Amakhosi talent search bounces back

Amakhosi Cultural Centre, which is rebranding and sprucing up activities in a bid to restore lost glory, is relaunching a talent search dubbed Dreams to Fame, to help identify talent among Bulawayo youths, especially in the western surburbs.

Amakhosi Cultural Centre, which is rebranding and sprucing up activities in a bid to restore lost glory, is relaunching a talent search dubbed Dreams to Fame, to help identify talent among Bulawayo youths, especially in the western surburbs.

NONHLANHLA SIBANDA OWN CORRESPONDENT

The launch was held on August 2 at Amakhosi Cultural Centre.

In an interview with Southern Eye Lifestyle, Prince Ncube, the producer of Dreams to Fame 2014 said they were reviving the talent search which had been running before, but because of lack of funding, had been shelved.

“In this year’s edition we want to revive the programme. We are hoping this October to rope in other towns we were collaborating with,” he said.

“We have decided to bring it back because we have seen that youth in the townships have a lot of talent, but do not get opportunities to showcase it.”

The Dreams to Fame talent search started as a millennium celebration in Bulawayo in 1999, but in 2000 other towns like Masvingo, Gwanda, Gweru, Victoria Falls and Hwange took up the idea.

The search is targeted at youth and would be conducted in clubs and community halls. Focus will be on poetry, music, dance and modelling.

From Saturday, organisers started holding what would be monthly competitions leading to the finals in December.

“We are already excited by the talent we are seeing. One of the most amazing performances we had was a remix of the song Bhatshi by Kwabatsha done by a group of young children from Makokoba who were joined by Rus Madolo and Ray from Kwabatsha,” he said. The children’s competition held every last Saturday of the month starts from 2pm to 6pm and for adults it runs from 6pm to 8pm. Winners will walk away with various prizes.

“We extend an invitation to those who want to participate to register. We appeal to the business community to help us as we assist the next generation of artistes to discover and nature their dreams. We encourage parents to release their children to come and compete.

We could be training the next Lovemore Majaivana or Beater Mangethe,” he said.