Nigerian Idol top8: a big night for 3 contestants,but will it save them?

Another night, and another fantastic episode of the smash reality television show, Nigerian Idol. After the rather painful departure of Joe Emmal and Amara, eight contestants are now left on the show, and they are bent on demonstrating to Nigeria that they have what it takes to be named the next Nigerian Idol.

This week the theme was centred on songs from the greatest groups of all time, from The Temptations to the Pussycat Dolls. The contestants were on fire on Sunday night and with guest judge, first lady of rap Sasha P sitting on the panel, it was truly an amazing night. Sasha told the audience, “I'm waiting to be wowed by everybody...I'm rooting for every one of them and I'm waiting to be entertained

The show began with the top eight belting out a song that personifies the disco era—‘We are Family’ by Sister Sledge, before Danny Angus tried his hand at the monster classic from the 60s, ‘My Girl’ by The Temptations. For the night, Danny shed the glasses and hit the notes but he got a mixed reaction from the judges. While Jeffrey said to him, “You pitched yourself low so you weren't able to do what you do,” Yinka Davies disagreed. “I'm your girl anytime,” she said.

Abasiakan got one of the strongest reviews of the night when he tried on Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes’ classic, 'If You Don’t Know Me by Now'. Sasha told him, “You seemed to enjoy your performance and I connected with it.” Femi Kuti was equally effusive, telling him, “You have range and your tuning is perfect.”

The song choices left the doo-wop era and took a quick fast-forward into the modern era, with Kome choosing a song from the nineties; ‘All My Life’ by KC & Jojo. She did not fare well with the judges, and Sasha tried to bolster her spirits by telling her, “I could see that you were nervous, that is an amazing song.” Jeffrey told her that while it was her most solid performance yet, there was still a lot of work to be done.

JayFeel chose a fairly safe song from the early 2000’s—Backstreet Boys’ ‘Larger than Life’—and was all over the stage thanks to some slick dance moves. Femi told him, “You consistently choose songs that you can handle...I can easily say you are the best performer of the show.” Sasha was more forthcoming telling him bluntly, “You definitely need to work on your vocal abilities, but I would buy a ticket to your show.”

Sefeeyat chose the poignant ballad by N'Sync, titled ‘This I Promise You’. Jeffrey told her, “I'm not familiar with this song but you made me like it. You keep getting better.” However there was some dissent from Femi Kuti on the panel as he tried to get a sense of why she missed some critical notes. “You need to focus on your confidence,” he advised. “I sense a lot of hesitance.”