On Wednesday, September 19, 2012, Nigerian Idol held a mock competition to engage its media stakeholders. Tagged, ‘Press Idols’, it discovered the hidden talent in journalists at the Shaba Events Centre Ikeja. It coincided with the official launch of Nigerian Idol Season 3.
The one-off ‘Press Idol’ was anchored by Optima Media Group, owners of the Idols property in West Africa, with sponsorship from Etisalat and Pepsi.
“We thought to ourselves: we are very grateful to the media, which has made this Nigeria’s number one reality TV show,” said Tiwa Medubi, the project manager. “So why not reward them… by putting them on the spot! They are weekly shining the spotlight on the victories and mistakes, challenges and highlights of these contestants, and these was a fun way to enable them live the dream!”
The journalists did not disappoint, putting up thrilling freestyle music performances – popular songs from the old school archives, contemporary hits and plenty of humour and applause as they contested for the grand prize of $1000.
The contestants were randomly picked by Season 3 host, Ill Rymz: the first contestant was Efe Tommy of entertainment show Excite on TV who performed Whitney Houston’s timeless ‘Greatest Love of All’; the others were Hip on TV’s Dayo Ephraim, Yes! Magazine’s Gbenga Saba and Hitz on TV’s Daniel Oramai.
“Let’s just say, some of them chose right when they picked journalism over music,” Medubi said, laughing. “But oh there were amazing pleasant surprises!”
The audience chose the winners – first prize going to Oramai, the second place going to Tommy – who won $500 – and third place to Shaba – who won $200.
“Not a bad one at all,” said Shaba. “Nigerian Idol has constantly engaged and surpassed the expectation of its stakeholders, and it has been an impressive show – this is one more step in a string of surprises we have come to expect from the hit show.”
The launch event also had performances from season 2 winner, Naomi Mac, as well as an interactive session and multimedia presentations. Nigerian Idol season three begins airing on xxxxx and will be shown on xxxxx, xxxx, xxxxx and xxxx. For more information, visit the website http://www.Nigerianidol.com/, like on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/Nigerian-Idol or follow on Twitter on www.Twitter.com/NigerianIdol. Nigerian Idols Season 3 is sponsored by Etisalat, in conjunction with Pepsi.