Four face the chop in E-Wallet

E-Wallet singing competition enters defining stages this weekend at Chichiri Shopping Centre’s M–Theater as four contestants will be voted out of the contest.

Eleven contestants qualified in the preliminary round and have gone into the camp today at Monarchy Square where they will be rehearsing ahead of the Saturday performances.

“The show gets tougher this weekend as four contestants will be evicted. We are urging Malawians to keep voting for their preferred candidates by sending their numbers to 54141 through short messages (SMS),” said Anthony Kafuwa, the project coordinator of E-Wallet in an interview.

This week’s show will be held under the theme “80s and 90s” which will see the contestants performing oldies done by popular artists such as Brian McKnight, Phil Collins, Tina Turner and Whitney Houston.

However, the way some contestants approached the singing competition at the inaugural show on October 24, leaves a lot to be desired. To some extent, it thwarted the whole idea of the three-day camp for the contestants. During the camp, they underwent stage etiquette and voice training, but you could hardly tell when the decisive moment came for each contestant to prove their merit.

Nervousness and failure to control their own voices on stage were the common flows spotted on a number of contestants. If it were not for the song choice that challenged them, then it was constrained usage of the stage by some contestants who appeared frightened. This is where most of the judges’ work dwelled, advising them to either improve on their voice or stage antics.

“In normal circumstances, slight flows are inevitable in such competitions because training and the actual process of applying the skills on stage are two different things. Mind you, it was the first show, which also happened to be the first experience for most contestants to be live on stage. So, they could not remember and apply all the skills effectively,” said Patience Namadingo, one of the trainers.

He said the art of applying skills in any live performance of artistic venture requires practice.

“You can’t master the art of stage work or voice within a fortnight. It’s a long process that requires experience, patience, hard work and practice,” said Namadingo. n