Having read Angela Matthews’s articles a few weeks ago, all I could think of was how ‘low’ some people would stoop at opposing somebody’s fair and square pre deemed victory on Idols season 8. I just refused to be rational in my thinking about the matter. I thought to myself, another chancer, discouraging fans through fancy words and mere speculations. I guess it was all in the buzzing excitement and the naivety that I carried regarding South African Idols season 8. Having made a lot of sense about the whole Idols process and the points made by Angela, I realized we might just have been ridiculed all along.
We have all been booming over this Idols season. Everybody had been talking about the whole thing since the beginning, up to when the winner was announced. Social networks have been buzzing (still are) on the Idols topic. From the time when auditions were aired, all the way to the final two. I’m not really that much of a follower, but with Idols season 8 it became really difficult not to keep tabs with what was going on.
Regardless of whether you watched the show or not, a lot of people were going on and on about it that it made it really hard not to notice. A lot of the things that seemed to happen on the show in the previous seasons have been mostly linked to the unfortunate ongoing saga of racism, which were quite undeniable.
My main concern however has been the rumor that’s been circulating about a possibility of last season’s winner being head hunted. We could all argue that it was just pure speculations, but there’s a lot of information that could also relatively prove us otherwise. The irrefutable preferential treatment and exposure that our ‘winner’ had received the entire season. One could easily see this whole thing as just sour grapes, but if you look deep into the matter you realize that there might be some truth to what has been said.
Idols SA has just released the public voting statistics from the top 18 all the way to the final 2. I’m not very surprised at the way Khaya managed to hold on tightly to the number on spot every week up until the end. We can never deny that he was South Africa’s favorite. He had the hearts of many girls (and guys) melting throughout the season. Having been so consistent in his performances, winning the hearts of more viewers week after week, and not to mention his undoubtedly great voice. His talent was all more than enough to scoop him the Idol season 8 title. Not forgetting the most talked about title of being the first black South African to win the competition.
I’m concerned however about the mini fact that on the night Monde was eliminated, Khaya was in the bottom 3. I’m not sure how that all worked out, but I just feel some clarification should be made by Idols SA. I don’t know…They could argue that in the final there had to be a male and a female contestant perhaps, which still wouldn’t make that much sense. Previous seasons have had both guys being the top 2 finalists, so that automatically dismisses that explanation. Even if that had been the case, I do feel that maybe it would have been better if the viewers were informed of such even before it happened. Season 6 had Lloyd Cele battling it up with Elvis Blue, and we’ve also had instances where both female counterparts were head to head on season 4. Besides all that justification, the competition is not really and just shouldn’t be gender motivated either way, more so concerning finalists.
The night Monde had the least amounts of votes; he stood side by side with Khaya on the bottom 2 while Melissa cheered at the thought that she had most votes. That is what we all thought either way. I had not really been voting as much throughout the season, but I could just assume that the supposedly ‘altered vote’ that evening saw a lot of Khaya fans wanting to put in more votes for the finale.
There was a lot of talk even on social networks. People were looking forward to having a black winner for the first time in 8 seasons. Black fans talking about how Melissa was not in the bottom 2 because of a vast number of ‘non-black’ people that were voting for her. Without a doubt, seeing Khaya in the bottom 2 made his fans want to put in as much votes as they could that entire week. It comes in as no surprise then that he got 80.2 % of the entire votes. Have we thought for a second that maybe that was the strategy to begin with? ‘Putting pressure on fans’ so they feel the need to put in more votes.
That’s another random explanation to the whole issue. It’s also been rumored that results are temped with, and only the final results (top 2) are audited by independent auditors. Angela Matthews’s article also touched quite a bit on that. So what? Could then this be viewed as Idol SA’s measures towards covering their tracks? It’s more certainly possible. With speculations that had been made about the ‘Chosen One’, this could just have been a way to silent the rumors.
But why did they have to place someone in the bottom two and later release stats that would rather prove they had previously omitted some information from their viewers? Could it be that they felt cornered and were trying to drive the public from the thoughts that they’d seem to carry about the whole issue insinuations of head hunting?
I feel Idols SA should explain to their loyal viewers what really happened there, because it just doesn’t make any sense to me. We could never doubt the fact that Khaya is talented, but the thought that he could have been favored by the producers of the show to take it home to the ‘blacks’, giving publicity to the show and M-net is quite nauseating.
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyNews24 have been independently written by members of News24's community. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.
