How did I forget the talented mix of beauty and brains that is Tejiri? Someone says she flaunts her achievements in our faces. I say it isn’t beans to finish with a first class in Electrical Electronics Engineering. As a girl, sometimes you’re underestimated, told what you can and can’t do. To see yourself as being able to do anything when you put your mind to it in spite of what society thinks, is in itself a huge deal. I think we should cut the girl some slack.

Tejiri is gorgeous, and will most likely be fondly remembered. She also showed a lot of promise at the beginning of the show. Let’s just say luck wasn’t on her side in her performances.

So, there. That’s all sixteen of Season eight’s contestants. One thing I observed after posting yesterday’s episode was the level of support Jeff has. Quite surprising, I must say. And interesting too. Jeff is very good at what he does. If he wins, he definitely deserves to. He’s just really easy to forget, and I think that’s because his personality hasn’t shone through. Or is it just me?

Cobhams. My crush of life. It was heartening to see him on the show as the judge replacing Mr Bantu in the meantime. Mr Bantu is somewhere in Germany making things happen, Joseph said. I wish him the best. (See? No diss. Tikikiki…) It would seem like the judges and faculty read my mind with their behaviors on Sunday’s show. Uncle Ben was calm, almost moody even. He didn’t overdo or oversay anything. I actually felt bad for him. Madam Bibi showered praises like I’ve never seen her do in the last eight years. Heck she even shed tears! I wanted to go give her a hug or something. Even Mr Bantu in faraway Germany was more cheerful than he had ever been as a judge on TV, and Bolanle attested to it. It makes one wonder if the write-up had reached them somehow. Oh well…

Now, about Arewa.

Arewa shows up on stage and gives 150% every single time. She emotes, moves, sounds and performs like a pro; like one who has been doing music since the moment of her conception. There’s the thing about talent: It blooms like a harmattan fire, and has everyone oohing and aahing. Then after a while, it no longer is amusing, and if it keeps on that way, it soon becomes a bore. Talent mixed with skill, on the other hand, will almost always get people’s attention. It’s like a pencil that visits a sharpener from time to time. Just being a pencil in isolation will do no one any good.

Arewa is true to her name too. She is a beauty, and you can tell this by just looking at her un-made-up face. Even the made-up one, poorly or properly done. Talking about make-up, who does the make up on the show for Pete’s sake? Today they make Mummy J look twenty years younger, tomorrow we keep binding and casting every time the camera looks her way. Next week we wonder when Miss Ige became a grandmother. Makeup hardly did any flattering on Joy either. Why is there so much inconsistency with the makeup abeg?

So Arewa has left judges dumbfounded more often than anyone else has on the show. She even had Madam Bibi in tears.  She has left the audience on their feet countess times, and the judges have found no faults in her all season long. If this isn’t what being the best is, then I don’t know what is. I didn’t start out liking Arewa, but with every show, she has been able to steal a certain percentage of my attention till she finally stole it all. If anyone else wins, I wouldn’t have a problem. But I think Arewa has proven time and again that she deserves the crown for this season.

Lastly, what exactly happens after every season of Project fame? (I did an article on this several months back, which I’m still likely to post on my blog real soon, but let me address it a little on this one.)
Participants wake up and smell the coffee, then rush off to do a single. For some, as soon as the singles don’t gain enough airplay, that’s the end. We never hear from them again. For some, and very few of them too, they venture into other branches of entertainment like presenting or acting (e.g. Anis Holloway). For yet some, they go on, persevere and after a while become superstars (e.g. Praiz). And for others, life just takes over, and its ngwa byebye to music.

It would be dumb for anyone to assume that just being on Project fame stage automatically makes you a star. Even some winners aren’t recognized anymore.  The work really begins outside the academy. It’s outside those walls that everything else is determined: stardom or mediocrity. Or perfect silence.

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