Music  

Ediomo Akpan wins Hymnodia season two, gets N5m, new car

By Guardian Nigeria

26 September 2020   |   4:25 am

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Created to reignite the culture of hymn writing and singing, Hymnodia, the first ever worship and hymns reality TV show in Nigeria has crowned Ediomo Akpan as winner of Hymnodia 2020 Season Two.

Hymnodia winner Ediomo Akpan after his emergence in Lagos

Created to reignite the culture of hymn writing and singing, Hymnodia, the first ever worship and hymns reality TV show in Nigeria has crowned Ediomo Akpan as winner of Hymnodia 2020 Season Two.

Hymnodia is a triple-E reality TV show that focuses on Entertainment, Edification and Education. The second season of the show commenced on Sunday, March 8, 2020 with 15 hymntestants (contestants) engrossed in both physical and spiritual creativity throughout the period the show lasted.

With focus around the level of each contestant’s understanding of hymns and worship, the show has proven to be a wholesome multi-pronged programme that revolves around members of world-class Nigerian choirs. These choirs contest for the status of best hymnodists while collaborating to render soul-lifting renditions.

Akpan, a prolific musician who is a chorister at the House on the Rock Cathedral, Lekki Lagos, smiled home with a brand new car and the sum of N5 million. The crown winner, who refers to himself as a ‘church boy’, also went away with the symbolic ASAPH that was designed in Nigeria, finished in Spain and manufactured in China. The ASAPH is the show’s symbolism for worship, singing, hymns, edification, education and entertainment. Only one is given out each year.

Popularly called the Puppet Master, Akpan, who is famous for putting his style into every performance, edged the other finalists in the last ‘battlenodia’ to cling the ultimate prize – the symbolic ASAPH.

The prolific musician who hails from Annang, in Akwa Ibom is a tenor singer with a unique blend of classical and contemporary music. He has a dramatic voice coupled with his usual comical but excellent delivery in all his performances.

During the contest, Akpan was never put on probation. He also got best performance award in two stanzas. He was also the first to be called into the top three during the Hymncert.

Akpan is a graduate of the ABRSM Advanced Chorale Singing programme. He has sung in several choirs over the past nine years. He is a pseudo-polyglot; he speaks English, Spanish and his native language Annang.

Going into the final round of the Season Two, Stanzas 12, Akpan, alongside Frank Okoye, Johnson Ikpeama aka Json, Duke Asuquo and Yinka Odunayo came out as top five hymntestants. Json eventually lost out to Yinka in the ‘battlenodia.’

Overwhelmed with joy, when the season was wrapped up with Hymncert concert held on Thursday September 10, 2020, Akpan said: “I give God the glory. This is just the grace of God. The journey has not been easy but I am grateful. We had wonderful people all around us. I thank the judges, the organisers, everyone. To Duke, Yinka, Frank and Jason, I love you guys. We are all winners.”

Asuquo was the first runner up; Odunayo came second and Okoye third. Awed by the success of the event, Managing Director, Philosophille Limited and Executive Producer of Hymnodia, Kufre Ekanem, appreciated everyone who contributed to make the show a success.

“God is awesome. To God be the glory, may His name be praised,” he said. Meanwhile, the wholesome reality show, which is fast gathering fans and viewers across various strata and sections of the country, also produced 10 new original hymns in Stanza Seven. These lovely, melodious and soul lifting hymns were the results of the task for the stanza, a self-composed hymns by contestants.
It could be recalled that Kenneth Ekhuemelo was winner of Hymnodia Season One. Now there is a new winner in town.