Talent Dey Waste

If you've watched the audition stages of any talent show, you probably got amused by the kind of 'talents' most people had. Take Idols for example, you probably heard voices that could move you...to change the channel, but you rather laugh. What makes it more amazing was the level of seriousness these contestants portrayed as they sang off key or better yet on a "new key". I have friends who were music producers and I can assure you I have seen worse in their studios. What won't make you laugh freely in that situation was also the level of seriousness portrayed as they sang off key or better yet a "new key".

On these talent shows, you laugh at these individuals and most likely never remember their faces as they walked off the stage. In the studio you feel a rage of emotions, from frustration to sympathy for such singer. The singer pays for a session and all expenses, he/she was usually hyped and as they enter the vocal booth to voice the fun stops. A singer once took over an hour to take the first line of the song he penned and still it wasn't on key. He was better than a guy that got frustrated and stormed out of the studio screaming, "I am not singing again". Some don't care about how their singing was, like a guy that kept jumping off beat and key singing, "I am a celebrity, I am a celebrity, City People in the house, thank you, Photographers in the house, thank you, Shake your bum bum, bum bum..."

There are times it gets to me, when I see a guy cry because his voice wasn't coming out the way he thought from the speakers. Most times they cry not because of the money they had paid, but because they realised they had paid to realise they had no talent for their passion.

On the other side, there were individuals with wonderful voices and songs you would NEVER get to hear. The entertainment industry wasn't that welcoming. In America, you could use Youtube as a start to establish a fan base but in Nigeria, you had to PAY the radio djs and marketers to include your track on a bootleg compilation CD. And you had to do that till you got a break.

I feel I have to encourage everyone with a strong passion for music. In the right hands you would know where you fit. Just like football, not everyone can become a striker, you could play defence and that doesn't make you any less a footballer. Your passion might be actualised once you pick up a musical instrument if your singing voice wasn't on point. I just have to issue this warning, auto tune doesn't make you sound on key if you are not.