Last week’s episode ended with 22-year-old student and back-end developer, Hesed, awaiting the judge’s decision on her audition. Obi Asika who was the tiebreaker for that decision voted in her favour, giving her a golden ticket and securing her spot in the next round of the competition.
The next audition sessions saw a great display of vocal talent as the participants came prepared to take their best shot for a chance at fame. Following their impressive performances, Damola, Ikemefuna, Benjamin, Joel, Famous, Joshua, Yehoshua, Glory, Abiye, Debby, Zadok [JU1] were visibly elated to have received the judges’ nods and golden tickets to proceed to Theatre Week.
22-year-old Jordan Bangoji got a standing ovation from Obi Asika after his rendition of ‘I’m Not The Only One’ by Sam Smith while 23-year-old Matthew Idu astounded the judges with his rendition of Timi’s Dakolo’s ‘Iyawo Mi’. Idu’s story was particularly touching as he revealed to the judges that he had vocal training to learn to speak again after a near fatal accident.
Meanwhile, award-winning On-Air Personality, Tolu ‘Toolz’ Demuren, joined Obi Asika and D’banj as a guest judge for this week’s show. Toolz was a delight and she made a lovely comment about 20-year-old Precious who she told that her voice was amazing, and seeing her in the next round would be great.
There were also a handful of less than melodious renditions for the night. There was Marvella, who broke down in tears because she felt she had disappointed her mum when she got a ‘no’ from the judges. For Chinwe, Nicholas, Emmanuel, Clinton, Nzebuike, Christopher, Olamide, Robert, their hopes of becoming the next Nigerian Idol were dashed as they did not get a golden ticket.
The final performance for the night came from Esther, the 26-year-old from Benin. She gave an impressive performance of Andra Day’s ‘Rise Up’. She joined the nine other golden ticket contestants moving to theater week.
The excitement continues with new episodes every Sunday on AM Showcase (DStv channel 151), AM Urban (DStv channel 153 & GOtv Supa channel 6) and AM Family (DStv channel 154 & GOtv channel 2) from 7 PM.
You can also catch all the auditions from day one and the behind the scenes episode on Nigerian Idol extra, airing daily on (DStv channel 197 and GOtv channel 29).
