Famous contemporary and inter-denominational Music group Zimpraise held its annual open auditions at Kingdom Life Church in Harare last weekend to reported wild success.
Two-hundred pros and non-pros from around the region entered and participated in the auditions to a panel of various judges. Off the two hundred aspirants, the mass choir managed to rope in thirty new members.
Writing on their Facebook page, the group described the auditions as ‘tight and tough’.
They wrote:
‘Thank you to everyone that came out for our Zimpraise auditions today. It was a tight and tough audition.’
Speaking to Newsday on Tuesday, the group’s executive administrator Antonette Mabhena revealed that they could only accommodate thirty people, as most of the hopefuls did not meet their set criteria to join the band.
She said:
“The event was very successful with over 200 people, who participated in the auditions. There was a lot of good talent, but we had to select only 30 that we saw could be compatible with the Zimpraise style of singing.”
Mabhena went on to say that she was happy with the turnout at the event, as many aspiring singers attended with high hopes of making it into the colourful gospel outfit. She also said the auditions were meant to bring in new skills and talent to help the award-winning band maintain its dominance in the industry.
Names of the lucky thirty who the group roped are yet to be announced.
The auditions are a nationwide talent search for undiscovered gospel musicians to add up to their group. The group fuses different music genres with dominant strains of Sungura, church hymns and traditional choral sounds associated with white-garment apostolic churches.
The choir was formed by passionate members from different Christian backgrounds, who joined hands to bring dynamism and diversity to gospel music while at the same time spreading the word of God through music in 2006 under the tutelage of popular producer Macdonald Macdee Chidavaenzi, Garikai Ndanga and Joseph Madziyire.
Now as they begin their new season with the new team, we can’t wait to see these novices being transformed into full-blown ministers of the gospel.
