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Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
Fast-rising Anambra highlife musician, Frank Onyeka, popularly known as Morocco Jnr, dazzled fun-seekers and highlife music enthusiasts last night to emerge winner in the Awka Regional Knock Out stage of the 2019 Hi-Life Fest competition.
Related: Hi-Life Fest: First round winners emerge
At the fun-filled event held at Stanel Café, Awka, Morocco Jnr topped five upcoming highlife artistes – Aniekwe Johnpaul, Chidozie Ikechukwu, Prince Onuchukwu, Emmanuel Zira and Ifeanyi Uma – to become regional winner of thr ongoing music competition.
Morocco Jnr won over the audience with his engaging stagecraft, glowing dress sense, sound delivery and mastery of the guitar that highlife great Bright Chimezie, who is chairman of the judges’ panel, could not hold back his feelings, declaring Onyeka a star.
Other panelists – I Go Tuk, the Onitsha Main Market guy comedian, and David Jones – concurred.
In the dance category, Megastar Cultural Troupe emerged winner, having outperformed the Akalugo, Egede-Nkwa and Egwusinachi Cultural troupes in the highly-contested cultural outing and entertainment showpiece.
Hi-Life Fest, launched in 2017, is aimed at identifying young and upcoming native Igbo music talent, said Mr Chidi Egwu, Brand Manager, Life Continental Lager Beer, in an interview.
“Life continues to support and sponsor Igbo culture; Hi-Life Fest was conceived to identify young upcoming talent hrough Higlife music,” Egwu said.
“It is about identifying the thing that makes Igbo a unique people and also celebrating them in an engaging way for the world to see how rich the culture is.”
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The brand manager said the search for the 2019 Hi-Life music king began in Enugu where two highlife music artistes and a cultural troupe qualified in the regional knockout.
Life Lager plans to organise auditions in Asaba and Aba before proceeding to Port Harcourt for the quarter final contest.
The semi-finals would hold in Enugu while the grand finale would be in Onitsha, said Egwu.
According to him, a star price of N5 million and an opportunity for the winner to showcase his talents on terrestrial channels like Soundcity would form part of the reward.
“Every artiste that participates in the show gets the opportunity to be mentored by legends of Highlife music.
“For us, it is an opportunity for these upcoming artistes to improve their skills.
“It is also not about the monetary value, but about our consumers.
“Whatever we spend on our consumers is no cost to us because we are actually giving back to them through Highlife experience,” Egwu said.
One of the judges and a Highlife music pioneer, Bright Chimwezie, told the audience that the event was aimed at keeping alive highlife culture in Igbo dominated South East Nigeria.
