The latest Idols SA showstopper should have been stopped

I take a trip of almost 100km to join South Africans at the State Theatre in Pretoria for these amazing live shows. However, it was the worst two hours of any Sunday I have had to endure at Idols since 2015, which is when I started attending the live shows weekly.

It was equally the most dull Sunday since the 10 kicked off the race to the finale.

What made the past Sunday even more saddening was the axing of Mmangaliso Gumbi. The show is no longer about talent. This I have come to accept. It is about popularity and how much people are getting fond of you and not your talent in particular.

If this particular show was fair and just about one’s singing talent, one of the twins, Viggy Qwabe or Virginia Qwabe, should have to pack her belongings and go home.

Unfortunately, it was not the case. They both live to possibly both grace the stage once more this coming Sunday. South Africans must stop supporting people based on their fantasies of the rarity of seeing twins on stage.

It would be unfair of me to not commend Sneziey Msomi for her amazing performance of Tina Turner’s hit single Proud Mary. She literally saved the night. She was enjoying herself, full of confidence, and she gave a showstopper performance that rightfully deserved  the only “Wooo Sheeem” of the evening.

I am beginning to think that we didn’t have the best talent from the audition this year. Perhaps, just like in politics, everyone who has been on the show for more than two terms (a decade in politics) from production to the judges, must vacate their seats.

The producers are not innovative any more, and the judges, Unathi and Randall, perhaps should give other people a chance to scout new talent for us. Their commentary also sounds like a broken record. We know when Unathi is going to cry or when she is going to be melodramatic. Randall is also predictable in the way he is going to try to strike a balance of good and bad in commentary and advice to his favourites.

This, perhaps, is why I am also not confused at this point of the competition as to who should win. Unfortunately, just like how one of my favourite vocalists, Gumbi, exited this past Sunday, the same person I think deserves to be crowned the Season 15 Idols winner may exit this coming Sunday.

My 100km trip back home was filled with despair and disappointment. So, I am hoping that when I go back this Sunday, these hopefuls will give me the showstopper performances they failed to deliver on the past Sunday.

Furthermore, I believe that Sunday’s elimination is going to be the most interesting so far, since most of the contestants didn’t live up to expectations.

I would like to completely forget last Sunday’s show. It was supposed to be a showstopper but ended up being a show that needed to be stopped.

Kabelo Chabalala is the founder and chairperson of the Young Men Movement (YMM), an organisation that focuses on the reconstruction of the socialisation of boys to create a new cohort of men.

Email, kabelo03chabalala@gmail.com ; Twitter, @KabeloJay; Facebook, Kabelo Chabalala

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