The search for a star
Since the 1970s, Afrobeat has grown to become a preferred genre of music among many Africans and in the quest to make it a popular genre, a new music show, Afrobeat- Search for a Star competition has been launched recently.
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Organised by Fame Music, the competition which is open to participants from Africa is to afford many young talents the opportunity to explore the genre and make it quite attractive to the outside world.
In an interview with Showbiz last week Wednesday, Tema based sound producer/ engineer, Mix Masta Garzy, who is a judge on the show, said the competition will help to unearth raw talents for the African music industry.
According to him, even though many young artistes love to follow the popular trend of doing hiphop which is in huge demand globally, he said that it was necessary to rebrand Afrobeats “to identity African music from the rest”.
Citing an example of how Nigeria’s Fela Kuti earned international recognition for doing Afrobeat, he said it was time the new generation rode on its success in the past to make it attractive on the world music stage.
Many jazz musicians have been attracted to Afrobeat. From Roy Ayers in the 70s to Randy Weston in the 90s, there have been collaborations that have resulted in albums such as Africa: Centre of the World by Roy Ayers and Mix Masta Garzy said the Search for a Star competition is just one of the many means to ignite that “legacy”.
Participants are expected to record their own song and a 30 second video to narrate the concept and the final 15 will be selected based on the criteria of the judges, Mix Masta Garzy, Nigeria’s Ice Prince, May7ven and UK based Ghanaian DJ, Abrantee.
Mix Masta Garzy urged many underground artistes to participate in the competition but cautioned that, the rules bar participants from using or doing renditions of other songs.
“We want raw talent that we can groom. This is just to identify our artistes’ strength in Afrobeats so we want all participants to be original.” he said.
He said voting will officially start on Monday, February 16, and the winner will walk away with a good package including a live performance at London’s world famous Jazz Café.
