American Idol has come to South Sudan - it's really an incredible phenomenon. Vivacell is a local mobile phone company who has been sponsoring this contest over the past 4 weeks. I believe we started out with 24 contestants, and last night was the grand finale. The best part is that everyone is invited to a live recording of the event (completely free of charge), and sometimes they toss free t-shirts out to the crowd!!
You have your three judges (one lady, two gents - one is Simon Cowell-esq), each contestant does a different song each week. We hear everything from Tupac to Eminem to Nigerian artists, even a few local artists. The songs are truly terrible. No one can carry a tune, and almost no one has any rhythm. It's not a good situation. Plus you have the lights catching on fire (not kidding), people walking up on stage to give the performers money, microphones shrieking every time someone uses them, judges speaking too softly to be heard. It's basically everything that can go wrong with an event, all rolled into one evening.
Out of all the contestants - there are only two women. One is a true African Mama - she dresses traditionally, and always sings traditional songs - we love her! The other is like South Sudanese Shakira - she wears these outrageously stylish outfits (seriously, where do you get those clothes in Juba? I need to know where she shops), and works the dance floor. Most of the male contestants dress like rap stars - seriously blinged out necklaces and belt buckles, chained wallets, flat-brimmed hats, saggy jeans, converses - the works! They would put my little brother to shame in his gangsta style.
Last night was the final episode of TSSS, and while I was off partying with the other Americans - I'm told there was extra security (police + guns), but not even enough security. Here's her account of it:
"There were policemen with guns, and I wondered what they were doing there until I saw how the audience got too excited. Then I actually wished that there were more policemen. There were too many people inside this time and when the audience got too excited it was both fun and scary.
A lot of them tried to get up on the stage. One lit fire to a spray can and almost "blew fire" on one of the contestants. So when they had announced the winners and people started running out on the stage I asked if we could leave. When we drove off we saw people running around with the winner's check and others started fighting."
Yes, you read that correctly - someone stole the winner's check for 10,000 South Sudanese Pounds (currently about $2,000). So wrong! and yet it feels like an appropriate ending to such a hilarious event. I hope we will have another talent search!
You have your three judges (one lady, two gents - one is Simon Cowell-esq), each contestant does a different song each week. We hear everything from Tupac to Eminem to Nigerian artists, even a few local artists. The songs are truly terrible. No one can carry a tune, and almost no one has any rhythm. It's not a good situation. Plus you have the lights catching on fire (not kidding), people walking up on stage to give the performers money, microphones shrieking every time someone uses them, judges speaking too softly to be heard. It's basically everything that can go wrong with an event, all rolled into one evening.
Out of all the contestants - there are only two women. One is a true African Mama - she dresses traditionally, and always sings traditional songs - we love her! The other is like South Sudanese Shakira - she wears these outrageously stylish outfits (seriously, where do you get those clothes in Juba? I need to know where she shops), and works the dance floor. Most of the male contestants dress like rap stars - seriously blinged out necklaces and belt buckles, chained wallets, flat-brimmed hats, saggy jeans, converses - the works! They would put my little brother to shame in his gangsta style.
"There were policemen with guns, and I wondered what they were doing there until I saw how the audience got too excited. Then I actually wished that there were more policemen. There were too many people inside this time and when the audience got too excited it was both fun and scary.
A lot of them tried to get up on the stage. One lit fire to a spray can and almost "blew fire" on one of the contestants. So when they had announced the winners and people started running out on the stage I asked if we could leave. When we drove off we saw people running around with the winner's check and others started fighting."
Yes, you read that correctly - someone stole the winner's check for 10,000 South Sudanese Pounds (currently about $2,000). So wrong! and yet it feels like an appropriate ending to such a hilarious event. I hope we will have another talent search!
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