Abdel Assary, Maria Mein and Joshua Sofola are the grand winners of a traditional singing center competition organized by the Seychelles Cultural Foundation (FKS).
This competition, which is a first edition, was held in the Dockland auditorium, Sunday afternoon.
This competition was divided into three categories where Abdel, 12 years old, won in the category 10 to 14 years old, Maria (19 years old) won the category 15 to 19 years old and Joshua who is 23 years old won the category 20 to 24 years old.
As a prize, all three received 25 thousand rupees from different ‘ sponsors ‘ and musical scholarships from the National Institute for Culture, Heritage and Land.
There were three participants in the first two categories while in the 20 to 24-year-old category there were four because of the auditions held in March, two of them got the same number of points.
Altogether there were 42 young participants from Mahé, Praslin and La Digue who took part in this competition.
For this competition, the young center needed in the first part to center a cultural sense given by the jury and in the second part they needed to center a cultural sense either in themselves or in their own composition.
Abdel, who comes from La Digue, was the center of ‘Vals Anse Boileau’ which Zuri gave him and his second song was ‘Bal kot Lerwa’, a song composed together with Andreix Rosalie.
“I feel very happy. I didn’t expect to be the first to go out,” Abdel said.
Abdel, who does not know if there is anyone in his family who plays traditional music, added that he really likes this kind of music.
He said that it was a school teacher who informed him that there was a competition.
Maria at her place sang the song ‘Meditation’, a medley that Ziri gave her and her second song was ‘Ouver lasal’, another song of her own composition.
“I’m really happy because I worked hard for this. I see the competition meant for me in my category because I didn’t know what others were coming up with,” Maria said.
Maria said that traditional music is beautiful and that people appreciate it more than it is being appreciated at the same time.
He added that a lot should be done to make sure that our cultural music remains one of our heritage and that we are recognized for it.
On his part, Joshua said that he was also really happy to come out first, but he was saddened for his colleagues in his category, who have been together all these years and who have also done really well, but in the end it is fair who makes decisions.
He sang the song ‘Vandredi Sen’ in the first link together with Emilie Esparon, where Zuri wanted to wait for them together because they had the same point in the audition, and his second song was his own composition, ‘Msye Savan’ which was amazing.
“Traditional music has a place in the modern world and I believe that we can enter that space to make music that is different from modern music,” Joshua said.
The Cultural Foundation of Seychelles is an organization that promotes and promotes traditional music and its president, Jean Marc Volcy, explained that they organized this competition to alert young people to the value of our traditional music, Seychellois Creole, in the face of the threat of modern music and sounds. that Seyselua, especially young people, are used to center in Creole.
Mr. Volcy said that the foundation will work with these children to promote their songs that they have composed.
He thanked all those who helped to make this competition a success and said that in the next edition next year, the winners of the first competition will not be allowed to participate to give other young people proof of their talent. This will make our traditional music more popular among them.
Present at this competition was the secretary general for the National Institute for Culture, Heritage and Land, David Andre; the institute’s permanent secretary, Cecil Kalebi; Ambassador for Kilitir, Patrick Victor; parents and ‘ sponsors’ among other people. It all ended with a kiss by Mr. Rosalie.
Other participants in different categories were:
– 10 a 14-an – Kimberley Revera, Shaul Baron
– 15 a 19-an – Chiara Florentine, Sydel Pierre
-20 to 24-year-old – Emilie Esparon, Elida Monnaie, Beverly Moncherry
Members of the board include Jany de Letourdie (head of board), Jean Marc Volcy, Penda Choppy, Antoinette Dodin.
Source: Seychelles Nation