MTN Hitmaker: Demo Collection Ends Next Week

The demo collection stage of the ongoing MTN Hitmaker Season 3 will end next week Friday, August 22. With several thousand demos gathered so far, the judges –Ofie Kodjoe, Hammer and Bessa Simons– are getting ready to screen these demos for the competition to get going properly.

The demo collection stage has been reduced from six to four weeks because according to Richard Acheampong, MTN's General Manager in charge Marketing Services, “people are looking forward to the third season and have been asking when it is starting. We want the judges to have enough time to be able to access and review the entries properly.”

Under a fresh tagline “Dream It; Be It”, this year's show is sure to exceed all odds. “We have done seasons one and two and people now know the drill. I believe they will come much more prepared and give off their best so that the best win,”Mr. Acheampong said.

Two new faces have been added to the new season. First, legendary music producer and guitarist, Zapp Mallet has been replaced by yet another mogul in music production, Edward Nana Poku Osei, aka Hammer, credited with making the likes of Obrafour, Edem, Kwaw Kese, Sarkodie, and Tinny, the stars they are today.

The bubbly Peace Hyde, host of entertainment show EFGH Show, will be with Bola Ray and she is expected to bring her cheerful spirit to calm the nerves of contestants before they hit the stage and face the judges.

Since the commencement of the show, the most dominant music genres have been hiplife and rap. But Bessa and Ofie wants more female singers. For instance the first grand finale had only one female with the second grand finale having none.

“We are expecting more females than last year. In the second season we didn't get enough females. We also want more singers. We want to have a balance of all the genres so that in case they want to collaborate we can have variety of classs.

“The challenge is we have more rappers and singers are shying away. I just want to appeal to anybody who wants to participate that they shouldn't force themselves to rap because Ofie is there to help the singers also,” Bessa added.

“We need more girls which will bring in more diversity. Last season rap and hiplife dominated so we need more females to sing, whatever you do just bring it and share what you have got,” Ofie said.