Idols East Africa - The Home Stretch

This time around, with just 5 contestants left, idol performances came in double as each of them had to perform 2 songs from their favorite musician. Evidently the African theme was not going to last long. With contestants performing songs from American Idol winners like Jordin Sparks and Kelly Clarkson, I could not help comparing Bomas of Kenya with the Kodak and Nokia theatres. Just for the fun of it.

Nicollete Kiiga opened the show with a poor performance of Vanessa Amorosi’s ‘Absolutely everybody’. This must be the weakest starting since top 10 began. Her second song, ‘A moment like this’ by Kelly Clarkson was not that good either. In short Nichollete’s performances were both dismal and she’s most likely the next one to go.

Amarra’s ‘Falling’ by Alicia Keys was a complete knockout with not a note out of place. Congratulations to her considering that Alicia Keys songs are not the easiest to do. But on her second performance doing a song by Christina Aguirela, one could catch the unpleasant side of her high notes. There was something like screaming there alright. I don’t know whether that’s what Angela was calling Maria Carey notes some time back. But all in all her singing was spectacular as always.

I’ve almost no doubt now that Eric Moyo will win the competition. Much as he has refused to give up his theatrics, he has perfected the art of blending them into his singing without missing a beat. He did a great job singing ‘Over my shoulder’ by Mike and the Mechanics, but it was in the second performance that he injected raw romance into his song and made Angela blush some more. He sang the beginning of Michael Bolton’s ‘When a man loves a woman’ directly to Angie, then picked a lady from the audience and serenaded her with the rest of the song. All this without disrupting his singing. He got a standing ovation from Angela as expected. His afro is getting bigger and bigger and it is said that young men are now refusing to shave their hair. Way to go Eric.

Trina proved herself once again by being different and daring with a Natasha Bedingfield song. When she started the song I didn’t think she’d pull it off. But this queen of versatility did more than pull it off. She gave a spectacular show. Unfortunately Whitney Houston’s ‘On my own’ did not come out well enough. Trina’s lower register was too deep and hence the transition to high was not that smooth. But that notwithstanding the girl is top 3 material.

Adiona seems to really have morphed for the better musically but this being the top 5 she’s still not doing enough. She chose Christina Aguirela and Jordin Sparks. Personally I thought she ended the show as poorly as Nicollete had started it but the judges heaped praise on her so obviously they thought different. Other than musically she made the guys in the room drool with her provocative outfit, including judges TK and Scar.

Speaking of outfits, Angela has resorted to turbans and she looks beautiful as ever in them. But with the white one she could pass for a member of a certain local religions sect, ie if she didn’t have the make up on.

All said and done Eric was the performer of the night. The way I see it so far, they will leave in this order: Nicolette Kiiga, Adiona Maboreke, Amarra Brown, Trina Chisanga, Winner Eric Moyo – although there'll be competition for second place between Amarra and Trina.