Damiete Braide
A new reality show, Talent Thrones Show, is poised to take Nigeria’s arts sector by storm with the opening of its portals for talented Nigerian artists to participate in its median edition.
The brainchild of the Institute for Foresight and Leadership, registered in Alberta, Canada, and Nigeria, it is designed to be the voice of the unknown creators and a platform to nurture them into positive influencers in the society.
In its inaugural season, TTS will accept entries in the following categories: comedy, performance poetry, monologue, singing and dancing. Interested artists are expected to register online and upload a 2-minute video on their chosen genre to stand a chance of making it to the next rounds.
At a recent press conference in Lagos to kickstart Season 1, a member of the Executive Committee and Board of Trustees, Institute for Foresight and Leadership, Mr. Gideon Etireri, said participants should log on to www.talenthronesshow.org between September 28 and October 11, 2020, and submit their initial two-minute video on the website.
The audition, which will be virtual, will begin on October 24, while the show is open to adults of 18 years and above who possess a government-issued identification.
A star prize of N1 million is up for grabs, while two runners-up will pocket N500, 000 and N300, 000 respectively.
Already, a crack team of over 15 judges from different fields have been assembled. They include Segun Lawal, Dr. Shuaibu Huseeini, Kenny Saint Brown, MC Abbey, Sir Emeka Nwokedi and Chigozie Wisdom. Others are Koffi Da Guru, Owengee, Ice Nweke, Henry Akubuiro, Akeem Lasisi, Lydian John, AJ Daggar Tola, among others.
According to Etireri, the TTS’ goal is to provide a credible platform that discovers, mentors, and empowers the new talents, as well as promotes their arts in singing, dancing, comedy, monologue, poetry and other genres.
“Our target is to rediscover, mentor, empower and promote at least 25 young creative people yearly. There are so many unknown but talented young creatives in the remote villages of Africa. They will never get a chance to hone their skills and impact society with their gifts, except someone reaches out to them. So, TTS has a mission to provide a credible platform that discovers, mentors, and empowers these new talents and promotes their arts,” he said.
He assured the TTS offered a platform where young people could express themselves, have opportunity to receive feedback and perspectives from experts as well as receive mentorship by the institute for Foresight and Leadership for a year after the contest.
Though there were many talent shows in Africa, he said those platforms rarely offered post-event programmes for winners and other contestants.
TTS, which he said, was the first of its kind in Africa, and would integrates the selection of winners and a post-season mentoring programme to achieve the objective of transforming the contestants into positive influencers in society through a credible value-based platform.
He added, “TTS aims to counterpoise existing shows that espouse banality, disrespect human dignity and debase our cultural values. TTS, unlike other platforms, encourages decency, promotes professionalism and grooms participants for artistic excellence. Moreover, TTS targets talented youths who lack a voice and a platform to express their gifts.”
TTS is one of the four thematic areas of the LEAD agenda of Institute for Foresight and Leadership (IFL), an international non-profit corporation. Some of its Executive Committee members are Dr Ifeanyi Onyemere, Kunel Abisoye, Feyikunmi Yinka and Yemi Odunsi.