When she defied the rain to travel to Fridays in Sakumono for the ‘Grab The Mic’ auditions, little did she know that she would literally be catapulted to stardom over night. Racquel Ammah is definitely pretty and seems to have a certain poise and confidence in her abilities that turns to be quite infectious. She was one among over three hundred hopefuls who turned up at the auditions looking to be named as Accra’s new voice.  The first day of the Greater Accra zonal competition saw the hopefuls taking turns to impress the panel of judges which boasted of big industry names as ace contemporary highlifer and crooner, Kwabena Kwabena, HitZ Fm’s Dj Pepsi and Multimedia Broadcasting’s Cox Tamakloe.

As with all competitions of its kind there were the good, the bad and occasionally the hilarious who seemed to bring much needed comic relief to the judges who did not seem to be impressed by the performance of most hopefuls. Some seemed quite oblivious of the fact that it was singing contest and chose to rap instead whiles others seemed just interested in having their few minutes in the spotlight. Nonetheless there seemed to be lots of potential musical talents among them to keep the judges paying attention.

In an intriguing mix of characters, there was a 69 year old man, Wilfred Arthur, who says his decision to take part in the competition stems from his inability to attract a producer to promote his music despite his best efforts over the years. He did not disappoint, managing to go as far as the final ten before being eliminated. Another exciting hopeful would be CK Ayabbah, the King Ayisoba “wannabe,” with his ‘gong.’ He managed to make it to the final five but could did not make the cut for the last three, due to what judge Cox Tamakloe termed as “his continued lack of originality despite his obvious amazing talents.” 

  The judges were on the lookout for the contestants’ vocal capabilities, style/posture, key/pitch tone and their microphone techniques.  Speaking to the panel after the first day’s auditioning, they seemed unanimous in admitting that Accra may have been a bit of a disappointment as expectations had been quite high that a lot more talent would be discovered in the capital, especially considering the numbers who had turned up. Nonetheless, they maintain that it was herculean task choosing ten [10] finalist for the next round, since there was still enough talent they could have put through if they had it their way.

     It took little time to have Fridays Bar and restaurant, jam packed the following day, as audiences were treated to thrilling and very improved performances from the finalists all in an effort to impress the panel which was now composed of singer/television personality Jackie Ankrah, Hiplife emcee A-plus in addition to Kwabena Kwabena and Cox Tamakloe.

    The ten [10] were expected to perform any popular song in the first round after which the number was cut down to five. The top five including Khaleb, Ransford, Sheila, Racquel and CK Ayabbah would then go on to sing their personally composed Star Beer theme song using guidelines they had received the previous day. Right from the start, Racquel looked to be the favorite with a sterling performance that caught the crowd in a wild frenzy. Kwabena Kwabena seemed enthralled by her and uncharacteristically asked that she hug him; Jackie Ankrah as well just couldn’t seem to hide her delight at her performance.

On the night, all the finalists definitely came out much poised to impress but the pretty damsel with her dreadlocks quite easily raised the bars from the beginning and never let it slip. The other contestants may have given it their best shot but she just seemed to sing her way into the very heart of the audience. The evening’s entertainment also featured a compelling performance by Reggie Zippy.

    When it came down to the crunch, the judges chose Racquel, Sheila and Khaleb to be in the top three; however only two contestants would be able to represent the Greater Accra Zone in the competition.

In the end there were few surprises as Racquel Ammah with her silky smooth vocal ability and confident edge emerged winner with Sheila Brown coming in as the first runner up.

Khaleb, Sheila and Racquel each took home cash prizes of 300GH, 400GH and 500GH respectively as well as packages from Star Beer.

The Racquel and Sheila in addition will represent the Greater Accra zone to win the grand prize of 4000GH, a recording contract, an endorsement deal from Star Beer and lots more in the National Competition to be held later this year.

The Star Beer ‘Grab The Mic’ train moves to Ho in the Volta Region, next, for the second zonal competition.

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