Accra Ready for This Weekend’s Glo X Factor Auditions

All is set for the highly anticipated Accra auditions of the Glo X Factor this weekend, where thousands of ambitious Ghanaians would be pitching their talents against each other for with an eye on a record setting US$150,000 prize cash and the prospect of launching a musical career with the reputed Sony Record label.

The Accra auditions, slated for Saturday and Sunday, May 11-12, 2013 at the plush Alisa Hotel, is expected to further boost the excitement about what is acclaimed as the world’s biggest reality TV singing show, following the frenzy it generated in the Ashanti-Regional capital, Kumasi last weekend.

Kumasi saw thousands of friends and families of contestants trooping to the Golden Tulip venue to support X Factor aspirants but Accra’s two days of auditioning is expected to attract even bigger audiences, including aspirants resident outside the metropolis and possibly from neighboring regions – seeking to take a shot at stardom.

So far, 25 Kumasi-based artists have qualified from Ghana to the Glo X Factor boot camp in Lagos, Nigeria, and the Accra audition is expected to identify another 25 talents to represent the country at the Lagos boot camp.

They will be joining some 50 contestants who have also qualified from two streams of auditioning at Port Harcourt and Abuja and are heading for the Lagos boot camp.

The Kumasi auditions saw singers from different age groups and cultural background who performed a variety of genres including reggae, rap, gospel, hilife and rhythm and blues.

Glo X-Factor Line Producer, Abigail Clark has expressed delight with the performance of the Kumasi contestants and she is confident 70% of them have raw talents ‘that could be molded into brilliance’.

Glo, an African telecommunications giant with a strong knack for promoting the arts and sports on the continent, and which is sponsoring Africa’s participation in the X Factor Realty show says it is looking forward to the Accra auditions with the hope of seeing contestants display even more varieties of African music genres, and better brilliance.

Clark said the contestants who will make it from Ghana to the boot camp would be worked on by choreographers, music producers and voice trainers who would combine to bring out the best in them for the judges to pick those who would qualify for the Judges’ Home Visit stage.

Three accomplished celebrity judges were unveiled at a colourful ceremony in Lagos last week, announcing Onyenka Onwenu, veteran Nigerian singer known in creative circles as Nigeria’s stateswoman of music, arts and culture, famous rapper Jude Abaga, widely known as MI and Ghana’s Reggie Rockstone, founder of Hiplife music.

X-Factor is the world’s number one singing reality TV show, and it has come to Africa by the kind courtesy of Globacom, the mother company of Glo Mobile Ghana.

Glo Ghana Head of Business, Patrick Awotwi said at the launch of X Factor in Ghana, “Glo is proud to be the catalyst that brought about this show and the attendant excitement it will generate, not only in Ghana and Nigeria, but across the continent.”

He said Africa has been yearning for a programme of this optimum quality and Glo is privileged to have made it possible.

Awotwi is happy that X- Factor represents a special package to mark Glo’s 1st anniversary in Ghana, which fell on April 29, 2013, saying that “Glo X Factor has come at the right time to delight our teaming subscribers and the general public.”