In Uganda on the other hand, TPF is a shadow of
sorts. After six years, two comfortable wins and arguably one surviving star,
some people buried their TV remotes the moment TPF5 ended.
But how did we even get to this; the show was once
such a darling!
The problem is that even with the towering character
of judge Ian Mbugua throughout the show, unlike Simon Cowell, his meanness has
failed to produce results we can associate to his brand.
So, when this season finale festivities kicked off
on Sunday, I saw Mitch Egwang read out names of past contestants, all of whom
have failed to account for past votes we wasted on them . I thought the past
winners were back to debut hit singles. To my shock, these “established
artistes” were still doing covers. Seriously?
The problem with TPF is that they don’t want to
spend on the winners. Giving a former church choir girl eight weeks on the TV
screen is not a big platform enough; in fact, it is like putting her up there
and then letting her fall all of a sudden.
I appreciated a fact that on Sunday’s finale, the
winner didn’t take it all; others too went home with music singles and videos.
However, if your main aim was to create an African
star, I don’t understand why you would give them a poorly produced song or
video.
Maybe that Amos and Josh song stands a chance, but
an English song for Daisy Ejang? Even judge Julianna Kanyomozi knows; Africans
– Ugandans in particular – look haughtily upon local acts singing in English.
Unless they are rapping. Even then, a slice of Luganda pushes the song better;
ask Navio (Naawulira), or look at
LugaFlo’s success.
Then for those highly unimaginative rolex videos, I
simply lost words. You know like a rolex (not the watch, come on!) you wait
while it is being made and within minutes, you leave with
your chapatti roll.
I think TPF missed the point here, the reasons
artistes disappear is not because they can’t record a video, it’s because they
are not promoted – all former contestants in Uganda have songs and videos but
they are not pushed well to become hits and that is the void the sponsors must
fill.
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