22 Jul 2014

Judges had a difficult task to decide who wins during the President’s Day competitions in contemporary music and DJ final competitions held at the UB Amphitheatre.

The contemporary music and DJ competition was divided into four categories of best upcoming artist, best back-track artist, best live artist, and a new category of best DJ.

Sparks flew in the backtrack category, where Velast of Maun was pitted against the likes of Kale Flow from Francistown, Centy Mduduzi of Tsabong, and Gaborone based Moanelwa Mogolo. Unlike in the past years, where established artistes competed, the 2014 best back-track category comprised only upcoming artistes.

Despite the rigorous competition amongst the artistes, in the end, Velast seemed to have impressed the judges most, hence he emerged victorious in the best backtrack category, while Centy Mduduzi came second.

The competition was also tough in the best upcoming artiste category made up of former Culture Spears member, Selonyane from Gantsi, Dipetsana from Serowe, Simonsizola of Gaborone, who came second, and The Boss of Rhumba from Maun who were the winners in this category.

The best live artiste was another category, which gave the judges a difficult time as both artistes displayed an equally outstanding performance.

It comprised a well-known folklore artiste locally and internationally, Kabo Leburu, Bana G-Town from Gantsi, renowned Bana ba Ntogwa, representing Francistown, and Les Quandra from Kasane.

The winner in this category was Kabo Leburu, followed by Bana ba Ntogwa, with Bana G-Town in third position, and then last came Les Quandra.

Then the much anticipated best DJ category came, whereby eight DJs in the likes of DJ Core, Bieps, Hank, Tech the Drum, Truu, Jakes, Becks and DJ Makenno Big Souls, had to demonstrate their skills and creativity behind the decks.

These mix masters were all good, even though DJ Makenno Big Souls of Gaborone emerged the master of all masters in the DJ category.

Another Gaborone based DJ Tech the Drum proved that the city had got amazing talent as he scooped position two. For temporary music, judges were looking at the originality, both of the music and performance, attire and composition of the song, among others, while DJs were judged on their mixing skills, ability to communicate with the audience and technique. ENDS