19 Jul 2016

Music enthusiasts exercised patience at this year’s President’s Day Celebrations in contemporary music and DJ final competition held at Tsholofelo Park, as the event delayed with some hours to start.

Despite the lengthy delay, fans did not vacate the park, rather stayed for the much anticipated thrill in the competition.

The contemporary music and DJ competition was divided into four categories such as best newcomer (backtrack), best newcomer (live band), best live artiste and best disc jockey.

To start the competition with a high note, DJs were first to perform as they played house music, a genre followed by many, especially the youth.

In this category, eight DJs in DJ Dee Bond, King, Skizo, Hank, Pause, Mod, Lancilot and DJ Mr Ale had to show and use their skills and creativity behind the decks.

These mix masters were all good, even though DJ King of Serowe emerged the master of all masters in this category, while DJ Dee Bond of Gaborone got position two.

Nonetheless, sparks flew in the best live artiste category, where Obligatto and Original Stars of Ghanzi were pitted against the likes of Goddy and 100 per cent Africa Dance from Maun, Gaborone’s Harmonic Angel and Mmabesi Afro Band from Serowe.

Despite the intense competition among the artistes, in the end, Obligatto and Original Stars had impressed judges the most, hence emerged victorious in the best live category while Mmabesi Afro Band came second and in third position was Harmonic Angel and lastly Goddy and 100 per cent Africa Dance.

Competition was also tough in the best newcomer (live band) category made up of Overflow Band of Gaborone, Diphetsana from Serowe, Konganda Group from Ghanzi and Maun’s Velast who is President’s Day Celebration competitions frequent.

In this category, Velast came first, followed by Konganda Group, then Overflow Band while Diphetsana came last.

Best newcomer (backtrack) was another category which the judges seemed to have had a difficult task in, as both artistes displayed an outstanding performance.

The category comprised Makombela Traditional Group from Francistown, Gabz Voce, Maebana a Kgosing from Ghanzi and Ben Gothusamang of Maun.

The winner in this category was Gabz Voce, followed by Makombela Traditional Group, Maebana a Kgosing and then last came Ben Gothusamang.

Meanwhile, for contemporary music, judges were looking at the originality of both the music and performance, attire and composition of the song among others while DJs were judged on their mixing skills, ability to communicate with audience and technique. ENDS