‘Empower artists in their prime’

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Bryan Kadengu, the winner of this year’s StarBrite finals should be smiling even in his sleep.

Bryan Kadengu, the winner of this year’s StarBrite finals should be smiling even in his sleep.

Report by Godwin Muzari

It is every rising musician’s dream to become famous and ultimately reap a fortune from that fame.

So, when Kadengu was announced the winner of the talent search competition, he saw heavens opening up.

This was the first gate in his dream to fame. It was the first stepping stone for crossing the stream that separates aspiring from famous musicians.

For the Chinhoyi-based musician, the achievement came with exciting fringes. His package for being a cut above the rest includes a Honda Fit vehicle, all expenses paid trips to the United States, South Africa, Germany and Victoria Falls, Samsung 32-inch LCD TV, recording contract with Tuku Music, a residential stand and a Blackberry handset.

Even the runners-up in this contest got attractive prizes.

Now, this is quite a pack for someone whose main aim is to follow some successful musician’s footsteps. Every aspiring musician dreams of making positive headlines in newspapers, going for celebrity interviews on radio and television, achieving platinum album sales and so on.

They envy the celebrity status of their icons and dream to be like one of them in a distant future. The future was not that distant for Kadengu. Although he is still far from joining the bottom ranks of our crop of celebrities, he leapt over a big bunch of them overnight.

Not many of our chart-topping musicians have achieved what Kadengu got for winning StarBrite. The returns from our music industry are pathetic. There is a small strata of successful musicians on the top and a legion of talented singers with little to show for their talents and prowess. Very pathetic!

Driving, touring internationally and owning residential stands are pipeline dreams for most musicians. What StarBrite gave to Kadengu is what most talent search competitions deny their discoveries — empowerment.

Most artists that are unearthed by the various talent search programmes in the country do not have pads on which to launch their careers. Some just give up because they are not empowered to face the challenges in the industry.

They are discovered, given cash that would hardly buy two guitars and taken to a studio for a recording. Their debut album flops and that is the end of the road.

The ball is now in StarBrite winners’ court. The exposure that Kadengu and his fellows will get for winning the competition is an indispensable springboard to success.

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