Monday, May 28, 2007

All Hail Timi as he wins Idols West Africa

I was with my family on Saturday night at M cafe located in the Silverbird Galleria when my phone beeped, it was an SMS from my great friend so i promptly opened it and it said: Guess who won idols- Timi :). I was so excited that i forgot myself and where i was and i let out a scream (meanwhile, i've been told to keep it low for three weeks by my doc cos i have laryngitis from voice overuse, i completely forgot!). So back to i let out a scream and all eyes were on me! I had to defend myself so i told them you guys don't know what happened, if you did, you'd understand. Immediately i got a chorus of "whats", i replied them, "Timi just won West African Idols".

Everyone started talking at the same time. "Who told you?" "How did you know?", "Were you there?" Then i said guys come on, "i wasn't there, we've been here together but people went". They were still in doubt so i though to myself you doubting thomases, wait till Sunday night though my husband believed me and said that's great.

Somehow i had known Timi was going to win after Jodie left. Although i initially lost faith in the competition, i decided to renew my trust and help make the person that deserves it the winner. I convinced as many people as i could to vote for Timi and voted a number of times myself. I can justify wanting him to win, out of all the last two contestants, he's been the one with the most consistent performance in the competition (let's overlook the fact that he forgot his lines some day and chose a Yoruba song - Sunny Nneji's "Oruka" that he did not really know).

By the time i was watching the show on Sunday, i could relax and watch with my critical eye, i already knew the winner (although i fault the presenters for this, the final show should have been live, for some people, it took out the fun). It kicked off with 5 out of the top 10 singing a song that i think didn't really go well. Then Mike Magic in his usual dry state took the stage (please someone should tell the guy to find another career, he's not cut out for this) and introduced Timi, taking us back to his first audition, the guy just got better as the show progressed. Then he sang the song the judges considered one of his best. He did well.

We were also taken back to Omawumi's first audition and she looked so innocent there (i wonder what happened). She sang "Survival' and she put up a good performance. Next they both sang songs they considered their best on the show.

The performance that blew my mind was Jodie and Uche's duet (which Mike kept calling "duwet"(someone please teach him pronounciation o) , it was a really nice performance. I kind of expected it since Jodie had said at her last stage performance that she would like to sing a duet with him when Mike questioned her. They had a chemistry on stage and delivered the song well. It worked (wek d) for us (let me borrow Nana's diction).

The highlight of the night was when the two top contestants sang a song each that we had never heard before. Their own singles! Timi dazzled the audience with his song. The only line i remember is "I love you, i love you..". It was a really nice song. Then came Omawumi. I was disappointed when i saw her dress. Who says you have to be nude to be a "diva". Forgive me, i think i'm from the old school but that dress was quite indecent. We're Africans, we don't go nude, we can be sexy without looking outrageous...well, i'll save that. Her song too was good but it sounded like something i had heard before.

Then came the moment we had all been waiting for, "...and the winner of the first West African Idols is...", there was a long pause, a really long one. Timi looked like he was breathing through his mouth, Omawumi also looked very scared. And Mike Magic finally announced "... is Timi". The guy couldn't contain it, he was weeping profusely, knelt down on the stage and once he got up, he broke into this song that would soon be his single which Dan is looking forward to jamming very soon on Cool FM.

Meanwhile why is Dede going all tribalistic on us? WAI is not a Niger Delta show, it's nice to be patriotic but i think he went too far with it. Afterall, the show is not even a Nigerian thing, it's a West Africa thing. I guess he's just being a typical Nigeria. Everyone from our tribe is our brother or sister.

So that's how Timi became the first Idol in West Africa. I hope he realises his dreams and achieves his full potential and like Dede advised him, "he should not forget where he came from".

I will now rest from blogging about this show. Which one concern me sef? They wan share me anything? Guys, i'm out!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tolu dear, I disagree passionately to some of your comments. A major observation is the fact that you have blind and total support for Jodie and you felt she was the best person on the show. While you are entitled to your opinion and view, I still think this is fundamentally flawed. I will give you a very good example. Did you think she performed better than Omawumi on the African day? Absolutely no?Did you think she ever got to the level Omawumi got to on the later part of the show? I do not think so. What was the bomb about her duet with Uche apart from the handholding and stuff? Nothing

I seem to disagree with people who "slight" Omawumi because the girl held her own. Nobody can confidently say she didn't deserve to be in the final. Do you think Temitayo would have given Timi a run for his money in the final? The answer is a very simple NO. So why were all you guys praying that Timi should win? This is because he met the best in the final. Anyway, I congratulate him and my only wish is that he should learn to sing songs other than love songs. That is the only way he would make a real mark.

Unknown said...

Nice Summary! I think you should give Mike Majic a break though, I was there and saw what he had to put up with. (I also thought he was not good, until I got there and saw for myself) Everything he says is projected onto 2 large screens. It's all written out, he has to read them every single word exactly as they are displayed. I think he did a good job by reading and still having to sound natural. Many people won't be able to do half of that. It's all filmed as a TV show. He stands on stage while they test the mics and then they count him in like 4,3,2,1, Action! It's like a stage performance.
Hope I've not typed too much, but I just had to take his side here. I met him after and congratulated him. He did a good job.

Writefreak said...

@ uzoma, we all have a right to our opinion, freedom of expression and i also think you're taking your support of Omawumi to the extreme. Nobody says that Omawumi di dnot hold her own but please tell me when did she start shining? Was it not after Jodie left the show? Even the judges commented on that, she only shone during the last weeks of the competition. And as for Temitayo, please give me a break, we're talking talent here. Timi might have had it tougher if Jodie made it to the finals.
Meanwhile we were all praying Timi should win because we knew the votes mattered and the best don't usually get all the votes. Why did Jerrilyn stay that long on the show??? Please give me a good answer o!

@tayo, i stand corrected. Just the guy has been funny and we have no way of knowing he's reading a script. Actors do have scripts too and some of them are darn good at memorising those scripts...

aloted said...

pls what is Uzoma talking about??? We agree Omawumi is good but not good enough! Besides am glad she didnt win..who knows wat she will be wearing not!
Timi deserved to win.

Writefreak said...

@ aloted
Please ask Uzoma o! Maybe it's the nudity that's catching him! Lol