Daily Sun Newspaper Host Interview with Mrs Ngozi Okorie Ndukwe on Talent Hunt Show Holding In Abuja This Month

 Mrs Ngozi Okorie Ndukwe,CEO Promote-Me Services

Get ready if you are interested in gospel music making because the maiden edition of Voice of Praise Christian Talent Hunt is about to kick off in Abuja.  sunnewsonline

And the people behind the project say they are motivated by an intention to reduce the migration of gospel artistes to secular music.

The programme runs with the vision of making gospel music popular and draws secular singers into the gospel music.

Abuja Metro spoke with Mrs. Ngozi Ndukwe, organiser of the hunt and CEO, Promote Me Services, about the programme’s purpose and objectives.
The project is to feature as talent hunt show, Mrs. Ndukwe said: “This gospel talent hunt is one that I and my partner, Evangelist Chinyere Ndukwe, put together because a lot of gospel artistes have left the gospel part of the setting to the secular part. We have lost a lot of musicians and Christians to the secular world. For example, there was a show I heard of the other time that people paid as much as N300,000 to witness here in Abuja. I made enquiries and they said it was a secular event, they mentioned a lot of secular musicians that would perform. So, I have never really heard of people coming up with gospel shows and everybody is paying to attend and sponsor.
Even when you go to telecommunications companies to ask for sponsorship, they will tell you that since it is strictly gospel, they wouldn’t really do that since they would not want to show affiliation to a sect. So, this show is borne out of the desire to stop the migration of people from Christendom, especially the gospel artistes and younger ones to the secular world. We want to encourage people to get their forms and participate.
You can see the kind of prizes we have waiting for participants and winners including a car, musical equipment and the home theatre. Everybody that would participate will have consolation prize to take home so that they will know that their talent of singing gospel songs can be rewarding. Some people and organizations have called in to add to the prizes, we now have free promotions for one year, and also free recordings for one year. So you can be sure that if all these young, talented gospel artistes are encouraged this way, more people will join to sing gospel songs.
What inspired the theme is that even though everybody has got a voice, what it is used for is the major issue. For this program, we are voicing out to God. It is strictly in praises to God, not to man. That is why we have the theme as The Voice of Praise, not just to sing, but to praise and to praise God.
No barriers 
It is open to all those who can sing, not just for choristers. There are people who can sing but are not encouraged to. But with this, we want them to unleash that talent, sing it out so that we can help and encourage them to do more. The Fellowship of Gospel Ministers of Nigeria (FOGMAN is involved in this and they encouraged us with their endorsement. A lot of minsters, bishops and pastors have also sent in their tokens of encouragement. The car is from Kefiano Nigeria Limited, here in Abuja. When we spoke to the MD, he said he is a lover of gospel songs and he will encourage us. So instead of paying the full amount for the brand new car, we should pay 50%. It is when we can get sponsors like this that we will see a lot of talented gospel artistes coming forth to sing more of the gospel than the circular songs.
The vision is not to make the project a profit-making venture. We don’t attach any financial benefit for ourselves. If I had all the money, we would run it monthly and make it a platform for giving out. I am doing well with my own business and it is not for financial benefits, so we are not making much gain from this because at the end of the day, if you check the prices for all these gifts, I don’t know how many people can register for us to get the gifts attached to the program. There are also other costs we incur for the hall, lighting, sound which is expensive especially in Abuja.
For the participants, they are actually going to pay to take part in the project. The sponsors get free promotion to also project their services to the larger society. When you pay for something, you take it more seriously. If you tell people it is free, knowing my fellow Nigerians, they will bastardise the whole thing and take it for granted but when there is a price tag attached to it, participants will work harder for it and be serious with rehearsals. There will be more sanity because there is a fee. So, we didn’t want to say it is free, people should pay, at least, a token.
At the end of the day, when we are done, whatever proceeds that is left should be carried over to the next event, given to charity or given to young talented musicians that we could help with recordings but for now, there is no benefit attached to it except if it is the next edition. In this first edition, a lot needs to be done financially that is why we are even calling for sponsors and partners to take care of some of the bills.
We have had a lot of responses so far but 70 percent of the calls we have received are more about people calling to ask for free forms and some of my friends have agreed to help such people but with a limit. As organizers, we are not allowed to sponsor anyone and nobody from our family is allowed to contest even if such can sing.
Those to buy the form are okay but, I am saying that for people that want it free or sponsored that we have some people rising to that challenge.
So far, the estimate for people that have bought the form is about 40. Because we just started advertising and promotions last week, and the deadline is November 28, I think the number of responses have been encouraging. So about 38-40 persons have completed their registrations.
At the event proper, everybody is invited because the winners would be decided through voting which everybody should participate in. We need the audience to vote wisely and rightly after watching the people perform.
There are restrictions on songs that would feature there because we have a list, and every performance must be within that specification.

For inquiry please contact these numbers: - 08037051298, 08099697318, 08067291580;08097462773,08134290450; 08036292344; 08103550898.
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