Project Fame sends finalists forth with celebrity-featured smash hits

The best way to describe this year’s edition of Project Fame West Africa, the eight annual consecutive edition, is to say that it has surpassed all previous editions. All along, this has been the strength of PFWA. Each edition is better than all those before it. Each edition springs surprises that those before it didn’t. Each edition produces a set of talented music artists that end up making a vital contribution to the music industry. And this year’s PFWA, which ended last week, has produced the fine boy, Jeffrey, as its winner, and enhanced him with N5m, an SUV and a recording contract worthy of his new superstar status. But the good thing about PFWA is that virtually all the contestants are winners, though the finalists are the biggest winners. So, while Jeffrey is the biggest winner, his fellow finalists too went home with considerable rewards. Pearl, second to Jefrrey, got N3m and a brand new saloon car. Anderson, third, got N2m and a saloon as well. Ada, fourth, got N2m; Arewa, fifth, N1m; and Deinde, the sixth, N500,000. The prizes are not a new PFWA thing. Neither is the fact that previous editions have helped the contestants to create their own original songs which later on to became notable hits. Probably the most notable thing about PFWA 2015 is that it has helped the finalists to collaborate with popular singers on remixes of their smash hits. This is a very brilliant move, as it means that the finalists are leaving PFWA with readymade hits that will enable them integrate faster into the music. The remixes in question are the records that were performed by the finalists last weekend. Jeffrey, the winner, and Yemi Alade, did the remix of Alade’s KISSING. Pearl, his runner-up, jumped on the continental hit, Kedike, with Miss Kedike herself, Chidinma, who also holds the unbreakable record of being PFWA’s first female winner. Anderson and Praiz reworked Praiz’s Rich And Famous; Ada and Sound Sultan rehashed Sultan’s Area; Arewa and 9ice did justice to 9ice’s monster hit, Gongo Aso; and Deinde and Iyanya brought a different dimension to Iyanya’s Mr Oreo. Considering that these remixes will soon be radio and TV favourites, PFWA 2015 might just turn out to be the edition that several of its graduates will storm the music industry with major force simultaneously. And in a chat with the finalists, they all made it obvious that they are just rearing to go and prove their worth in the music industry. “Now’s the time to really prove what I’m made of,” said Jeffrey. “I realize that a lot is now expected of me, and that my every move will be thoroughly scrutinized, but I intend to live up to every expectation. Others have done it before me, and I intend to follow in their footsteps.” Speaking in the same vein, Deinde, the sixth in position of the six finalists, said his coming sixth or earning the least prize, will not have any negative bearing on how he’ll turn out in the music industry.