The gloves come off in the penultimate episode, it’s a war and only one person can come out victorious. Who will be crowned South Africa’s 2013 Idol?
They have had to beat thousands of hopefuls from across the country to get where they are and Brenden and Musa have done it with grace, until now that is. Musa was first to draw blood from Brenden after Idols producers allegedly sabotaged Brenden with some boring song called Jailer by Asa which the producers believe it is Brenden’s best performance of the season. Musa took the alleged Brenden sabotage as a sign of victory as producers picked the right song for him which is Ringo’s Ndiyagodola. Needless to say, Musa won round one thanks to the producers’ sabotage. Brenden tried his level best to do justice to the song but it was just boring I almost fell asleep with the remote in my hand.
Amid all the sabotage frenzy was a lip synching scandal by the other top 8 who performed on the Moreleta auditorium stage. The booted eight girls and guys performed a collabo and set the stage alight, well except that they were lip syncing. It was however great to see them back on the Idols stage doing their thang.
Brenden took the producers’ sabotage with a pinch of salt and came back with his guns blazing when he performed his second song which he personally picked as his best performance of the season and indeed it is his best. His supporters sighed a sigh of relief after they saw their Idol redeem himself by rendering Rihanna’s Stay from his top 18 battle. Pulling no punches, Brenden reminded the hormonal teenagers why they fell in love with him in the first place. This time around, he paid special attention to every single note and performed way much better than he originally performed during the top 18.
.jpg)
Despite his “fans” causing a cacophony shouting his name in the auditorium, Musa cracked under pressure probably after hearing how Brenden won back the love from his supporters. Musa chose his personal best performance as Sexual Healing by Marvin Gay. In my humble opinion, that was not his personal best and he could have chosen a better song. In any case, Musa’s second performance wasn’t all that and Twitter went abuzz on how Joyous Celebration should sign him.
At this point in time, the two contestants were even with both having equally bruised the other, vocal bruises that is, you get what I am saying.
Then Judge Unathi Msengana also joined in on the war bringing out her claws to sting host Proverb showing him he should not get comfortable at the hosting seat proving she can replace him at any given point in time. She did so with grace when she introduced the show’s Musical Director RJ Benjamin and Proverb’s collabo with 1st Project. It was like the Coca-Cola Popstars back in 2004 all over again when Unathi hosted.
The final round between Musa and Brenden comprised of their so called singles and the music video were nothing short of Ford Fiesta product placement. Anyway who can blame the poor producers, we all know how they need that sponsorship, we cannot have an Idol being like Lira back in the days when she used a taxi to go to gigs. Taxis are for us ordinary Joes.
As I was saying about Brenden and Musa’s singles, both singles are nothing short of 5FM market. I am not even sure their music is for YFM (Brenden fans) and Radio Pulpit (Musa fans). Forget about them targeting the affluent Metro FM listeners, let alone being played on Channel O.
Brenden’s Single is called Fingerprints and it was very difficult for the audience to connect with the song as they thought Ben10 was singing for white votes. I do get this is Idols but let’s be honest here, white people have long stopped voting at this stage of the competition.
For me, Musa’s single, I Still Feel It, also did nothing to connect with me as a black person who prefers to buy the real deal. Whether Musa will win this or not, is not as clear cut as some twitterers suggest. Both he and Brenden have equal chances to win or lose this, despite Brenden being sabotaged.
This is not the first time Idols sabotages a contestant. Last year, Tshidi Tenyane was set up for failure by producers of the show who had over five hours of footage (I would imagine)from her home coming and when they had to choose only 90 seconds, they chose the infamous “Don’t jump on me” line. We have seen it again not so long ago with Sonke when judge Randal sabotaged him by giving him some lame song to perform. And last night the producers have outdone themselves again.
Perhaps also worth mentioning in this season is that we are on a break from the so called race card by blacks decrying the lack of a black person in the final round. Whether blacks dominating the top four will be a trend remains to be seen. However, at this point in time, it’s war between Brenden and Musa. May the best Idol win.