Social Commentator Predicts Winner of Airtel’s Voice of Nigeria! Advices Patrick Effiom

0
212
Reading Time: 3 minutes
Efio-Ita Nyok|31 July 2016|2:00PM
Today 31 July the winner of the debut edition of the popular talent hunt, Airtel’s Voice of Nigeria  will be announced. Expectedly, fingers are crossed, expectations are at fever pitch. One question consistently begging for answer is who will become the next winner of the ongoing music competition —the Voice of Nigeria!? There have been numerous speculations.
However, Cross River-born social commentator, Simon Utsu, whose reflections border on a handful of themes ranging from economy, politics, religion and entertainment, etc has submitted in categorical terms who the winner will be. He fingered the winner to be Patrick Shadow. Besides, he has gone on to offer credible advice on what genre of music the expected winner should explore especially if he/she wants to make it in the Nigerian music industry.
Concerning the winner this is is what Commentator Utsu has to say: ‘Patrick “Shadow” Effiom is in pole position to win the debut season of “the Voice Nigeria”. The winner would be announced tomorrow being Sunday the 31st of July. Fingers crossed, another Calabar guy is going to take home the first prize on the debut season of a national music talent hunt show’. Do you agree with him? Will his prediction be supported by the judges? Let’s see.
Utsu commended the sundry contestants on what he described as ‘ near perfect renditions old school classics’. In his own words, ‘Watching Season 8 of MTN Project Fame on TV and I must confess, most of the contestants are ‘off the hook’. They did near perfect renditions of old school classics sung by the likes of Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Celine Dion etc and got well deserved ovations from the audience’.
However, the ace commentator proceeded to advice along a different line of reasoning. He argued that Nigeria’s music industry isn’t pro-R & B. For him, ‘life after Project Fame is much different. My advice to all the contestants that would eventually go ahead to pursue careers in the Nigerian music industry should be ready to ditch the R&B theme the competition promotes for something like “It’s young John the wicked producer on the beat, Oya baby shake am, my baby roll am, see me see wahala eh!”‘.
‘Talking about Young John the wicked producer who ‘surprisingly’ is a Calabar guy has brought back memories of another of my Calabar brothers, Iyanya who won the maiden edition(season 1) of the same project fame. I believe he was deceived by the theme of the show and because immediately after winning, he went ahead to release a Rythm and Blues album. I’m not sure he sold up to 2,000 copies of that album. The hunger that scattered his stomach wasn’t funny. I’m sure his stomach kept doing “Kukere, kukere”, maybe that’s where he got the inspiration for his Kureke monster hit, which became the bedrock of (and the inspiration for) his sophomore album’, he continued.
He concluded his argument when he noted that Inyanya evolved into becoming the popular Kukere crooner when he produced his next album not following the R&B tradition. ‘In that album, he ditched the blues theme of his debut and went fully into mainstream Nigeria music, where he kept screaming stuff like “It’s D tunes again on the beats”, in nearly all the tracks on that album and had songs with repetitive phrases like “your waist oh”, “oh my baby what’s your flavour”, “sexy mama”. Them no dey tell man!’.
Do you think Simon Utsu’s prophecy will turn out as predicted? Will Utsu be elevated to the much coveted pedestal of a social prophet? Will Patrick Shadow Effiom will the debut edition of MTN’s Voice of Nigeria?
Efio-Ita Nyok
Is a Blogger & the Editor of Negroidhaven.org (Negroid Haven)