So I've been wondering why we've not had The Voice Nigeria this year. Does anybody know? Anyway, I decided to put down some improvements I'd like to see when the show returns.
Here goes...
Talent Selection:
Personally, save for a few really gifted singers, I feel the crop of talents in the first season left much to be desired and the situation got worse in the second season. Too many people with only a smidgen of singing talent made it to the blind auditions forgosake! This is "The Voice" and the show starts to fail if this crucial stage is botched up. The problem isn’t a lack of quality singing talent within our borders, the organizers were just not searching well and long enough. So, I'd maybe ask people to send in videos of themselves singing, to ensure that most of the people who can sing get a shot. One can then proceed to invite the most impressive talents for zonal auditions. Also, people would be allowed to nominate other fine singers that they know and the selection process would be strictly based on merit, no man-know-man!
Hosts:
IK Osakioduwa remains one of the most engaging and creative hosts in the business so I would leave IK on as our host and replace Stephanie Coker with Folu Storms, because I think she'll do a better job. You agree?
Coaches:
I'd replace some of the coaches on the show with a fresh set of coaches that are more invested, witty, engaging, expressive and not easily excited. I have two already, Dare Art Alade and Simi. Feel free to suggest other possible replacements.
PS. Patorankin had NO reason being on that show, even as a guest, and I have nothing but admiration for his music.
Song Selection:
This is another crucial part of the show where organizers have fallen painfully short in the past. Just like the talent selection, the choice of songs can and did greatly impact on the quality of the show. The Voice is a show about great singing and you'd expect to have songs that allow the contestants to SING, but that was often not the case. For instance, Chike who’s an amazing singer, was made to sing Kcee’s "pull over," who does that? Some other contestant was made to sing Dbanj’s Oliver Twist. Crazy shit! Well, I'd suggest they get a couple of REAL music heads to carefully curate a more appropriate song list for the show.
Grand Prize:
We are yet to have anybody (especially the winners) from The Voice Nigeria make any meaningful success in the music industry. The sponsors of the show may act like it's none of their business but you and I know it's an added advantage for them if talents from the show go on to do great things in the music space. Therefore, I’ll maintain the prize money and also award the winner a fully funded one-year-one-album deal worth at least N30million with a serious A&R/Production/Management company as project managers. No games. No shady, unproductive label deals. The project will be time bound as the winner must put out a well curated and well promoted album before the start of the next show season. Otherwise, maybe up the prize money and forget about mentioning any useless record deal.
So, what would you do differently?

#MOB