Who will win and take home the ₦100 million grand prize at stake in this year’s Nigerian Idol? This is the question agitating the minds of followers of the show, which has Precious Mac, Quest and Victory Gbakara as the last three.
While securing a spot in the coveted top 10 is a dream for many, it’s only the start of the work, anxiety and immense need to prove themselves.
This year, Abraham, Chisom, Constance, Goodness, Ose Daniel, Precious Mac, Quest, Reigny, Savvy Henry, and Victory Gbakara made it to the live shows.
Reigny, Abraham and Ose Daniel wanted to win badly for their families, while Victory and Precious Mac wanted to prove a point by winning. Chisom had ridiculous performance energy and showmanship, Savy Henry and Quest have unique voices, and Constance was the youngest with the largest social media followership.
As different as they were this season, they all brought their A-game.
Despite being the first to leave the competition, Reigny and Abraham sang beautifully the first week. Reigny slayed her rendition of Keyshia Cole’s Sent from Heaven, and Abraham did justice to his version of Michael Bolton’s Go The Distance. When IK Osakioduwa, the show’s host, announced their exit a week later, the judges and the audience were genuinely sad to see them go. After Reigny’s exit performance of Libianca and Ayra Starr’s People, the audience screamed, “we are Sorry.”
And the judges gave Abraham glowing reviews for his first performance and exit song. Simi, one of the judges, said: “I don’t think you deserve to go because you had one of the best performances last week, as far as I’m concerned.”
In a shocking twist, Constance, who most contestants had considered a threat because of her over 100,000 followers on Instagram, dropped out in eight position. Then Chisom followed the next week in the seventh. Despite his brilliant performance energy with songs such as, Sam Smith’s Unholy, Rema’s Holiday and Asake’s Peace Be Unto You, his vocals weren’t enough to keep him going.
Savvy Henry and his unique voice were the next to leave the show. It meant the two guys who had returned on season 8 for redemption were now out, back-to-back. Henry and Chisom had made it to Theatre Week in previous years, but not the live shows.
The top 5 had a tough group of people and each of the contestants was consistent, delivering vocally and with great performances. Victory and Goodness took the viewers by surprise the most, especially since their quiet exterior morphed into superstar energy every time they got on stage.
Ose Daniel was likely the fan-favourite, as he had a uniqueness that drew people in through every performance. It was a shocker to see him and Goodness leave last week after they performed Adekunle Gold’s High and Rihanna’s We Found Love, respectively.
Still, their exit made room for the top three to emerge – Victory Gbakara, Queen ‘Quest’ Ibrahim, and Precious Mac. Winning would mean the world to all three, but only two would make it to the finale.
Precious Mac said, “winning will put me and my sisters on the map. It is a step further from where we are right now. It will do a lot of good for me personally in my career. It is going to push me to where I want to be.”
Meanwhile, Quest has achieved most of her goals for Nigerian Idol by making it to the top three. Still, she wants to “get my brand out there. To get Quest known to the world. Being on the platform is already free publicity. I hope to win. Everybody hopes to win. But if anything happens and I don’t win, at least I’ve got a lot of publicity that I can bank on.”
The competition is quickly drawing to the climax, and the question on everyone’s tongue is “Who will win and take home the ₦100 million grand prize?”
Tune in to Africa Magic Family, Urban, Showcase or watch on the DStv app wherever you are every Sunday at 7.00 pm to find out.
