trademark vocals and a hypnotic tempo that became instantly recognizable across countries.