Airtel Ghana’s incursion into the music industry through the Airtel Trace Music Star competition is not only innovative and creative, but is also designed to offer a bigger opportunity and platform for the thousands of Ghanaian youth who crave for a chance to hit the big stages but are unable to. Airtel Trace Music Stars is a music talent search competition run in collaboration with Trace TV and is designed to recognize talented young people who are musically convincing in a wide range of repertoire. The contest aims at giving the nation’s hopefuls a real opportunity to come through the ranks as budding artists of any genre or style.
Brand Assets Manager of Airtel Ghana, Kwame Gyan explains that, “unlike other traditional types of music competitions, Airtel Trace Music Stars does not go through the regular auditioning and screening processes which often will result with potential stars traveling across towns to a single location to be auditioned. With Airtel Trace Music Stars, all potential stars need to do is to call 533 on their Airtel phones to stand a chance to be discovered, and they can call as many times they want as well. No long things”, he said.
He added that, existing Airtel customers, including ported lines and new customers on the Airtel network can take part in Airtel Trace Music Stars by calling 533 between the 7th of October 2014 and 10th December 2014. “We are looking for the first Airtel Trace Music Star and so as a result, we accept only individual entries, and people can sing in any language of their choice, and in whatever genre they want; callers can also use instruments but they must sing and only the singing will be considered”, Kwame Gyan said.
Airtel’s Brand Assets Manager explains further that, “when you call 533, you follow the voice prompts and choose either the karaoke service or the competition; after one has finished singing within a 15 second to 3 minute window, a text is sent to the caller confirming that the song has been received and is being moderated; within 24 hours another text is sent confirming that the entry has been successfully moderated, with a password and an opportunity to listen to the song on www.tracemusicstar.com and share the entry among friends so they vote for them, “ he said.
Kwame Gyan adds that between December 10 and 17, the best 5 entries will be judged based on a combination of singing skills (quality, pitch, originality, tone, range) and number of votes received. “These top 5 will be recorded for television and at a televised show, we will find Ghana’s first Airtel Trace Music Star. “The winner from Ghana will then take part in the Pan African Airtel Trace Music Star competition involving 13 other countries at the end of February”, Kwame Gyan added.
