Brenda writes:
In August, Lakeside Mall held the Benoni talent competition (What’s Your Talent).
Once the three finalists were chosen that was the end. No congratulations, no photos, no excitement, no media coverage about this exciting event was made in the Benoni City Times.
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The City Times and Lakeside Mall media were there taking endless photos of all the brilliant talent, the audience was fantastic, cheering the contestants and the presenter Zabalaza Mchunu, who was simply hysterical, but none of these have been published at all.
The winners that were placed first, second and third won a substantial amount of cash, but everything went silent.
The City Times is always proud of its community’s achievements, always publishing events like Mr & Miss Benoni, live shows, sports events, school events where our children have excelled, but sadly, absolutely nothing about the Benoni talent show.
I do believe that Lakeside Mall ran with this show but has completely closed down this event as if it didn’t even happen. Why?
I just find this unfair that young talented individuals who are trying so hard to reach for their dreams in this extremely difficult industry are not even acknowledged, recognised or supported in their own community newspaper.
What I also found disappointing was that there were many other talented singers, hip-hop artists, rap artists and even beatboxers that entered this competition, but at the end of the talent show, first, second and third place were dance groups only.
Please don’t get me wrong,yes, they were really good, but the next time Lakeside Mall advertises for a “talent’’ competition perhaps they rather use the words ‘Benoni dance competition’ instead of ‘Benoni talent show’ as I found it extremely unfair that the rest of the talented people who entered this competition were not placed.
Perhaps the judges should’ve chosen first, second and third place of different categories, and not only dancers.
I really think that there were other extremely talented artists who should’ve been placed instead of all three dance groups.
Why was Benoni talent 2019 not recognised as a worthy competition that should’ve been celebrated in our community newspaper?
Editor’s note:
A response from Lakeside Mall read,”The Lakeside Mall talent competition was first launched in 2018 and was originally a dance competition only. August 2019 was the second instalment of this campaign and we decided to introduce new ‘talent’ into the competition this year.
We had an overwhelming response on the singing talent and will, in the future, look at making this a category on its own. The judges that were selected came from singing and dancing backgrounds to give the most professional and unbiased scoring of the contestants.”
* The City Times offered extensive coverage before, during and after the What’s Your Talent event. Coverage can be found on our website (www.benonicitytimes) and in the newspaper.
