Airtel, Trace in search of African super star …winner to get N5million

Emeka Ibemere

Another milestone was added into their chains of youthful empowerment initiatives meant to enhance the Nigerian youths and lift them up from obscurity in other to meet up their mates in the other climes.

For the Nigerian youths, Airtel and TRACE are excited to announce to you their biggest mobile song competition in Africa.

 Audition right is from your phone to become the next big music star in your country, and possibly in all of Africa. All you have to do is call, sing, and win!

Prizes include cash, a trip to the United States to be mentored by Akon, a record deal with Universal, and N5miilion and host other benefits.

 In doing that, the Airtel Nigeria and Trace in official media launch, of Airtel Trace Music Star held at Trace office, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos on Tuesday 24th September, 2014 gave another mouth-watering hope to Nigerian youths who are inclined in music.

The leading telecommunications operator, Airtel Nigeria, on that day collaborated with an international music video channel, Trace; to unveil a unique mobile song contest tagged: ‘Airtel Trace Music Star’.

According to the Airtel executives at the venue of the event, Airtel Trace Music Star was another initiative of the telco created to empower Nigerian youths and provide robust platforms for them to achieve their aspirations.

The mobile song contest allows contestants to audition right from their phones and earn a chance of becoming the next big music star in Nigeria.

Contestants can participate by simply recording their song with an Airtel line, using a short code and would be aided by an interactive voice prompt. The interactive voice prompt would be fortified with multi-lingual functionality including English and Pidgin, which would assist in eliminating any language barrier and would enable youths from all parts of Nigeria participate in the competition.

Speaking on the initiative, the Chief Commercial Officer, Airtel Nigeria, Maurice Newa, noted that Airtel as a youth-centric telecoms company would be initiating the ‘Airtel Trace Music Star’ platform to empower Nigerian youths by giving  them opportunities to develop their innate skills and achieve their dreams.

He said: “Airtel is delighted to be associated with Trace in bringing excitement and providing entertainment opportunities for our teeming customers especially youths and the music lovers”, he said.

“This initiative is geared towards supporting and nurturing talents of Nigerian youth. In the next few weeks we will unveil the biggest platform for Nigerians to express their singing talent through their mobile phones from the comfort of any location they choose”.

Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Trace Group, Olivier Laouchez sees the collaboration as a perfect opportunity to showcase African youth talent to the rest of the world. According to him, “We are tremendously excited about this pan African partnership with Airtel. Trace is dedicated to African youth and this ground breaking competition is a great step towards our joint goal of empowering African youth”.

As a pan-African initiative, the Airtel Trace Music competition is designed to hold simultaneously in other 15 African countries where Airtel operates. The winners from each participating country would then compete in a televised pan-African grand finale where the African champion would win a trip to the USA to be mentored by megastar Akon in addition to a professional music video and a record deal with Universal Music while the Nigerian winner goes home with N5million, cash.

It would be recalled that Airtel Nigeria, has been in the forefront of empowering Nigerian youths through various credible platforms with the sponsorship of top entertainment and talent-hunt projects such as Nigeria’s Got Talent, which has provided opportunities for thousands of youths to take their skills to the next level. The Telco also recently initiated another music talent show tagged ‘Airtel One Mic’ with the aim of discovering young talents in tertiary institutions across Nigeria.

Another robust platform created by Airtel Nigeria to empower youth is the yearly Airtel Rising Stars championship which was conceived to discover youths, both male and female, with football talent across Nigeria.

Trace, an international media group has deep African roots and is a major promoter of African music to the rest of the world. It runs five music TV channels across Africa and currently, it airs videos by numerous a list African artistes in 160 countries globally through its network of music and sports celebrity TV channels. Trace Urban is available on DSTV Channel 322, while Trace Sports Stars is currently available on DSTV channel 188.