I like Arewa. I think she deserves to win.

Often, the people I support don’t win. The exceptions to this are Iyanya, Mike and Olawale. I didn’t watch Chidinma’s season. Monica’s too. I thought Marvy deserved to win his season, but I’ve come to like Ayoola over time. A lot, in fact. He’s currently my favorite PF-winning alumnus. I liked too many people in Geoffrey’s season; it was hard to choose who would win.

But this year, I really think Arewa should win it.

At first, I had my radar on Anderson. That boy can sing ehn. I remember the day he was evicted. I cried like he was my brother and would not be pacified. Hehe…, weird yeah? I just didn’t think it was fair, and this is why I’ll still maintain that giving all the power to the audience for a show such as this will always not end well. Annoyingly, it seemed like the housemates too were forming some kind of females against males alliance that won’t stop turning my tummy. Long story short, this landed Anderson on the chopping block, and before you could shout Koroba, he was booted out.

I didn’t think I could follow the show again. I didn’t realize, however, that I wasn’t the only one. There’s a possibility that people protested his eviction, because the following day, we witnessed something we had never seen before on the show: The Recall Of Anderson. (This alone should pass for a movie title. Hihihi) Oh, I was ecstatic!

The thing with Anderson though, is that he has no swag. None whatsoever. He tries, we all see, and works really hard on it, but the thing about swag is, you’ve either got it –inherently or covertly – or you’ve not. It looks like our boy fell into the ‘Not’ circle, but we love him anyway.

Then I thought, Oh Ada! I love her confidence, her presence, her can-do spirit and the growl in her voice. What I think may have affected her rare weak performances, is the song choices. For example, yesterday, she sang ‘Let it go’ by Demi Lovato. If you know Demi well enough, or Idina Menzel who sang the version in the movie, you would have scowled as hard as I did when I heard Ada was going to sing it. Which is another thing I don’t get about Uncle Ben: his song choices this season. Now, I understand the idea is not to sound like the original song but to make it your own. That notwithstanding, I doubt that it would make sense to give Celine Dion an Iggy Azalea song. For what now? And unless you’re Christian (Krissy O from Season 7 who can do any song in this life and make a banger out of it), I don’t think it’d be easy for you to pull that off.  But gain, I get it. Nobody said the academy would be easy. Those guys knew what they were signing up for when they went for the auditions.

I thought Chike was amazing. I envisaged he would go far. I still think he owned one of the best voices on the show. What we didn’t get was enough personality on stage. Was he holding back? Was he shy? Or was he being modest as the fine boy with packs (hahaha)? These are questions we might never get answers to, since he is no longer on the show. tear

Pearl is a brilliant singer. Undoubtedly. The thing about her, though, is that it’s very likely to not remember much of her after the show unless, of course, she wins it. Her personality has just never come through, and though we’re still patiently waiting, I hope it isn’t too late already. Her twin sister, Ruby, was also in the academy and was equally very good, but this thing called luck just swings its wings: Ruby was sent home.

Oluchi was another person I thought could win. She reminded everyone of Chidinma. She had so much life, and came across as very likable. She’s one of those I can say grew in the academy, as she just got better with every fresh performance. Sadly, she too didn’t make it all the way.

Ghanaians are warm people. Having lived among them for some time, I know this, which is why I’m not surprised Kumi is loved as much as she currently is.  I wish Biqo too had let out his charm early enough to have avoided eviction. Does Kumi stand a chance at winning? I can’t tell. Judging from the votes, not many people have been voting for her over the past weeks. Performance wise, I think she hasn’t been very consistent, even though she tries. Does she stand a chance at becoming a runner-up? I think she does. Being the only non-Nigerian contestant left, I think she does.

Deinde went from being very loud and annoying to being much liked and then returning back to being unstable and annoying in my books. He has a lot of prospects on Nigeria’s music scene, however, because of his infectious personality. Jeff is pretty talented too. And lucky, seeing the faculty has taken a special liking to him. But he seems pretty quiet too, and asides from when he mounts the stage, I hardly remember him. Sorry.

Joy, I didn’t like. Richie too. Debby three. I thought Jennifer could’ve stayed longer in the academy especially for the brilliance in her voice, but that’s just me. Being the first to be evicted must have been pretty devastating for her. I wish them all the very best.

But I think Arewa deserves the win.

Unfortunately, this article is becoming too long, and so I’ll have to tell you why I think so in the next installment. I hope you anticipate, because I plan to say a lot of things, not just about Arewa, but also about… Okay, why not just wait for it. Toodaloo!