he fifth season of the MTN Project Fame West Africa has kicked off with contestants already in the academy.
A total of 15 contestants were picked at
the recently held opening gala on Saturday, August 4, 2012. Side
attractions from the gala included performances from Project Fame season
4 winner Monica and Chuddy K.
A final contestant will however be chosen through a ‘Wild Card Contest‘ which will see the academy accommodate 16 contestants in total.
A few changes have been made from last year’s show – Most notably, Nigezie boss Femi ‘Kwame’ Aderigbigbe who has served as a judge since inception has been replaced with Nigerian-German musician, producer Ade Bantu.
The duo Joseph Benjamin and Adora Oleh will continue as hosts.
Check out your contestants and pick a favourite!
Adetoun
The ever-smiley Adetoun is a bubbly 26
year-old woman whose confidence exudes in leaps and bounds. She is a
studio-rat as far as she’s concerned, and has done a lot of back-up work
for established artistes.
Adetoun is a graduate of
Mass-Communication from Olabisi Onabanjo University. She caters for a
living and has a very outgoing and friendly personality and believes in
people. She is highly competitive in nature and is aiming for the Top.
Ayo
Ayobami Ayoola Ayolola is the 25 year
old personal assistant to renowned saxophonist Mike Aremu. Apart from
his involvement in this saxophonist’s band, Ayo’s father is also a
pastor and was a choir director for many years.
In Ayo’s own words, ‘my father
discovered the music in me’ – and for this he is grateful to his dad
whom he speaks of with pride. Ayo is also an actor and has had a few
stints on television. He says he cannot run away from acting but music
is his first love and seeing as this is his fifth stab at Project Fame
West Africa, he intends to milk the opportunity for all it is worth.
Brenda
Brenda Adigwe is a 16 year old
go-getter. She is a third-year mass communication undergraduate of the
Littoral University, Porto-Novo, Benin Republic. Brenda tends to come
across as older than her age and even though the competition is open to
only people eighteen years and above, she returned for another season of
auditions to give it another shot and convinced the academy to let her
in.
Brenda is very close to her mother and
hopes to make her proud by going far in the competition and possibly
emerge as the winner.
Chinyere
She’s 23 years old, studies Linguistics
and African Languages at University of Benin, Edo State – Nigeria, and
is in love with a young man who she calls her best friend. He’s a base
guitarist and her number one fan apart from her family.
Chinyere is the last-born child and she
receives a lot of support from her older siblings who are all married.
She tends to be a bit shy and taciturn but she does express herself well
enough and her biggest asset is her crystal-clear voice.
Christian
Dark-skinned and very expressive
Christian is of mixed Nigerian heritage. His father is Yoruba and his
mother is from Benue state. Christian has lived in Markudi for most of
his life and is a fourth year Computer-Science student of the Federal
University of Agriculture, Markudi, in Benue state, Nigeria.
Even though he has lived in the middle
belt for most of his life, Christian emphasises that he is a Yoruba boy
through and through and nothing can change that. Christian loves
television, movies, and travelling. A very jovial sort, Christian does
not fail to point out that he is only jovial and happy-go-lucky when he
wants to be. He takes his music seriously and intends to win this
competition, bringing the first prize back to Benue like Monica Ogah did
in Season four.
Didi
Dimipre Kosu likes to be known as
‘Diddy’. He is 20 years old and an Engineering fourth-year undergrad at
Niger Delta University. Diddy Kosu is playful and has his own style
which he believes tends to stand him out from the crowd. He loves rock
jazz and soul music and really loves to dance.
At the slightest opportunity, Didi is
likely to break into ‘Azonto’ – the now famous dance of Ghanaian origin
which the young man seems to have mastered and given his own unique
twist.
Edward
Edward is a 26 year-old and has being
doing music and song-writing for a living since his college days. He has
a little daughter and a girlfriend both of whom he loves very much. He
says he’s a good guy but doesn’t smile much because his eyes have seen
‘too many things’ during the savage war years that besieged
Sierra-Leone.
Edward says he isn’t religious but is
quite spiritual and is very connected to God. He certainly doesn’t see
himself as a ladies’ man but is not averse to making new friends along
the way, if they can accept him for who he is.
Grace Mark is a smallish twenty-four
year old. Pretty-faced and with a chirpy speaking voice, she comes alive
when she’s singing. Grace is from a large family – she has nine
siblings and apparently, almost everyone in her home has a flair for
music.
She has come a long way since last year,
when she reached the semi-final stage of the auditions, so she is
determined to make this opportunity in the Project Fame Academy count.
Joshua
Joshua Owusu Effriyie is 20 years old,
dark skinned, quite charming, and has a personality that draws you in.
The young Ghanaian singer says he loves to eat, and therefore, loves to
cook.
He spends a lot of time in the kitchen
but when he isn’t cooking up a delicious dish, he is really into video
games and his music. Joshua plays the saxophone, the guitar and the
keyboard and is a staunch Arsenal Football Club fan.
Kemi
Kemi is a 20 year-old ND-1 student of
Federal Polytechnic, Offa – Kwara State. She grew up with her mother who
is a fashion designer. Kemi is also a talented seamstress but unlike
her mother, is yet to master the art of cutting design-patterns.
Kemi loves singing and wants to take it
to the highest height. She believes she picked up the talent from her
father who used to sing and play several instruments during his
lifetime. She knows she has a lot to learn and wants to lap up as much
as possible from all the faculty memebers.
Marvellous
Marvellous Odiete is 33 years old. He is
a graduate of the University of Ibadan. His father is a pastor and
Marvellous sometimes works in the church’s music department. Marvellous
has a very strong voice which he wants to learn to use better.
Having done some studio gigs to earn a
living, he believes it is time for him to take the bold step and do
something really big with his talent, hence his participation in the
competition. Marvellous says that despite his desire to win, he only
sees himself as a competitive person, but not a desperate one and so he
intends to do the best he can, take advantage of the platform which MTN
Project Fame West Africa presents, and see where this takes him.
Musulyn
Musulyn Myers is a 19 year-old Liberian
girl who likes to laugh a lot. Bubbly-spirited and sweet, Musulyn says
she is kind-hearted and likes to put a smile on people’s faces. Musulyn
is best friends with her mother but points out that it hasn’t always
been that way. As a result of the war, she and her mum had to move to
the United States of America when the young Musulyn was two years old
and only returned three years ago in Musulyn’s mid-teens.
Musulyn says that having grown into a
young adult, she finds that she and her mother understand each other a
lot more and so their relationship is tighter now than it ever was. She
loves singing and dancing and also plays the keyboard. She hopes that
the Academy will give her insights about how to develop her music career
and significantly improve her abilities and wants to learn.
Oyinkansade Akande
Oyinkansade Akande, is a dark-skinned
handsome young man with a calm demeanour and an air of wisdom around
him. Oyinkansade knows what he wants and this isn’t a new trait of his.
Always hoping to have formal knowledge of music, Oyinkansade felt that
the stars shined on him when he finally got the opportunity to study
music in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He now has a diploma in
Music and is happy to have made the choice to go for it when he did.
He however feels that he doesn’t know
enough about music to make a successful career of it and for this reason
he hopes to go far in the Project Fame West Africa competition.
Oyinkansade is south-pawed and plays the left-handed guitar.
Sonia Obi
Sonia Obi is a 22 year old student of
Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution at the National Open University.
She is social and likes to talk. She however tends to be pretty
sensitive and emotional especially concerning her late mother whose ring
she still wears as a keepsake.
She loves to sing and gives it her best.
While she admits her emotions are close to the surface she wants to do
well in the Academy to make her mother proud.
Tega Apochie
Tega Apochie is a 22 year-old Delta
State babe who has a non-identical twin brother Tejire. Tega loves
singing but if she wasn’t following the path of music, she would like to
try her hands at fish-farming. She has her own style fashion-wise and
readily admits to liking attention.
She has a distinct voice which she hopes
can be trained to be outstanding. She is looking forward to the Academy
as a growth experience in music, style and performance too.
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