As the countdown to the Old Mutual Amazing Voices pan- African singing competition reaches its climax, auditions were in Kenya and Ghana and are underway in Zimbabwe while South Africa will soon conduct theirs towards the end of this month.
The competition that has a whopping US$100 000 prize money at stake will see contestants from four countries including South Africa, battling for honours.
Old Mutual, a leading financial services provider on the continent has partnered with MultiChoice, who will broadcast the reality show of the competition on its DSTV Channel 163 from January 2020.
In Zimbabwe, Amazing Voices held auditions at Bulawayo’s City Hall where scores of hopeful contestants performed before the panel celebrity of selectors composed of Selmor Mtukudzi, Tembalami and Takura. They will culminate at Harare’s Monomotapa Hotel tomorrow, where more hopefuls will try their luck.
Three groups in the Afro-Pop, Hip-Hop and Gospel categories will represent the country in South Africa for the finals. The competition draws contestants from nine cities of the four countries – Mombasa, Nairobi, Accra, Kumasi, Bulawayo, Harare, Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg.
As part of the promotion of the event, selectors, singers Selmor Mtukudzi and Tembalami visited the MultiChoice head office in Zimbabwe where they met Chairman, Peter Van Deventer and General Manager Norman Raisbeck and staff.
Speaking on receiving the celebrity visitors, Mr. Raisbeck said that it was an honour to have Selmor and Tembalami take time off to visit their offices in Avondale.
“We are all excited to have you here and look forward to Amazing Voices being recorded and broadcast on our channels. I am sure that the staff appreciate it as well and creates the right atmosphere for them to appreciate the competition and we wish you all the best,” he said.
Multichoice Zimbabwe public relations manager, Liz Dziva, and colleagues showed the selectors around the sprawling complex where they got to appreciate the support work that goes on behind the scenes.
They toured the DSTV call centre where Selmor had a short chat with a customer who had called in with a query. The selectors made time to chat and take ‘selfies’ with the celebrities.
One of the staff members remarked at how down to earth the celebrities were, and it thrilled them to take time to spend time with artists they only saw on the screen.
Amazing Voices has generated a lot of interest a lot of interest among members of the public who have been registering for the auditions online site at https://africamagic.dstv.com/show/old-mutual-amazing-voices
Scores of enthusiastic potential contestants who took time to show off their singing skills to appreciative crowds at the Chitungwiza Town Centre Shopping Mall and Makoni centre when the Old Mutual Amazing Voices team toured Chitungwiza last Wednesday.
Though the people who showed an interest that they would attend the auditions to try their luck were from all age groups, the competition is open to groups of between 4 and 8 persons who are a minimum 18 years of age.
Contestants register online, but there is provision made at the audition venues for those who cannot.
