#TheVoiceNigeria ends with twists, turns and of course, hard lessons

Season 3 of The Voice Nigeria came to an end last night, and it was every bit as satisfying as one would have hoped.

As satisfying as the end may have been however, we simply can’t ignore all the lessons the finale had in store for its viewers.

At the end of the night, Esther Benyeogo went home with the prize money, and deservedly so. Okoro Oghenekpabor Joshua, known on the show simply as Kpee, and Elizabeth Osesiameh, known simply as Eazzie stood as the top three finalists, and in here lies the first plot twist.

Naomi Mac, whose astounding voice saw her trend every single night the show aired, leaving the audience with premonitions that she would win, didn’t make the top three. This development thus raised the question on how much of fan love online translates to fan support?

With the Big Brother Naija show, we can say for certain, that it does. Those whose fans show the most love online typically go ahead to win the show, but with a talent show like the Voice Nigeria, one great performance from a contestant can sway fans to switch to his/her camp.

So, with last night’s finale, it may not entirely be far fetched to call the voters- prisoners of the moment. As stated in a previous post (read here), one great performance from Esther may be enough to sideline Naomi Mac’s consistency and win her the prize.

This was always a possibility but what seemed strange was the fact that Naomi Mac didn’t even make the top three.

Speaking of top threes, another interesting take away from last night was that Kpee, an all-round performer who relies majorly on the strength of his delivery more than his voice, made the top three.

Throughout the show, Kpee leaned more towards Afro beat songs than the usual classics. His choice of songs did little to demonstrate his vocal range, and fans online would often berate him for his lack of versatility and less-powerful vocalisation. There were however, those who enjoyed his style of songs.

Last night, he made the top three, ousting very powerful vocalists, some of whom have at some point in the show brought the roof down with their voices.

It’s safe to assume therefore, that for talent shows of this nature, the Nigerian audience have become willing to accept their own culture. Singing a Wizkid song, may in the future become as valuable as singing a Whitney Houston classic, and it will be thanks to Kpee, who made singing Afro beats okay.

Also Kpee already has the makings of a superstar singer – young, cool, super talented, energetic and Afro beat inclined. So fans who voted for him may just be clinging to the possibility that this young artist may someday have a place amongst the Nigerian music royalties. With one look at this singer, its not even hard to imagine that adding ‘boy’ at the end of his name may be all that is needed to put him in the league of the Fireboys and Joeboys of the world.

The final lesson for viewers from the finale is that if you are a fan of Reality TV in Nigeria, never compete with Big Brother Naija. The Voice Nigeria wasted two weeks on recaps and rundowns when they could have aired meaningful episodes. As a result, the timeline for the show’s finale crashed with BBN’s premier and ultimately found itself competing for airtime and attention with BBN.

Hopefully, the organisers of this show and every other show will learn from this, and learn how to plan better. Those who wanted to watch the finale, found themselves not only waiting an extra hour for the episode to air, but some also had their attentions torn.

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