LAGOS, Nigeria — A Nigerian Afrobeat star facing trial on charges of assaulting a police officer will embark on a delayed concert tour after being released on bail, his manager said Wednesday.

Seun Kuti, who was in court on Wednesday, has concerts scheduled in more than a dozen countries but his departure had been on hold because of the trial, his manager Ayo Moses told The Associated Press.

The son of Nigerian musical icon and political agitator Fela Kuti, who himself was serially detained by Nigerian military regimes, Seun Kuti had been held for more than a week after he was caught allegedly assaulting a police officer in Nigeria’s economic hub of Lagos.

At Wednesday’s court hearing, the presiding judge ruled that it was the public prosecutor – not the police – that had the power to prosecute the musician. The judge then adjourned the case until a further hearing on July 3.

“He is on bail and as a responsible citizen, he will continue to enjoy his rights because he is presumed innocent,” Femi Falana, his lawyer, said after the hearing.

Viral videos appeared to show an agitated Kuti shouting and pushing the officer along a major road in Lagos last week. It is still not clear what caused the confrontation, though Kuti alleged the officer in question “tried to kill me and my family.”

While he was in detention, the police searched Kuti’s house, causing an uproar among some Nigerians and his lawyers. But Benjamin Hundeyin, a spokesperson for the Lagos police, defended the search as necessary and approved by the court.

“In the course of our investigation, we stumbled on certain suspicious things that needed to be proven/disproved beyond reasonable doubt,” Hundeyin said without providing further details.

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Tina Turner, whose volcanic voice and dynamic dance moves earned her the Queen of Rock crown over the course of a 60-year career, has died at age 83. The legendary singer died Wednesday, May 24 after a long illness at her home near Zurich in Switzerland, her publicist Bernard Doherty confirmed in a statement.

“Tina Turner, the “Queen of Rock’n Roll” has died peacefully today at the age of 83 after a long illness in her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland. With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model,” the statement read. “There will be a private funeral ceremony attended by close friends and family. Please respect the privacy of her family at this difficult time.”

Since 1994 the American-born singer had been living in Switzerland with her husband, German actor and music producer Erwin Bach, earning her Swiss citizenship in 2013. In recent years she battled a number of serious health problems, including a stroke, intestinal cancer and total kidney failure that required an organ transplant.

Boasting one of the longest careers in rock history, Turner scored Billboard Top 40 hits across four decades, earning her Grammys, a Kennedy Center Honor, and entry into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.

Turner’s incendiary singing, glittery stage-wear and seemingly inexhaustible energy as the frontwoman for the Ike & Tina Turner Revue made her and her then-husband one of the most electrifying acts of the 1960s, serving up high octane covers of “Proud Mary,” “Come Together,” and “I Want to Take You Higher.”

Striking out on her own as a solo artist in the ’70s, Turner reinvented herself as a star of the MTV age, notching hits with “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” “The Best,” and “Private Dancer” — becoming one of the highest-selling female artists on the planet in the process.

Turner’s early years were marred by her tumultuous marriage to musical partner Ike Turner, who subjected her to brutal acts of physical and psychological abuse. (He died in 2007.) Her survival and harrowing escape was dramatized in the 1993 film What’s Love Got to Do with It starring Angela Bassett.

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Pretty Yende will soon go down in history as the first African to be invited to perform a solo at the coronation of a British monarch.

The South African soprano will be one of three soloists to perform at the coronation of King Charles III on May 6 at Westminster Abbey, in London, according to CNN.

“I feel very, very honored because it is something that has never happened before,” the 38-year-old told AFP.

“Generations from now they will read about the British monarchs… and they’ll see the name of a girl from the tip of Africa written in there – that she was actually invited by the king himself to sing at Westminster Abbey.”

Yende was born at the height of apartheid in the small town of Piet Retief to a religious family. Her closest musical reference was spiritual hymns, and she never intended a career in music until she heard opera for the first time at the age of 16.

“Hearing this music and the power of it, sounded like something supernatural. I did not believe human beings could do it,” she recalled to CNN.

“I remember recording it and imitating it,” she said. “I would play the recording the whole day. My gosh, my family were in trouble, because I wouldn’t stop practicing and shouting.”

Yende started her meteoric rise in the opera world while still a student at the University of Cape Town. In 2011, she graduated from the Young Artists program at the Accademia at the Teatro alla Scala, in Milan, Italy, and, since then, she has been in demand at opera houses throughout the world.

The past decade has not always been lined with roses, however. Yende said she has had to battle opera’s Eurocentric homogeneity and hopes to use her talent and success to break stereotypes.

“The biggest challenge has always been being the different one in the room. When I was the first Black in the Accademia of La Scala it was a bit uncomfortable,” she remembered.

“Sometimes I would enter the rehearsal room, and I could see in the room looks like, ‘Why are you here?’ And I would just smile. But once I start making music, all of us in that room agreed that I’m not there by mistake.”

Charles III, an avid patron of the arts, saw Yende perform at Windsor Castle a year ago during the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s 75th anniversary gala.

And now, the South African soprano will perform “Sacred Fire,” a new piece by British composer Sarah Class, before a worldwide audience of millions.
“It’s a dream come true, because when I found out that I have this incredible gift I wanted to share it with as many people as possible,” Yende said. She added, ““I know that my life will no longer be the same.”

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