The Future of Music Competition 2020

We can all understand how it feels while listening to meaningful songs. We come to appreciate the value of good music, especially when it relates to us or our current situation. Some artists can deliver these kinds of songs and more to society but they are ever so rare. We don't hear a lot about these because most of these artists have some challenges they face in their musical careers; Making music can be costly, promoting music is expensive, understanding the business aspect of music amongst others are some of the challenges they face (These we arrived at after analysing the data collected by our team from a survey).

Being are an Innovative Record Label aimed at discovering, building and supporting the next generation of musical talent in Africa, we have a lot of work to do. Good music has to be kept alive and we believe it is our responsibility to make it stay alive. With this in mind, we signed our very first artists in October. Still pushing forward with our vision, we planned the first edition of the Future of Music Competition, while working on our first technology product; Mizik (an artiste management system). This competition was our second step to discovering artists and creating an enabling environment for all to thrive, without them be signed to our label. It was open to every artist who sees themselves as The Future of Music in Africa.

The competition kicked off on the 4th of November. There were 3 stages. The first stage involved interested participants uploading a video of themselves singing on any social media platform with over 100 applications. From these, we selected 25 artists who then proceeded to the second stage where they were directed to upload a video of themselves on YouTube singing a song we picked for them. Keeping the vision of our innovative label in mind, we were able to sift through the entries and select the 5 final contestants for the last stage of the competition. 

The whole process of the competition was an interesting one. Hearing songs of upcoming artists reinforced our belief in what we have started to do in Africa. There are extraordinary artists out there who are the Future of Music and one step at a time, we will make a difference. The final stage had us left with the following finalists; Vanessa Lee, Orion Collins, Gidi Best, Natty and Yoyo Ovi.

The grand finale was quite the show. Swift Tech event centre was where the action happened on the 12th of December. The competitors brought their A-game no doubt, and supporters were fully pumped as they rooted for their favourite artist. The show's host was the enthusiastic MC Kmeks Otuoya. The event opened with Evangelist Mrs Okwegada (aka mama Shine) giving the opening prayer and charging up the atmosphere with her signature song "It is Your Turn to Shine"

Shortly after this, Favour and Mira of the Victorious Voices gave their beautifully perfectly in synch presentation. A song titled "Onyeoma e". Following this, the judges were announced. We had Musicologist/HOD Music Department College of Education, Warri, Olufemi Adeojo, Cathy Jakes and Evans Reid function as our impartial judges. 

Winner Okwegada, Head of Operations at E.T Records gave a brief opening remark, welcoming everyone and the competition officially began. Two rounds were what the contestants had to give their best shot at the prizes. We saw the artists giving their all as most parts of the competition was spellbinding. The judges no doubt had a hard time coming up with our winners.

Vanessa Lee was the first contestant on stage and with Alan Walker's "Faded", she held the audience's attention till she was done. She had an amazing voice. Following her performance, Orion Collins was the next contestant on stage. Singing a song with the title "Olulunife" with a passion, he was teased by the host who asked if he was going to propose to his girl while singing. His performance was beautiful. Coming next was Gidi Best with massive confidence. His performance was chilling in a good way. Rapping an original song of his, the audience felt his song. Natty was up next and she carried the audience along with her solid performance. "The upcoming Sinach" title was given to her by Katty Jakes a judge. The final contestant Yoyo Ovi, took the audience by surprise singing a traditional song. Reminded us of the old days and what we missed. Her unique blend of the show was appreciated.

E.T Records' artists each performed at the end of the first round and the host announced the beginning of the second round. As the competition progressed, it wasn't clear who the winners would be. The competitors were all going for gold. The second round ended with Yoyo Ovi performing last. A guest artist entertained the audience while the results were being collated.

One of our sponsors, Olori Best of Decanefx was invited to the podium to talk about his company. Decanefx is a private company that handles key areas of the world's economy such as foreign exchange, water transportation, agriculture and real estate. He presented the audience with the offer of expanding their financial sources by investing with his company or learning forex trading. He urged them to check out his website decanefx.com for more information.

The Marketing and Communications Manager, Timothy Ovie gave a talk about E.T  Records. He mentioned a project they were working on which would soon be ready; a music app to help African artists get on multiple streaming platforms and do other things. And that's OneMIZIK.

Our host finally announced the judge's results. The Future of Music champion was Orion Collins who was branded "lover boy". The CEO Winner Okwegada presented him with his prize. Our first runner up was Natty. Barrister Augustine handed over her prize and our unique singer Yoyo Ovi came in third with Mrs Okwegada presenting her prize. 4th position went to Gidi Best and Vanessa Lee came in 5th. In addition to the cash prizes won by the contestants, they would release a single each of the winners and helps promote it for them for a while.

The show came to a pleasant end following the picture session.  An after-party was held at a guest house. We appreciate...(the partners and honourable mentions comes here)