Going home with a recording contract as a winner of TV3’s Mentor has been a mouth-watering prize that all potential winners of the popular talent contest look forward to. Yet none of the six past winners has benefited from that prize.
Showbiz investigations have revealed that over the years, the winners have been left high and dry. None of the winners can boast and say that, “TV3’s Mentor took me higher and made me who I am.”
Lee Stone, winner of Mentor Six held over one year ago, told Showbiz last week that after his win, he followed up TV3’s promise of giving him a recording deal for over six months all to no avail. He conceded, however, that the show served as a platform that gave him exposure.
He was eager to point out that his two songs Angel and Sampiele which are receiving modest airplay now were done and financed by himself. Lee Stone went further and said “to the people who are interested in Mentor, if it’s the record deal you want please do not bother your head but if it’s something else then you may participate” and he could not hide his emotions by saying “It was painful to anticipate something and you end up being disappointed.”
As far back as Season Four, the mother of winner, Micheal Frimpong Kesse went public to complain that the organizers of Mentor had left her son to his fate after all they promised him.
Lemuel Ansah-Acquah who also won the Season Five edition told Showbiz on phone last week that “after the show, the producer, Gilbert Allottey, recommended Appeitus as the best person for him to work with but that did not work out and all attempts to get the attention of the organizers of Mentor to the issue fell on deaf ears”.
Lee also said, “I will not advice anybody whose aim is to get the ultimate which is the recording deal or contract to join the show because that is unlikely to happen”.
Contacting the head of Client Service and Brand Manager of TV3 network, Mr. Felix Bosu for his side of the story, he said “there is more to things than what we see on the face value and if there is any body to be blamed for the non-fulfillment of the prize promise, it must be the contestants.
Some of them, he said, submitted too raw tracks to be worked on and when they were asked by the sound engineers to come to the studios for extra work, they give excuses and some do not even show up at all”.
He said “as the brand manager, I would be happy to see my winners doing well after the competition but if the people involved are not serious and do not want to be helped, we cannot do anything”.
