Vocal groups take centre stage
TV3 viewers whose Sunday evenings have become dull these days because there is no Mentor or Ghana's Most Beautiful can smile again because the station has introduced a new show, Gang Starz to spice things up.
Launched last Sunday, Gang Starz is a talent hunt show designed along the format of Mentor but is different in the sense that it seeks to discover the best vocal group.
Criteria for selection were that participants should be in groups of three or four between the ages of 18-25, be energetic, fashionable and smart in speech. They were also to possess unique stagecraft and vocal abilities.
The three-day auditions put the judges Ben Brako, B.B. Menson and Jackie Annan- through a rollercoaster of emotions. Some of the groups were terrible and made the judges cringe while others really lifted up their spirits.
As difficult as their jobs were, the judges managed to settle on 12 groups to go through the contest: Flames, LS3, Natives, Xsive, Pipers, 2Hot, 1 Accord, Sparx, Da Soul, Blaze, Afro, and Shades.
The groups mounted the stage one after the other last Sunday to strut their stuff and it was a very lively affair.
Some of the groups suffered from stage fright and others were not in harmony. Others too seemed to be singing with their speaking voices.
Individually, some of them have very good voices but are perhaps yet to master the art of singing as a group.
Most of the groups chose songs by groups like Boyz II Men and Westlife. It was not a bad show as some groups like Da Soul who sang Boys II Men's Never and Natives who did Sean Kingston's Beautiful Girls were great.
One big plus for the show was the costuming as all the groups looked sharp in their clothes. The MCs, Black Boy and Vashti did not make the show run as smoothly as it could have been.
Black Boy spoke too fast and made it difficult to hear him clearly. He needs to slow down when he speaks.
Vashti did not sound natural at all. It seemed she was trying hard to imitate some other person's class of speaking and that did not work well for her.
Judges for the night were Jackie Annan and B.B. Menson with David Kwamena Bolton, a sound engineer and a singer as the guest judge. He treated the studio audience to a song.
The judges on the whole were quite complimentary but they hoped the next appearances would be better.
The show proper and evictions will start next week. The criteria for eviction on Gang Starz is, however, quite new.
Though the judges and the public have 40 percent and 60 percent voting power respectively, the eviction will be by the power of a jury which can decide to save a group with the lowest votes and rather let another group go out of the contest.
Members of the jury would be selected from the Mytv3 Fan Club, people conversant with music and performances as well as fashionable young people.
They must, however, not be openly affiliated to any of the participating groups, be staff of TV3, or a family relation to any of the members in the 12 groups.
Gang Starz airs on TV3 every Sunday at 8.00pm and is sponsored by Onetouch.