VIDEO: Darren tops national singing comp, wins car
A teacher at a local primary school, Darren Marais said he had no idea of how to edit videos and had to learn everything from scratch.
DARREN Marais was the lucky winner of a car after his competition entry was selected as the best among 6 000 others. The Malvern resident drove off in a brand new Toyota Etios in the Bidvest McCarthy Driving Happiness Karaoke competition. “It’s crazy, I still can’t believe it. A local guy from Malvern wins a national singing competition,” he said enthusiastically.
Entrants were encouraged to take a video of themselves having a good time in a car while singing like nobody was watching, upload it onto Youtube and submit their entries. Entrants could enter as many times as they liked and Marais took advantage of that rule. “I kept trying and trying because I wanted to win so badly. I shot and edited the videos myself, posted them on social networks and urged my friends and family to watch, vote and circulate. And people started noticing. They liked, voted and shared them,” he explained.
A teacher at a local primary school, Marais said he had no idea of how to edit videos and had to learn everything from scratch. “I went on Youtube and started watching video editing tutorials. I did everything on a very old laptop which was challenging at first because I had to find compatible software.” And everything else came naturally. He wrote six original songs for his videos which also showcased his singing talent.
“I was totally ambushed on the day of the announcement. My friends had invited me on a trip and my mother had a retirement dinner on the same day, I chose to go to dinner with my family. While we were sitting there and enjoying our food, a man walked up and greeted me and I thought he noticed me from one of my videos. And out of nowhere, there were cameras and everybody started clapping their hands,” he recalled. He added that after the announcement was made his mother was relieved as she had had to keep the secret from him.
His car comes with a fitted tracker, smash and grab windows and a year’s worth of insurance cover for his car as well as his parents’ vehicles.
