What's Up?
Host of the BBC Official UK Afrobeats Chart Show
Life & Work
Bio:
Born in the DR Congo in 1983, Eddie Kadi moved to the UK at the age of eight where he grew up in Fulham, West London. While studying media technology at Kingston University in Surrey, Eddie Kadi began hosting stand-up shows which further cemented that entertaining people seemed to come naturally and he’s never looked back since. He is a household name within the British comedy scene and the first British black comedian to headline the O2 Arena. He recently repeated this success at his one man show at Hackney Empire, when both nights were sold out. He has since has appeared on numerous British TV show, including Virtually Famous, Lenny Henry show and QI show along Stephen Fry.
It wasn’t long before Africa came calling for his unique brand of clean energetic comedy coupled with his quick wit. He has performed across Africa from Congo to Zanzibar, performing twice on Africa’s biggest Entertainment awards ceremony AMVCA. Eddie has also appeared on TV shows in Uganda, Ghana, Congo, Kenya and eddie-kadi-07Nigeria to name a few. In 2013, Eddie hosted Raise your Game with Benny Bonsu and Fabrice Muamba, which was broadcasted on Trace Africa. Recently Eddie hosted the African and Caribbean stages at the annual Sxsw Festival in Austin Texas and performed in Kenya and Uganda alongside some of Africa’s biggest comedians notably Bovi, Anne Kansiime and Salvado.
As well as being a comedian, Eddie has an array of other talents such as hosting, acting and public speaking. Eddie has guest starred in a number of films, with the latest being Its A Lot in 2014, written and directed by Femi Oyeniran.
Since leaving Choice FM in August 2012, Eddie Kadi has gone on to host some of the biggest events including the London 2012 Olympics basketball games. He also hosted the 2011 and 2012 Vinspired awards which is considered one of the largest national event of its kind to celebrate youth volunteering across England with performances from top British acts such as Natasha Beddingfield, Wretch 32 and Tinchy Stryder. He has also hosted a number of high profile African concerts, including Wiz Kid, Davido, Olamide Africa Unplugged.
An avid football fan; Eddie was a regular pundit for ESPN’s irreverent football chat show Talk of the Terrace, Sky sports flagship football fans show Soccer am and is a regular guest on BBC Radio 5Live’s Fighting Talk. In the past Eddie has presented on BBC Radio 1Xtra, contributed to CBBC’s animated series Tinga Tinga Tales and has been involved with numerous film and television appearances and projects.
Eddie’s continuous support for the community has always been an important aspect of his life.
Current, relevant, thought provoking yet refreshingly, controversy free, Eddie Kadi has proven himself to be the consummate entertainer. He is gifted with the ability to reach across cultures and break down social stereotypes as he delights his diverse audiences.
The Recôncavo is an almost invisible center-of-gravity. Circumscribing the Bay of All Saints, this region was landing for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history. Not unrelated, it is also birthplace of some of the most physically & spiritually uplifting music ever made. —Sparrow
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay. They paid.
MATRIX MUSICAL
The Matrix was built below among some of the world's most powerfully moving music, some of it made by people barely known beyond village borders. Or in the case of Sodré, his anthem A MASSA — a paean to Brazil's poor ("our pain is the pain of a timid boy, a calf stepped on...") — having blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south, before he was silenced. (that's me left, with David Dye & Kim Junod for U.S. National Public Radio) ... The Matrix started with Sodré, with João do Boi, with Roberto Mendes, with Bule Bule, with Roque Ferreira... music rooted in the sugarcane plantations of Bahia. Hence our logo (a cane cutter).