The tough choice
Nigerian Idol has
entered its third stage – the Top 50 stage where each week for five
weeks, ten contestants would perform on stage in front of a live
audience. Also at this stage, the power to choose who gets to go and
who stays has been taken away from the three judges and placed in the
hands of the viewing public.
After watching the
main one-hour staged show on TV on Sunday, viewers would then vote for
their favourite contestants to stay in the competition. The contestants
with the lowest votes then get evicted on the half-hour show on
Thursday.The sad thing here is that out of ten contestants, eight will
go, leaving two to move on to the final stage of the competition. This
puts a lot of pressure on the contestants to do their best to remain in
the show. The one performance they give each Sunday is the only chance
they get and whether they impress the judges or not, the onus now
remains on the voting public.
On Sunday, December
19, the first ten of the Top 50 got to perform. Although they were all
extremely talented with great vocal prowess, almost all of them seemed
totally unaware of what that particular stage held for them. Most of
them were more concerned with displaying their powerful voices than
connecting with the song and more importantly, the audience. One or two
of them were still playing to the familiarity that they held with the
Nigerian Idol judges that had picked them out, forgetting that their
judges were no longer in the studio but “out there”. Only one of them,
Ruth the youngest, managed to really connect with the audience and the
song, earning herself a standing ovation from the studio audience.
Picking two contestants out of eight is a really tough choice
especially when all are talented. The contestants need to make this
choice tougher for the voting public by stepping up their game and
really performing, not just singing. This advice may seem too late for
the first ten as already eight of them were asked to leave at the
Thursday eviction show on December 23. There are still three more
groups to go. Here is hoping that they learn from the first eviction
show and really ‘bring it’.
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