Strike three! It’s the third round of Mentor and this time around we may have some very interesting characters. Ok, so Rama Brew has returned to the judges’ panel, good news. No more clownish fashion statements from Akosua (Zorro) Agyapong? Too bad.

Anita is emcee for the show and as usual she is well-expressed and carries herself well onstage. Maybe some of the contestants will learn a phrase or two from her. The premier of ‘Mentor III’ was merely an outdooring of all 12 contestants. Few of them were impressive but many gave an indication that they were not ready to stay in the competition for long. For this week contestants a song they are most comfortable with and they presented a wide range of song choices from Beyonce, Brian McNight, Massari, Akon to Kojo Antwi. One after the other, region after region, they came trying to impress both the judges and the audience (at home and in the studio).

Ras Lisa, should be in the bottom two this week. She came in with a lover’s rock version of Karen White’s ‘Super Woman’. And in all honesty, for a song that she chose herself, she could have done better. The judges’ opinion reflected just that. Dominic thought she had “done nothing extraordinary”.

Peter, from the Ashanti region appeared in tattered clothing, doing a Kwaadee number. Was he trying to tell us about the current state of the hiplife star?

Brian McKnight will surely not be too disappointed to hear Paa’s version of ‘Back at one’. A few weeks of voice training will improve his vocal ability a great deal. Mark Okraku Mantey described him as being the ‘standard’. Paul must have had Massari in a fit after he sang ‘Real love’. Aside his great energy, his pitch was off and he ended on a very poor note. Nadjat is aiming at being irreplaceable on Mentor, but we will see how that plays out.

Bright showed a lot of confidence and style with his rendition of Kojo Antwi’s ‘Enfa me nko ho’, trying out the Kojo Antwi look and all. Faya sung Ne-Yo’s ‘So sick’ and did a few Usher moves to go along with it. He however tried a bit too hard to sound like Ne-Yo and Dominic thought it ‘sounded childish’.

The producers of the programme appear to have saved the best for last. Erico made Kwabena Kwabena’s ‘Aso’ his own and he will stay on the minds of the audience for a while.

After all was said and done, it was obvious that all the contestants needed some more voice training. Their talents are not exceptional and based on this week’s performances, Gina and Ras Lisa are most likely to face eviction next week.