Nigerian man, Yemi, selected by Japanese Billionaire Yusaku Maezawa for a trip to the moon

Czech choreographer, Yemi Akinyemi Dele, 41, will be among the eight crew members to join Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa’s crew on a trip around the Moon next year on one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets.

Four years after announcing that he’d lead an around-the-moon mission aboard SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has named the eight people he wants to fly with him.

In 2018, Maezawa said he’d fund a mission aimed at letting creative artists on the level of the late Pablo Picasso or Michael Jackson experience a trip beyond Earth orbit. Some of the people he’s picked are making use of creative channels that didn’t exist when Picasso was in his prime.

The eight crew members — and two alternates — were chosen out of more than a million people from 249 countries and regions who registered their interest via Maezawa’s DearMoon website.

Simply known as Yemi AD, the Czech-born Nigerian artiste, Yemi Akinyemi Dele started off as a dancer, choreographer but later moved behind the scene to work with top artistes and global brands, including Grammy Award winner, Kanye West. Yemi AD’s father is Nigerian but he grew up with his mother in the Czech Republic.