The music director and judges of the MTN-Hitmaker music talent hunt have finished the arduous task of listening to the many demos sent in from across the country by aspiring musicians keen to hit the limelight.

Throughout the week, producer/keyboardist Bessa Simmons; engineer/producer Zapp Mallet and singer/composer Ofie, locked themselves up in the offices of Farmhouse Productions, producers of the contest, to carefully give every entrant a fair hearing.

“It was a slow, tedious process but we had to listen to everything”, Bessa said. “Some of them were nothing to write home about because they didn’t meet even the basic standard we are searching for. Others also were enthralling right from the beginning”.

Zapp Mallet, who has had the experience of working on other music talent hunts in the past, said going through all the material was a wonderful experience.

“They were required to send in original works and I was happy to hear some of the young people singing and writing the way they did.

One could tell right away that they are poised to take up the mantle when the older generation of musicians leave the scene”, Zapp stated. With the process over, total 12 finalists have been shortlisted to enter the competition which starts airing this Sunday at 8pm.

They will do some acapella and generally try to convince everyone on why they deserve to proceed to the next stage of the contest…

Viewers can also participate in the competition by voting for their favourite contestant on MTN Short code 1327.

MTN Hit Maker, Your Time is Now!