Nineteeen-year-old Bertha Bridget Kankam, a graduate of the St. Louis Senior High School in Kumasi on Saturday beat three other contestants to become the winner of the fourth of Charter House’s Stars of the Future music reality show.
The show started 16 weeks ago and after several heartbreaking evictions, four contestants made it to the final event at the National Theatre on Saturday.
The top 12 contestants of the show got it off with their rendition of Mariah Carey and Boys II Men’s
‘One Sweet Day’ and later followed up with performances by four contestants who paired up.
Bertha and Akosua performed Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey’s ‘When You Believe’ while Christian and Nyaneba did Wyclef Jean and Claudette Otis’ ‘Two Wrongs’.
When the four finalists took the stage to perform individually, Akosua was the first to go with the famous Nigerian gospel song ‘Igwe’.
Bertha followed with ‘Greatest Love’ by Whitney Houston, Nyaneba went for Westlife’s ‘You Raise Me Up’ and Christian ended the round with his choice ‘When a Man Loves a Woman’ by Michael Bolton.
The first round saw the contestants perform songs by other artistes, in the second round the contestants performed songs they have composed themselves.
Akosua once again started that round with her own song ‘I will survive’ produced by Keywa, a song she dedicated to herself. Bertha performed ‘You star’ produced by Sammy Helwani. Nyaneba did ‘My Love remains’ which was produced by Jayso. Christian came last with a local song ‘Fakye’ produced by Richie. His performance drew loud applause and a standing ovation from the audience.
The final event saw Season one winner Irene Logan and Samini joining the show’s regular judges Doreen Andoh, Zapp Mallet and Kiki Banson as guest judges.
The audience were not only treated to performances from the contestants. Popular musicians like Ghana’s fastest rapper, Sakordie, Richie, Season one’s second runner up Jane Awindor and Season three winner Adina who said she has formed the music trio Thembi.
Bertha took home a KIA Picanto saloon car, Ghc 25,000 and a music contract.Christian came second, Nyaneba third and Akosua fourth.
Akosua won the 45 seconds MTN 2010 FIFA world Cup jingle competition organised for the four contestants. She won Ghc 1,000 as her price money.
Story by Aglanu Dela Ernest