Sunbird Search for a Star finalists selected
Saturday night was a moment of joy and tears for contestants in the Sunbird Search of a Star. Tears of witnessing missed opportunity to make into final stage, and colleagues leaping into joyous celebration.
But that’s what every game is all about-one has to lose. Four contestants were chopped from the show, which was dubbed Malawi Night, leaving five to battle it out for the grand prize of K500, 000 in the final show slated for Lilongwe on December 14th.
Remaining in the contest are Ruth Magona, Brian Kuchilowa, Adrian Kwelepeta, Chisomo Chichi Nteleka and Sithembile Banda who impressed with their skillful performances.
Those that made it to the last eviction but were booted out are Dorothy Chidothi, Starnly Matewere and Gift Vole.
In an interview after the show, Sunbird Public Relations Manager, Akossa Mphepo, impressed with the overall showcase, pledged to invigorate it next year with more surprises on the card.
Mphepo said: “Being first time, we are really impressed with the outstanding performances of the contestants. This is one of our interests to promote talent in the country but also give back to the community. Expect more surprises next year”.
Unlike the usual performances in which the contestants use recorded instruments, this time around, they used live instruments in the race that had started with 24 faces but now left with nine.
Dubbed Malawi Night, the contestants backed by Malimba band, mesmerized the jam-packed Njamba room with Malawi’s old-time hit songs like Chitukutuku, Lameck by Allan Namoko, Ndiwerengele Ndamala by Michael Yekha, Ned Mapira’s Kwanu Nkwanu, Lucky Stars’ Chinafuna M’bale, Bright Nkhata’s Ndili ndi Manyazi as well as Giddes Chalamanda’s Linnie and Che Merie.
The event was spiced up with performances from renowned acoustic duo of Edgar ndi Davis popularly called as Anyamata Ozelezeka, Giddes Chalamanda as well as Flow Stepper dancers.
Prio to the start of the show in September, the contestants had opportunity to undergo a boot-camp at Mount Soche Hotel where, among other things, was dominated by vocal training.
This year auditions for the event were extended to other districts such as Mangochi, Salima and Zomba with a panel of Judges Marvin Hanke, Dumisani Mfune, Alinane Mphande and Sweeney Chinkango helping in selecting the 24 contestants that finally got into the show.
Formally named E-Wallet, the competition has been adopted by Sunbird Tourism with this year’s winner expected to pocket K500, 000 as a grand prize with a second and third runners up getting K300, 000 and K200, 000 respectively.
Sunbird Hotels provides all the logistics, accommodation, foods and the prize money with AXA Coach service coming in as a partner providing transport to all the contestants.
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