WINDHOEK – The University of Namibia’s main hall recently came to life when the Shiiva Star Search announced its top three finalists.

The competition which started end of April attracted over 100 talented young people from various walks of life who took part in the competition stages. Shiiva’s Manager and Judge, Billy Tyane, says the competition, which will now become an annual event, is aimed at finding the next biggest natural talents in Namibia, which he adds is something that the current entertainment scene needs. “We realised that there is a lot of talents out there but unfortunately these young talented people cannot afford studio time, which can be expensive. The opportunity allows for the winners to get signed up and release an album without the stress of finances,” he says.

The competition was open to both young aspiring musicians and dancers as one after the other nine acts took to the stage before the list was cut down to the top three acts, Sizo, Sichone and La Joc.  “ Most of the demos that we get , and we get a lot of them, have so much work done to them that at the end of the day you can’t really hear the natural talent but all you get is something that has been fine tuned. We wanted to promote and find natural talents with this search,” says Tyane.

He adds it was then that the idea to have the talent search occurred, and the scouting process started, which he adds has since yielded a range of talents and participation from people. The competition was also open to those that had never thought of producing demos for labels but just wanted to know how much talent they had. “ Talent is not only about having the voice but one needs to be able to have that emotional connection with that which you do and many of the talents we saw didn’t understand that,” he adds.

Tyane advises producers to start being honest, especially to be straight with those going through heir houses but who do not have the talents.   

“It’s very costly and if a producer knows that someone does not have the ability to sing, they should just tell them than have them wasting their time and money. Natural talent is so much easier to work with and I’m sure from what we have seen that there is a lot of it out there,” he says adding that altering a musician’s voice is usually the reason behind bad stage performances, which the competition was aimed at eliminating.

The top three talents will now be sign under the Shiiva Music Label and start work on a compilation album before they work on their individual albums.