NESCAFE raises talents
for musical show
By Christy Anyanwu
Friday, February 8, 2008
It was a rare celebration of talents recently when the NESCAFE
contingent stormed Ibadan, Oyo State capital, in a talent
hunt show tagged: African Revelation 2008. The event held
at the Premier Hotel Ibadan, attracted youths, especially
students of institutions of higher learning who came in large
numbers to watch the performance.
Shortly before the artistes mounted the stage, Laolu Akins,
head of jury for the competition, explained that the judges
were basically hunting for the best artiste in voice, costume,
singing and dancing. He had reminded that the winner of the
competition would represent Nigeria at the central West African
edition of the competition early this year.
And when The soul refiners finally came on stage, they were
decked in red and white costume, while Phoniex came up later
in red and black outfit and thrilled the audience in their
Salsa dance steps.
The G-factor also came up with I go make am, a soul lifting
melody that kept the audience in high spirit. The performances
of the three groups were quite scintillating. Infact, the
audience was held spell bound by the youths as they responded
rhythmically to the songs rendered. Also, the composition
of a jingle for Nescafe by the singers was another intresting
part of the show.
It was, indeed, a night of fun and bliss as Weird M.C thrilled
the audience in her popular numbers; including Esi ma riro
wo and Ijo ya. Overwhelmed by the music, the audience, in
excitement, sang along the melodious tunes, while others stormed
the dancing floor for stints.
Face, the artiste, who performed after Weird M.C also moved
the crowd and the students in melodious tunes. After the impressive
performance, Toulou Eric, category business manager Nescafe,
told the audience: “ The idea is to explore their musical
talents. This is part of social responsibility of NESCAFE.
What we have seen tonight is highly encouraging. In Nigeria,
we don’t seem to appreciate ourselves, I know these
young people are going to go places”.
Meanwhile the four artistes constitute Phoenix band-Agocha
Davies, Ibeabuchi Rhema, Chizoba Uba and Louis Acho. The four
singers in the Phoenix band said they have been singing for
a couple of months now. They sing normally as a group and
in churches, schools and at events. “ We started rehearsing
two days to the auditioning period. Definitely, we had fear
God, and we are are glad that God surprised us. We would strive
to keep organizing shows like this and making the young ones
discover their talent.
Moreover, Laolu Akins hinted that the criteria for judging
the group include: Use of voice quality, lyrical content and
appearance. His words: “As a producer, I saw flaws and
lapses. Absolutely, all what you saw tonight was raw talent,
nobody has trained the competitors.
But in this aspect, we chose personality, dance, rhythm, vocability
and the entire packaging of each group. We didn’t get
the rules ourselves; the organisers set the rules and this
is what obtains in other parts of the world. We did all the
auditioning in Lagos.
The youths range between 18-20 years old
While expressing her joy, Mrs. Welly Ibeabuchi, mother of
one of the girls in the Phoenix group said : “ I know
she (her daughter) loves singing. I know she sings very well.
I have no choice than to support her. I just returned from
the office to watch their performance and they all emerged
winners. I never knew it would get to this level. The first
day I saw and heard her sang was at the Coliseum. I sat down
and was dazed. Actually, music has been in the family”.
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