Berklee will take part in the largest mobile-based music reality show in Africa, working together with multinational mobile telecommunications company MTN Nigeria and multimedia mobile app and creative company Afrinolly Creative Hub. The partnership will bring the Y'ello Star reality show to MTN's mobile platform, broadcasting the contest to nearly one million users. Members of the Berklee community will serve as panelist judges as well as coaches for the contest's 16 semifinalists. The winners of the reality contest will record their debut single at Power Station at BerkleeNYC, Berklee's campus in New York City, which features a one-year graduate program with three specializations.
As the leading telecommunications and mobile provider in the region, MTN Nigeria created Y'ello Star as a mobile musical platform to search for, discover, nurture, and launch music talents in the young Nigerian community. Over 10,000 contestants applied, with 40 semifinalists having been selected for the start of the reality show.
This is a great opportunity for artists from the vibrant Nigerian music scene to get advice and mentorship from Berklee's knowledgeable professors, while broadening awareness of Berklee in the region through MTN's large audience.
-Roger H. Brown, president, Berklee
Commenting on the project, Anthony Obi, acting chief marketing officer for MTN Nigeria, emphasized the unique difference between MTN Y'ello Star and other music reality TV shows. This project goes beyond discovering talent in the Nigerian entertainment industry. MTN Y'ello Star is a conduit for capacity-building within the creative industry, empowering the contestants and industry with the relevant practical knowledge to compete on a global scale. We are thankful for partners, such as Berklee College of Music, who share this vision.
It is time for Nigerian music to fully take its rightful place in the global community, says Chike Maduegbuna, CEO of Afrinolly. With partners like MTN and Berklee, Afrinolly Creative Hub is discovering emerging music talents, cultivating them, and helping them grow. I am excited that Berklee College of Music is here to help us develop those artists, and bring them to a global stage.
Were excited to work with MTN, Afrinolly Creative Hub, and the Y'ello Star reality show, says Berklee President Roger H. Brown. This is a great opportunity for artists from the vibrant Nigerian music scene to get advice and mentorship from Berklee's knowledgeable professors, while broadening awareness of Berklee in the region through MTN's large audience. We look forward to hearing all of the talent and welcoming the winner to Power Station at BerkleeNYC.
The live shows will start in November and run through December. Three judges, including popular Nigerian musicians and media figures, will join the Berklee panelist judges in bringing their music expertise to the show.
About Afrinolly Afrinolly Creative Hub serves as the first creators space for filmmakers, screenwriters, mobile technology developers, animators, musicians, artists, and other creatives in Nigeria. The hub seeks to institutionalize global best practices and integrate the next generation of Nollywood and music artists. Afrinolly Creative Hub seeks to facilitate exchange opportunities and network development between Africa's entertainment practitioners and between Africans and international entertainment practitioners in the area of live content production and distribution. For more information, visit afrinollycreativehub.com.
About MTN Nigeria MTN is Nigeria's premier provider of connectivity, communication, and collaboration solutions, and the largest privately-owned mobile operator in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. As of 2019, MTN Group had over 64 million subscribers, making it the eighth-largest mobile network operator in the world, and the largest in Africa. Active in over 20 countries, one-third of company revenue comes from Nigeria, where it holds about a 35 percent market share.
Related categories:
News
Related Reading
Can You Land a Successful Career with a Performing Arts Degree? In an economy that rewards improvisation and entrepreneurship, well-trained artists and musicians are equipped to thrive.
Alec Schulman Receives BMI Future Jazz Masters Scholarship Schulman, a fifth-semester Berklee student, was awarded the $5,000 award by a panel of NEA Jazz Master judges.
Alum Notes: Spring 2020 The most recent news from your classmates.
More from Berklee Now
Most Popular
Berklee Partners with MIT to Help Students Get Paid for Their Music RAIDAR, a new licensing platform, makes it easier for student musicians to earn money from their songs and retain full control over their work.
Latest
#BerkleeTogether Virtual Series Continues with Concerts Across the Globe Upcoming performances feature the Berklee Jazz and Gender Justice Group and the Berklee Together Quintet.
Berklee Welcomes Salsa Legend Oscar D'Le n for Virtual Concert The Signature Series performance will be streamed on Berklee's YouTube channel.
Berklee's 26th Annual Encore Gala Raises More Than $1.5 Million This years Encore Gala was held virtually and featured Jackson Browne, Steve Winwood, Darryl DMC McDaniels, and many more.
Read All
Subscribe The latest sounds, stories, and ideas, sent to your inbox weekly.
Berklee Blogs
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
Snapchat
Soundcloud
Spotify
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
20/10/2025
Inside TAMS: How Time-Addressable Media Stores could redefine sports workflows By Paul Markham
Friday, October 17, 2025 - 08:57
Print This Story
A penalty...
20/10/2025
Transformational production: Inside TVN's remote production push for the DFL...
20/10/2025
How NBC Sports Transitioned Stamford Facility to One Format: 1080p HDRMulti-year plan harmonizes workflows, simplifies operationsBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial ...
20/10/2025
NBA on NBC' Studio Production Team Is Ready for Tip-Off With Coast-to-Coast...
20/10/2025
Under pressure: TVN CEO Markus Osthaus considers the German sports broadcasting ...
20/10/2025
(L-R) Maria Dizzia, Carmen Emmi, and Russell Tovey attend the Plainclothes pre...
20/10/2025
In March, we launched Concerts Near You to help listeners find concerts from their favorite artists. Since then, more than 3 million people have used it to disc...
20/10/2025
Em diversas cidades do Brasil, um movimento tem se fortalecido para celebrar o poder, a beleza e a profundidade da criatividade negra. O Dia AMPLIFIKA, agora em...
20/10/2025
In cities across Brazil, a movement is growing that celebrates the power, beauty, and depth of Black creativity. AMPLIFIKA Day, now in its fifth edition, return...
20/10/2025
Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft rendering...
20/10/2025
DENVER and MUNICH Imagine Communications today announced its plans to acquire Pixel Power Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Rohde & Schwarz. Financial terms of...
20/10/2025
LOS ANGELES G Morgan has joined Globecast, a provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, as executive vice president of sales, Globecast Am...
20/10/2025
PLYMOUTH, Wisc. Heartland Video Systems and Zixi have partnered to enable broadcast-quality live video delivery over any IP network....
20/10/2025
A. R. Rahman on Facing Fear and Finding the Divine In an interview with Berklee President Jim Lucchese, the Oscar-winning composer reflects on how courage and...
20/10/2025
Monday 20 October 2025
To view this content, please enable our use of cookies. ...
20/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz transfers Pixel Power to Imagine Communications Companies work collaboratively to ensure continuity and ongoing support for existing customers...
20/10/2025
RT 's Prime Time is set to host the final Presidential Election Debate this Tuesday night, October 21, providing an opportunity to hear directly from Irelan...
20/10/2025
NVIDIA and Google Cloud are expanding access to accelerated computing to transform the full spectrum of enterprise workloads, from visual computing to agentic a...
19/10/2025
Back to All News
Sins of Kujo' Comes to Life in New Live-Action Series Set for Spring 2026
Entertainment
19 October 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to cl...
18/10/2025
New England Sports Network (NESN) has chosen Harmonic, working with Astound Business Solutions, as its enterprise technology partner to transform primary distri...
18/10/2025
NEW ORLEANS, La. In the run-up to the start of the NBA season, WVUE-TV and Gray Local Media have announced a deal with DirecTV that will greatly expand access t...
18/10/2025
Berklee Celebrates 40 Years of the Fall Together Concert Faculty composers Bob Pilkington and Greg Hopkins are among the featured artists for this year's ...
17/10/2025
NEP Group Receives New Equity Investment From 26North Partners LP, Co-InvestorsCarlyle remains the largest shareholder as the company prepares for the futureBy ...
17/10/2025
Apple Lands Five-Year Deal for F1 Distribution in the U.S.Besides airing on Apple TV, the sport will be amplified on other Apple servicesBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Ed...
17/10/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Marshall Electronics' Bernie Keach on the Future of PTZ Camera...
17/10/2025
L2 Productions' REMI Facility in Austin Can Produce Content From AnywhereMusic festivals, sports events are produced via flypacks and remote control roomsBy...
17/10/2025
By Lucy Spicer
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival...
17/10/2025
(L-R) Christopher Meyer, Addison Timlin, Cooper Raiff, Lili Reinhart, Alyah Chan...
17/10/2025
M sica e arte se uniram em uma noite especial na semana passada na ZIV Gallery, ...
17/10/2025
Music and art came together for one special night last week at ZIV Gallery, an i...
17/10/2025
Spotify and FC Barcelona are extending our partnership through 2030, continuing a collaboration that's redefining how fans, players, and artists connect. Th...
17/10/2025
MURRIETA, Calif. The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC) has deployed DigitalGlue's creative.space storage platform to streamline video production by centrali...
17/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. Football continued to cement its reputation as a bulwark of TV advertising in Q3 2025 with new data from iSpot that showed both the NFL and coll...
17/10/2025
The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC), the premier competitive saltwater fishing series, has transformed its production workflow by adopting creative.space, the...
17/10/2025
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning multi-camera video productions and remote contribution solutions, announces the release of StudioPro Version 4, ...
17/10/2025
Although the annual Grammy Awards celebration is best known for recognizing achievements in the recording industry, the show often proves a visual spectacle as ...
17/10/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leading provider of software-defined data storage and data services, has promoted Alex Dunfey to Chief Technology Officer (CTO) from his for...
17/10/2025
The University of Arizona (UofA) has significantly upgraded its broadcast communication infrastructure with the integration of Riedel Communications' advanc...
17/10/2025
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that New England Sports Network (NESN), owned by Fenway Sports Group and Delaware North, has selected Harmonic as its en...
17/10/2025
Austin PBS has recently upgraded its facility-wide communications infrastructure, deploying Clear-Com 's Eclipse HX, FreeSpeak II beltpacks, and V-Series ...
17/10/2025
ZEISS announces an open call for the closed BETA testing phase of CinCraft Virtual Lens Technology, the innovative digital tool that brings authentic lens chara...
17/10/2025
Situated in the town of Kokkola, Centria University of Applied Sciences offers higher education across five core fields: engineering, business, social and healt...
17/10/2025
Public information channel in Georgia, USA, to implement a powerful, simple, and cost-effective playout automation platform.
Pebble, the leading automation, co...
17/10/2025
HBO Max is reporting that it has launched in 15 new markets, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Macau, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Ukraine, boosting the streaming serv...
17/10/2025
Netflix said it will make a major push into video podcasts, inking a wide-ranging deal with Spotify through which it will offer 16 podcasts in the U.S. starting...
17/10/2025
Lexington, Ky. As part of a push to highlight its advanced advertising capabilities, Viamedia has launched a new AI-powered ad tech platform and officially rebr...
17/10/2025
NEW YORK QuickLink has announced the release of StudioPro Version 4, which the company is calling the most significant upgrade yet to its flagship video product...
17/10/2025
NEW YORK and CUPERTINO, Calif. Apple and NBCUniversal said they will sell Apple TV and Peacock streaming bundles to U.S. subscribers starting Oct. 20....
Berklee will take part in the largest mobile-based music reality show in Africa, working together with multinational mobile telecommunications company MTN Nigeria and multimedia mobile app and creative company Afrinolly Creative Hub. The partnership will bring the Y'ello Star reality show to MTN's mobile platform, broadcasting the contest to nearly one million users. Members of the Berklee community will serve as panelist judges as well as coaches for the contest's 16 semifinalists. The winners of the reality contest will record their debut single at Power Station at BerkleeNYC, Berklee's campus in New York City, which features a one-year graduate program with three specializations. 
