National Talent Search back with a bang

 ’MAKERESEMESE LETUKA

MASERU – In its second edition, the National Talent Search, an initiative that invites youth talent touring schools across the country, has opened registration with audition pencilled for July.

The project started on February 14, 2021, in Maseru as the brain-child of Rethabile Joseph Lesenyeho with the help of 20 youths from the other nine districts of the country. Established with the objective of adopting a talent-centered approach to building the overall personality of the youth and to improve their artistic excellence, the talent search seeks to showcase home-brewed artistry by competing in other Africa countries.

The core here is to identify and then expose local talent in a variety of sectors such as arts, music, poetry, dance, acting, presenting and comedy.

“Judging from past event, challenges were that some sponsors pulled out on the last minute and it became a heavy burden to carry as finals were getting close, however it was really amazing as the event itself was a success. “Youth from all aver Lesotho showed up together with their parents and that added more to the motivation as we saw how our parents supported the event.

“Moreover, the winners of the event were occupied according to how we had promised to help them. Poetry people are still in working process with ‘M’e Sphiwe Nzima, who at some point worked with ‘Makhambule (Somizi Mhlongo’s mother) in acting and poetry, and we hope this year same thing still takes place with the winners,” says Rethabile Lesenyeho.

Winners in the music category were enrolled at a music school, the Maluti Music School, while best performers in dance were helped to open up dance classes. “This year we are having high school tours unlike last year and we are working hard to secure amazing prizes or awards – which some sponsors have promised to support,” he said. He further indicated that the youth are still showing a lot of enthusiasm as most of them were even pushing the organisers to open up registration sooner.

Some of them who were in the last season have registered again to be part of this year’s event, and the good part, according to Lesenyeho, is that this time around they understand fully what the competition is about. Unlike last year, this year the talent search will have online auditions, starting from July 2 and organisers say a lot people have already registered. The finals for the talent search will be held around November, at a venue yet to be confirmed.