Rachel Ogonodi, Oluwabukola Ogunbodede, Oluwatosin Emehinola and Peace Amaefula are the first contestants to sail through the first week of the blind auditions of The Voice Nigeria.
The show returned for the third season last weekend with glam and heat as the coaches performed snippets of their songs to usher in the new season.
Rachel, a 31-year-old singer and music coach kicked off the competition with her performance of Lara George’s ‘Ijoba Orun’. She got four chair turns and had the coaches pitching fiercely to have her on their teams. She would finally pick Darey, one of the new coaches of the season. However, she was Darey’s only pick for the episode as Yemi Alade and Falz —, equally new— snatched up other contestants. Oluwabukola and Oluwatosin chose Yemi while Peace settled for Falz whom she believed had an ear for her kind of music.
Of all the contestants of the episode, only Rachel had four chair turns. Oluwabukola who performed Alicia Keys ‘Girl on Fire’ had three while Oluwatosin and Peace had only two turns.
Returning judge Waje is yet to have a contestant on her team. She had hoped that Peace who sang Tems’ ‘Try Me’ would pick her as a coach.
For newbies Darey and Falz, subsequent weeks will see how they fare in the show. Falz already sets himself apart as one with a keen eye for Gen Z talents while Darey, who is versatile in hosting shows is yet to step out of that shoe. On more than one occasion, he urged the contestant to make their choice as if he was a presenter rather than a coach.
This season of The Voice Nigeria marked the first time the show will be fully produced in Nigeria. Previous editions were produced in South Africa. By the quality of the production, it was evident that the producers of the show UN1TY Ltd and Livespot360 threw all in the ring to meet the global standards of the show.
The season is hosted by Toke Makinwa and Nancy Isime and will involve four stages: blind auditions, knockouts, battles and live shows. It airs every Saturday night on African Magic Showcase (DStv 151), Urban (DStv 153), and Family (DStv 154, GOtv 2) at 8pm, and Sundays on AIT, Views TV, Wazobia TV and Max at 6pm.
Femi Sofela and Friends Perform Tonight at International Afrofusion Night
Tonight, Femi Sofela and friends will be performing at the International Afrofusion Night taking place at Freedom Park, Lagos.
British-Nigerian born Femi is a prolific bassist, singer, composer, arranger and producer. He was born into a musical family and started his musical journey on the drum kit. He later moved to rhythm guitar and finally, bass when the band he formed with his other friend in secondary school needed a bassist.
Femi has produced countless albums for different artists, both secular and gospel, from different genres and was a music director for many artists both in Nigeria and the UK. He produced a musical project for BBC RADIO 4.
He also played with The African Jazz Allstars in many concerts globally. He is the in-house music director for Joyful Noise Productions and has currently produced two successful albums for them including ‘Funmi Ti De’ by Funmi Olawumi.
In 2012, he formed Femi and the InRhythms (an afro-funk embellished with African traditional jazz) band that is managed and funded by Joyful Noise Productions The band had toured both locally and internationally. Their latest album is ‘Pressure To Pleasure’.
International Afrofusion Night is produced by Joyful Noise Records and will also feature Ace Trombonist Femi Slide, Adunni Nefertiti and DJ Raymond Brown.
