By Olu Victor
Indeed, crunch time draws closer with the weekly eviction of contestants in the ongoing Nigerian Idol music competition, sponsored by telecommunications company Etisalat.
As if the shocking results from last week’s eviction were not enough, the judges were thrown into another round of emotional turmoil as the results turned against some of their favourites, Miss Oge, Nyro Love, and Antwon, who were in the bottom three.
Surprisingly, Miss Oge and Nyro Love were announced as the second set of contestants to be evicted from the Top 12 in the competition, which is in its 4th season.
After using their one and only lifeline to save Antwon who was going to be sacked from the competition during last week’s eviction show, the judges are unable to save any other contestant for the current season of the competition.
The votes have so far been unpredictable and the judges have often pleaded with the public to vote objectively. But they kept being hit by surprises, as the best candidates usually get the lowest number of votes.
Nneka Egbuna, the only female judge was speechless at the outcome of the results. So was Darey Art-Alade who simply expressed his appreciation for the efforts of the evicted contestants and encouraged the other contestants still in the competition to strive to impress as the voting public obviously will be expecting more as the contest progresses.
“All remaining contestants must be battle ready, and perform with the knowledge that the voting public will decide who will remain in the competition,” Darey said.
Bidding bye to the contest, Miss Oge said “Music is something I have always wanted to do and I will fight to sing even after Nigerian Idol. Naturally a shy person, it took a lot of fighting to get here and I won’t stop fighting to achieve my dreams.”
For fellow evictee, Nyro Love, “I just want to say a big thank you to all who made it possible for me to get to this stage of the competition. I have learnt a lot from the Nigerian Idol and I will forever cherish the friends I made here.”
So far, there are just eight contestants on the show, battling to make it into the next stage.
The show which airs on Saturdays and Sundays on NTA, STV, HIP TV, CRBC Calabar, DRTV Warri, and Startimes Channels promises a grand prize is N7.5 million, a Galaxy Tab, a Blackberry, an iPod and a brand new SUV car. The first runner-up gets N1.5 million, a Galaxy Tab, Blackberry and iPod, while the 2nd runner-up will receive N1million, a Galaxy Tab, a Blackberry and an iPod.
Organisers say each of the finalists from 4th to 10th place will also receive a cash prize of N100, 000, a Galaxy Tab, a Blackberry and an iPod.
To vote for the contestant who will remain in the competition, viewers are expected to dial the number of their favourite contestant on an Etisalat line or send the contestant’s number to 33680 via SMS.