adminCourage Musariri Saturday Leisure Reporter
EXPECTATIONS are high in this year’s Hustlers Road to Fame finals, which are set to begin on 1 November and will run until early December. The famous show is meant to give Bulawayo’s up-and-coming artistes a chance to showcase their talent and a taste of the high demands of the entertainment industry.
The show has in the past hosted some of the country’s top musicians such as Roki, Winky Dee as well as the late Tongai Moyo.
This year organisers are looking forward to hosting Freeman, Sniper, Shinso and Winky Dee to name but just a few.
Hustlers’ entertainment manager Simon Gama said this year’s competition would be different from past years and they are expecting a stiff contest in all categories. ‘This is a show meant to encourage and inspire local talent. We give them a chance to be heard and to mix with other established musicians. We will be bringing in guys like King Shady and Guspy Warrior so that locals will have a chance to interact with them,” he said.
Gama said the month-long show would run through the whole of November every Friday and Saturday.
“We will have two shows every weekend and on Friday we will begin with the battle of DJs and the weekend competition will end on Saturday with a music competition,” he said.
The competition has been divided according to genres with DJs, dancers and musicians given their own days to compete.
Gama encouraged aspiring artistes to register for the competition as entries are still open.
“The competition is open to anyone who wishes to take part and we have not closed doors. We have registered a total of 45 artistes so far, 23 musicians, 12 DJs and 10 dance groups. We are expecting to register more participants in the coming days,” he said.
The finals will be held on a date yet to be announced and awards will be issued to eventual winners.
The competition has previously brought out the city’s hidden talent in the form of dancehall artistes, General Python and Centre Party. Winky Dee, as well as urban grooves musicians Ngoni Kambarami and Stunner have all won the competition.
Last year, Roki came back after his Big Brother Stargame fiasco and gave a good performance together with Wenera hit-maker Maskiri.
Gama said fans should expect similar performances and should come and support local artistes.
“If fully supported, such an initiative will in the end benefit the local entertainment sector,” he said.
Gama called on participants to be original and come up with projects that target not only local and regional but an international market.
“Over the years we have seen good music in the competition but this year we are encouraging artistes to come up with projects for the international market not the local and regional one,” said Gama.
Other local acts that have benefited after giving good accounts of themselves at the show in the past are Centre Party, POY and Gregory.
Otis Ngwabi won the debut Road to Fame show back in 2003 and Roki has won it three times.
The show is a platform for up-and-coming urban grooves artistes to showcase their talent with established artistes giving them much needed experience.
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