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| Idols West Africa: The Final Stretch |
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| Posted on: 2007-Apr-12 GNA |
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The search for the best singer in West Africa has been going on for a while. Several hundred budding talents tried their luck at winning but only a few were chosen to compete for the top prize as the sub-region’s music Idol.
At the one thousand seating capacity hall of the Planet One Entertainment Centre in Lagos, Nigeria, two Saturdays ago the ten finalists of Idols West Africa took to the stage to sing to Africa and to show why one of them should be named as winner of the coveted title.
There was no Ghanaian among the ten finalists. However, among the huge turnout at Planet One was a Ghanaian media contingent among which was yours truly. So as an Akan proverb goes “even if the deer would not go, its skin would be there”. Also as one of my friends once said “we too were there some”.
This was not the final at which the ultimate winner would be chosen but rather the one that would begin the eviction performances every Sunday on M-Net, Channel O and Africa Magic.
Our own Metro TV has the rights to rebroadcast what had been shown on the above mentioned DStv channels one week after the fact. Thus our presence in Lagos was to gain some insight into the abilities of the ten finalists and also get a feel of what the eviction performances would be like, I guess.
On the night itself the ten proved that they each deserved to be where they were. None of the performances was below par and the question we asked each other after the event was whether these young musicians were Africans like we were.
Temitayo, Mercy, Jerrilyn, Omodele, Joan, Jodie, Timi, Uche, Eric and Omawumi sang like real stars on the night.
Of course the judges namely, American Dan Foster, our own Abrewanana and Nigerian Dede saw a few flaws in the performances; but overwhelmingly they were all good.
In my notebook I wrote “massive” by the names of four of the contestants meaning their performances were the best, “great” for two, “good” for two and “not bad” for two. This shows the quality of performances on the night.
The competition required voting via text messages to different lines provided by telecom operators in different countries in Africa.
The votes are closed every Monday afternoon after the airing of the show on Sunday evening.
Among ourselves, we were not sure who among the ten would be evicted. Voters across the continent, however, knew who they wanted out. Thus last week Monday when the host Mike Majic announced that Omodele (she had “not bad” in my note book) had been voted out it was not too surprising as any of them could have exited.
Again last Sunday the remaining nine performed wonderfully and I wondered who could be shown the door out of Planet One.
Then on Monday Mike nearly broke a few hearts when he announced, against the verdict of the judges that the dimple-cheeked sweetheart of the competition Joan was the one to leave.
The judges had actually named the tallest person in the competition, the six-foot-four Mercy to be voted out.
This then leaves Temitayo, Mercy, Jerrilyn, Jodie, Timi, Uche, Eric and Omawumi to slug it out over the next few weeks until the final event on May 27.
Who do I predict to win? I am crazy over Omawumi, Uche and Timi (in no particular order, mind you) but anything could happen. Let’s see how it goes.
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