Back to School For Idols SA’s Loyiso!

In a shocking result, Idols SA host ProVerb on Sunday announced that 16-year-old Loyiso Gijana would be leaving his Idols dreams behind to resume his studies at Uitenhage’s Muir College.

Loyiso was the 6th contestant to be voted off South Africa’s popular singing contest.

But it was a fierce battle for a spot in this week’s Top 4, with just under an astonishing nine million votes cast from last Sunday’s Top 5 Spectacular to close of voting on Tuesday – by far the most votes ever cast in any single voting cycle in Idols SA history.

Having just turned 16 when he first auditioned back in March, Loy-Loy – as the irrepressible teenager affectionately became known – was the baby of Idols SA Season 11, but he dominated the competition from the very beginning. He was one of the very few contenders who scored yeses from all four of the judges in his original audition.

But this youngster from the small Eastern Cape town of Uitenhage always had a bright future anyway. At school he was a focused student, singing in the school choir and competing in rugby, tennis, and athletics. And he was always determined to go to university, even if he should win Idols SA.

“Economics,” he said. “I want to sell stuff – be able to package and sell my image to the people.” Hardly surprising since his stepdad runs a tavern and his mom is an accountant and also runs her own transport business. “Granny also ran her own business, a spaza shop – so I grew up with entrepreneurship,” the level-headed young man pointed out at auditions.

And that determination was Loyiso’s attitude from the very start of the Top 10 competition.

In the Top 5 Spectacular Loyiso sang Zahara’s “Ndiza” and Bob Marley’s “One Love”. Gareth was impressed that Loyiso had managed to dominate in virtually every genre of music across the competition, but Randall unfortunately didn’t think that Loy-Loy’s performances would be memorable enough to keep him in the competition.

The shock exit of Loyiso proved that Idols SA Season 11 was literally anybody’s game at this stage. The tension is really ratcheting up, three weeks to the Idols SA Season 11 finale, but at least this week, the Top 4 get a little break from the tension with a trip to London for a surprise musical experience, courtesy of Virgin Atlantic!

The remaining four are Mmatema Moremi (23) from Limpopo, 24-year-old Siphelele Ngcobo from Inanda, Karabo Mogane (24) from Mbombela and Rhema Varrie (21) from Alberton. – AllAfrica.