Mohalenyane Phakela
AUDITIONS for the fifth installment instalment of the Vodacom Superstars talent search elicited bigger crowds than previous editions.
This was said by Vodacom Lesotho Marketing Specialist, Seema Tsotetsi, in an interview with the Weekender this week.
Vodacom Superstars is aimed at unearthing and promoting music talent in the country, and auditions for the competition were held in one district per region of the country.
The southern region auditions were held in Mohale’s Hoek on 25 June 2016, with aspiring Vodacom Superstars from the northern region congregating in Hlotse on July 2, while for Maseru they were held last Saturday.
The competition is structured into four categories; Music, Dance, Male DJ and Female DJ, with three winners to emerge from each of the groupings.
The top three winners in each category will walk away with M70 000, M40 000 and M20 000 respectively. The first prize winner in the music category will also get a recording deal for a single with South African record label Kalawa Jazmee, while the first prize winner in the dance category will also get a Video Feature with the same label.
For the first prize winner in the DJ category, VCL has lined up a Booking/Performance Deal at a Kalawa Jazmee gig.
In last year’s edition, music category winner L-Tore managed to record three songs at Kalawa Jazmee, dance category winners Converse Heroes featured in a Kalawa Jazmee music video while DJs Linah and Vesta shared the stage with Oskido in his Durban and Johannesburg gigs.
Tsotetsi said more people auditioned for the talent search competition compared to previous editions.
“The number of people who came to audition this year exceeded previous editions,” he said.
“There was also a lot of talent on display in this year’s edition, and contestants from Maseru dominated the other two regions.”
Tsotetsi said 200 contestants who managed to make the grade in the auditions would now compete in the second phase dubbed “Step Up” on 23 July.
“The ‘Step Up’ part of the competition will see 200 contestants from the three regions battle it out once again in front of the judges so they can make it to the top 10 of each category,” he said.
“The 10 finalists of the four categories will each get an SMS code which people will use to vote. The eliminations will then be based on the number of votes per person, and the two contestants with the lowest votes in each section will be eliminated and this will happen on a fortnightly basis until we have the top six.”
Tsotetsi added: “From the remaining 24 finalists, we will eliminate three in each category until we are left with 12 finalists who will compete for the top prizes in each category on October 8.”