Big Brother Africa is back

BIG Brother Africa is back …well almost, and I will tell you about it presently. The football World Cup in Brazil has taken the attention of both die hard football fans and those who have no choice than to tag along. Our Black Stars are back home after their elimination at the group stage without any hurray. 

Many are disappointed not just because our team got eliminated so early in the tournament, but especially because of the manner in which other issues apart from football thwarted their effort and terribly tarnished the image of the country to people outside.  

Hopefully, we shall learn from this and not repeat this debacle again. Of course I won’t put much currency on that because knowing who we are, I am sure we shall go through this same phase again in the future.

While we were focused on the World Cup and getting immersed in the wonder of the beautiful game through the magic of television, other important things (depending on how you look at it) were happening with one of them being the preparation to start auditioning for the next Big Brother Africa reality show.

In Ghana, auditions will take place at the Holiday Inn Hotel, Airport this Saturday and Sunday to select who will represent the country when the next season of the biggest reality show on the continent comes to town.

Endemol and M-Net have announced that the ninth edition of Big Brother Africa will kick off in September and as is often the case, people have been asking about who will represent which country and going on to speculate about some names they think are likely to make it.

There is no denying the fact that Big Brother Africa is one of the shows that have become known for transforming ordinary citizens into stars. We can all be witnesses to some of the people who represented Ghana in the previous eight editions and how they moved from obscurity to social and entertainment prominence.

The big question is, after the sterling performance by Elikem Kumordzi that almost got Ghana its first winner in at the continental competition, who again can we have to ensure that we get as far as he did and even win the $300,000 at stake?

Remember we have had them all in our previous participants namely Sammy B, Kwaku T, Mimi Abu-Andani aka Habiba aka Mimi Divalish, Ras Wayoe aka Lawyer George Wayoe, Sammy B again, Alex Biney aka Bomaye, Confidence, DKB, Keita Ossei, Mildred Ashong aka Eazzy, Selorm Ghalley aka Selly and Elikem.

We really need to get a good representative who will be able to meet the criteria of the producers which is “persons who are fluent in English, entertaining and passionate about the Big Brother experience. Of particular importance to the selection team are the qualities of tolerance, determination and enthusiasm.”

If you are open-minded, bold and adventurous, that’s even better and you can head to the Holiday Inn this Saturday or Sunday to try your chance at getting into the famous Big Brother Africa house in Randburg, Johannesburg, South Africa. In addition, you should be over the age of 21 and have a valid passport.

BLOW, CHAMPAGNE, SMITH AND YFM  SHUFFLE

YFM is different from many stations in many ways. One of those is the fact that the station has a DJ for almost every show except a few. 

What this means is that there is a presenter and then there is a DJ who plays the music and the presenter talks.

For example, you have Naa Adjorkor Addo or Miss Naa being the host and therefore, the talker on the morning show with DJ Vision as her sidekick on the turntables to play the music that go with the show that time of the day.

One of the few presenters at YFM who was responsible for playing his own music was DJ Blow, who until recently was the host of Weekend Groove but has resigned from the station to pursue other interests. Which interest means he is likely to appear at another station soon.

Again, other stations do this too, but the use of a DJ and a presenter is the norm rather than exception at YFM.

Just like DJ Vision, another DJ who has also been around the station since its inception and has been playing with some of the presenters on different shows is DJ Champagne. He has been the resident DJ on programmes such as the late afternoon show called Dryve Of Ur Lyfe from Monday to Friday and Y-Campus Express on Saturdays.  

DJ Champagne has quit the station after six years and is headed for South Africa to work with PRTV (Planet Radio TV). I was curious in knowing why he chose South Africa and what exactly he would be doing at PRTV.

“They have a segment known as Planet Mix which has DJs across Africa and because they don’t have anyone from Ghana, they asked me to be rep for Ghana,” he told me. “I was there last month and I had the chance to play every day after which they showed interest in me and offered me the job.”

As much as he would love to have stayed at YFM and Ghana, Champagne says he accepted the offer because he thought it was an opportunity to explore his talent further. “I need that platform as a DJ because I really want to explore and do more with my talent,” he said.

From what I understand, the only female DJ at the station, DJ Kess, has been moved from the after drive show hosted by Caroline Sampson to be the DJ on Champagne’s former beat Dryve Of Ur Lyfe. (Interestingly) and to confirm this movement, last Tuesday, Caroline posted on Instagram and Twitter that her new DJ was DJ Mic Smith, who until then was at Live FM.

It has to be noted though that before he would go to Live FM, the young Mic Smith was a DJ at YFM and so this would be like a home coming for him, I guess. We shall talk more about this move by Mic Smith in due course.

It is fair, however, to say that Champagne and Blow may be gone, Smith has come back, Kess has her partnership with Caroline changed as she has to help Nana Kwame Sarpong or Norkuss on the drive and the YFM DJ shuffle goes on.

By  Graphic Showbiz