Munya Vomo
Have you ever had a meal that was almost delicious, but had something missing? The preparation was great, but just one ingredient was skipped and that changed the whole dish.
If you know what I am talking about then you will understand what it was like to watch Idols SA on Sunday. Somizi’s poppie, Nadia Herbst, was cut from the Top 10 which was fun to watch, if you are heartless. They really dragged it out with her and made the announcement right at the end. She had endured a lot of waiting and, to make matters worse, we will never know which song she had prepared to perform on the day.
The highlight of the night, which wasn’t anything to really write home about, was the crowd favourite, Loyiso Gijana’s interpretation of Sara Bareilles’s song, Gravity. Gijana has amazing vocal range and handles everything with a delicacy that only grown-ups would understand. He was so good that even Somizi remarked: “You know what? Go home, we’ll see you in the Top 3.”
The other person who did well was Elwira Standili, the “Jennifer Hudson” of the show. She sang a Christina Aguilera number, Hurt. What could have been a memorable experience was hindered by her constant surfing on the high notes without coming down to prepare the listener for a build up. Some judges felt that she had screamed her way through the song, meaning that she lacked the experience to know how to treat certain parts of the song.
The third person worthy of a mention has to be Mmatema Moremi who sang Demi Lovatio’s Warrior. Moremi is an all- rounder. She has the voice, the looks and the savvy to know where the cameras are and how to work them. Yet her performance was forgettable. Unathi thought she was nervous, but perhaps she has just reached her ceiling. She will be safe for the next few weeks, but there is a need for her to go back to that week when she closed the show and won people’s hearts.
These three are definitely safe come Sunday and could be for another fortnight. There were contestants who had flashes of brilliance and these included Rhema Varrie. But we have to question the use of soapie backstories on these kind of shows because they cloud good judgement.
We were told of Rhema’s hard upbringing and when he gets up on the stage, you can’t help but think of that. He did well with a John Legend song, but after a while his melancholic choices are nothing but depressing.
Given that the voting is closed, the people who are likely to be in the bottom are Siphelele Ngcobo, Amanda Antony and Lungisa Xhamela. One of them is definitely going home.
Idols SA, Sundays 5.30pm on M-Net (DStv channel 101) and Mzansi Magic (channel 161) and on DStv Catch Up.