Charity The Winner As Rowan Scoops Nex-Factor Prize

 Aberdeen City, Articles, Community, Information, News  No Responses »
Aug 182011
 

After months of auditions and much speculation, the North East has spoken and chosen the winner of the first ever NEX Factor. Voice’s Stephen Davy-Osborne reports, with thanks to Yasmeen Ali.

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The singing contest, organised by Aberdeen based charity Malaika Africa and Cove based event management company Valley Events, encouraged teenagers to put their musical skills to the test in order to raise funds to build a learning centre for street kids in Mirerani, Tanzania.

The first rounds of auditions were held during June and July in Aberdeen, Dundee and Elgin and out of a total of 45 hopefuls including bands, ten finalists were chosen to perform at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre in the live grand final.

Whittling the ten semi finalists down to three were judges Alex Miller, Steven Milne, Joanne Randall and Ross Milne who selected Rowan Ah-See, Amber Hughes and Cara Mitchell to perform again, leaving the final decision to the audience, who chose 16-year old Rowan – from Aberdeen – as the winner of the first ever NEX Factor thanks to his fantastic voice and guitar playing skills,

Rowan Ah-See ( pictured ) walked away with the much coveted prizes of £1,000 in cash, a professional photo shoot, a recording session at a local recording studio and a luxury car to take the winner to the photo shoot.

Yasmeen Ali and Mirjam Meek were very pleased with how the evening went and with all the positive feedback received:

 “We couldn’t have wanted for a better event and it will be a challenge to do even better next year because the standard of talent was already so high”.

The sell-out evening was a huge success and the charity managed to raise nearly £6,000.

More info and Pictures of the event here: The-NEX-Factor-2011.html 

The NEX Factor – Educational Support For Tanzania

 Articles, Charity, Community, Events, Gigs and Concerts, Information  No Responses »
May 062011
 

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By Stephen Davy-Osborne.

Malaika Africa have launched a charity event of X-traordinary proportions, calling upon teenagers to put their vocal and musical skills to the test to help raise funds to build a school for children in Tanzania.

The NEX Factor (North East X Factor) will take place in June, following the format familiar to many, with auditions taking place in Elgin, Aberdeen and Dundee, from which three finalists from each set of auditions will go head to head at the AECC in August. Of these nine finalists, three will be chosen by the judging panel, with the final vote going to the audience on the night.

The lucky winner will walk away with an amazing prize of recording studio time, courtesy of Musical Vision, a professional photo shoot, courtesy of Paul Mackie photography and £1000 cash.

On the judging panel is Ross Milne from Forfar band The Trade, who will also be performing on the finals night. The Trade have very kindly given the charity a song to be used in a video that is being made out in Africa this summer before the event, which will be unveiled on the final night.

Yasmeen Ali of Malaika Africa is keen for as many local teens to get involved as possible:

“The idea behind this is that as we are building a school for the children in Africa, I would like the children of the North East to be involved in this build hence the above idea: children of the North East helping the children of Africa.”

All teens between the age of 13 and 19 are invited to apply for the auditions taking place in June, with the final taking place on August 13th at the Gordon Suite at the AECC in Aberdeen.

Application forms can be downloaded from the website, and for those not wishing to brave the spotlight, an online donation service is also available.

See: www.malaika-africa.co.uk