Sasha: 1st, Batman: 2nd, Mzbel: 3rd ?and 2 Face: 5th

The Search for the Most Promising West African Artiste Final Showdown came off at TV3 Studio B with the Peer Pressure members, Kwame Fakye and Eddie Blay as the MC's for the show. The MC's dressed up in an all white T-Shirts by Kwesi Nti graced the program well with their funny and innovative gestures.

After welcoming and introducing the audience, media persons, judges, and the KPMG crew, the artistes made their way to the stage to get down to real business after they introduced themselves orally.

The show was aptly dubbed the ?West African showdown? with the motive of selecting the most promising artiste to represent West Africa at the Kora Music Awards in South Africa. After a short while of introduction, Ka-sim of Benin came up stage first singing a very slow cool song to commence round one of the competition. The audience really enjoyed the song although they did not understand it.

Batman's entrance really amazed the audience but as he was about to start singing, the microphone encountered some technical problems. He started yelling ?mic, mic, mic check, mic check? and left the stage frustrated. He however came back and did his ?Do Something? track whiles doing the "Awilo" dancing and other dance moves on stage.

2 Face of Nigeria followed up to do his own thing. He really gave out the best in him and moved the crowd into frantic ecstasy. The program was live on TV3 in Ghana, live in Nigeria, Cote D'Ivoire, Togo and Benin and over two million viewers were watching the program. Is that not remarkable.

Then came Guyzo of Cote D'Ivoire dressed in a simple attire sang a typical francophone song. Ocryno of Togo stepped onto the stage and enveloped the audience in his reverberating French baritone voice.

Mzbel of Ghana who was sixth on stage was assisted by Bak Tyre as she sang?Awoso Me?. Sasha also of Nigeria dazzled the audience with her feminine performance when she sang a song she dedicated to her boyfriend; her rap was really marvelous. In fact, she has got the lyrics, the style, the flow and what not.

Round Two saw Ka-sim in a traditional dress singing a cool slow song.  Batman then came next and really thrilled the audience with a remix of 'Linda' (a new version of Linda) which was recorded by Roland. The ladies and gentlemen were screaming and swooning when they saw him perform that track. Some wanted to take a glimpse of him.

2 Face shook studio B with his ?African Queen? song as the audience couldn?t resist but get up from their seats and dance along with him. 2 face really stunned the audience and the African viewers. When he was asked by Eddie Blay (one of the presenters of the show) after his performance about what he thought of the event, he said ?It?s not a competition to me but a chance for all of us to come together as one to put African music on the world music map?. 

It seemed Orcyno?s song was not understandable by the audience so they only replied to his title track 'Ocryno' by mentioning his name back as he told them to do when he mentions it.

I think Mzbel really did well when she came next with a Francophone song. That was indeed a nice move by her. She really danced to the tune of the song nicely.

Last on stage was Sasha who gave out her very best once again when she did her rap thing. Whilst  the totaling of the marks were being done by KPMG, video clips of all the artistes were shown on the big screen of TV3 . The artistes were once again called to do some freestyle to show their singing skills and all of them did well.

At long last the results were out. They (KPMG) had to start from the bottom. Ocryno (Togo) had 151 points, Guizo (Cote D?Ivoire) had 171.5 points and 2 face (Nigeria) had 210 points.

The high spirit of the event remained good-natured and there were certainly no complaints about the show until the results were announced to the audience. The audience was really surprised to know that 2 Face of Nigeria came fifth because they wanted to see him in the first three positions due to his marvelous performances.

But the announcing of the results continued as Mzbel (Ghana) came third with 218 points. Ghana's number one dancehall stopper Batman came second with 223.5 points. That also surprised the audience because they thought he really deserved it.

After the mentioning of Batman as the 1st runner up, everyone knew who the Most Promising West African Artiste was going to be. It was no other person than Sasha of Nigeria who I can bet could battle with the Eves, Lil? Kims and Missy Elliots (international artistes). She couldn?t believe it when she was adjudged the winner and she was congratulated by the other contestants.

Kudos to Charter House for doing well in organising such a programme.

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