The People’s Hero: Eleven finalists from Enugu audition

After the tedious task of auditioning about a thousand young talents, who thronged the Oakland Hotel in Enugu, to compete for the title, The People’s Hero, and a grand prize of N7 million, the judges have released eleven lucky contestants from Enugu.

Selected from 24 participants that had qualified from the first stage of the audition, the list of the final 11 was unveiled at a live show in Lagos.

It was a keenly contested audition as there were group and solo performances across all classes of talents before the judges could settle for the top eleven. And just like the judges had a tough time settling for top twenty at the previous audition, they could not limit their choices to ten as initially planned because there are talents that cannot be denied the opportunity to be part of the reality show.

Encouraging the disqualified participants, Marc Swagz, one of the judges and an on-air personality told the participants not to regard their disqualification as the end of their dream. He urged them to return to base and improve on their skills.

Another judge Tobechukwu Ejiofor, popularly know as Illbliss also said the competition must be stiff as whoever emerges the People’s Hero must be acknowledged by the world in his or her craft.

The 11 participants are made up of three dancers, two actors, three spoken word artistes and three singers. They will slug it out with the next nine participants, who will emerge from Owerri auditions happening next week.

An initiative of Hero Lager Beer, an International Breweries brand, The Peoples’ Hero seeks to identify the best of talents in singing, dancing, spoken word and acting in the Southeast and South-south region of Nigeria and to reward the winner with a grand prize of N7 million and consolation prizes of N2 million and N1 million for the first and second runner up.

Impressed with the outcome of Enugu audition, the Marketing Manager, Hero Lager Beer, Mr. Obumneke Okoli said the brand is quite pleased to see such a turnout of young, energetic and talented youth who identified the platform as an effective one for their rising. He also commended how the participants identified with their culture by showing up in different cultural attires that further explained the beauty of the Igbo culture.

The show continues to air on MTV Base every Saturday by 9.pm, with a repeat show on Wednesdays by 9pm. It also airs on some terrestrial TV stations in Nigeria.