Staff Reporter
MUSIC duo, Hlabaki and Tefo yesterday walked away M80 000 richer after bagging the first prize in the ECONET Telecomm Lesotho (ETL’s) Theme Song Competition.
The artistes beat nine other contestants to the grand prize.
Trio, NSL, scooped the second prize and took home M40 000. In third place was solo artiste, Rethabile ‘Nai, who pocketed M10 000.
Each of the top three winners walked away with a Samsung Galaxy A02 Smartphone. They will each get 40GB Econet data monthly for a year.
The Econet Theme Song Competition was launched in September this year to identify local talent while producing a melody for the company.
Econet acting marketing and brand communications manager, Lipalesa Mpemi, said the competition was meant to identify musical talent while celebrating Econet and its products.
“Lesotho has got talent, the selection of the top 10 winners was not easy due the vast number of entries we received,” Ms Mpemi said.
“However, our judges took their time to listen and carefully analyse all the submissions to select the top 10 winning songs.
“We are grateful to have introduced such an eye-opening competition instead of asking an established artiste to record a theme song as we have been doing in the past.
“As we all know, Covid-19 came unexpectedly and affected us in our respective fields – some more than others, like the entertainment industry. We were basically forced to adapt to a whole new way of living which we are all still trying to grasp. On our part, we thought it was high time to engage local talent.”
Ms Mpeni also thanked the public for their participation in the competition.
“A special thank you to our customers and all the people who voted when the videos were posted on Econet social media pages,” Ms Mpemi said.
The Econet Theme Song competition was open to upcoming musicians who are Lesotho citizens and have not recorded before.
It drew participants from all genres including amapiano and kwaito. Over 200 artistes entered the competition.
Econet engaged a panel of independent music industry judges to select winners.
The judges included DJ and producer, Sechaba SirSchaba Mokoqo; award-winning gospel musician, Mookho Moqhali and media personality, Dallas T.
The selection was based on the artistes’ tone, clarity, resonance and focus, intonation, rhythm, technique, interpretation and creative inclusion of Econet products.
The ultimate winners were selected by the public through Econet’s social media pages and Econet staff over three weeks.
