By Ketricia Finch
St. Kitts Reporter
This is the fourth year of the Kittitian Superstars competition and some new elements have been implemented to make the competition even more exciting.
This is the first time a participant from Nevis has entered the competition. This year is also considered significant because the youngest participant ever, thirteen-year-old Patricia of Newtown Ground has tried out. The most senior competitor, a gentleman from Sandy Point also participated in the first phase of the competition and qualified to go further.
Chico Guishard, founder of the event, told The Observer that the venue had to be changed from the Basseterre High School Auditorium to Carnival Village because of the increase in the public’s participation. He informed of where the competition has reached so far this year.
“We have finished the radio auditions where 24 persons were chosen. Right now, we are at the television audition phase, which begins on August 3rd. We will narrow it down to 12 persons at the end of the television auditions. There will be two television auditions, 12 persons the first week and 12 the second week and the third week will be elimination week.”
Guishard said the television audition is also one of the first-time features in the competition. The persons who qualify during this phase will automatically compete in the singoffs. This year more males made it past the radio auditions than any of the previous years.
“Over the years we have just had the radio auditions and then we just go into the singoffs, but this year we have done it a little different. I find that when people sing over the radio it sounds different to the television. We want to see who we have directly in front of us so that’s why we implemented the television auditions. We are not only looking for the perfect singing voice, we are looking for attitude and personality because we really want it to be a classy show,” Guishard said.
“The singoffs will be live on radio and television and that will be the week after the elimination for the television auditions. Last year we had the singoffs just in the radio studio and it was difficult for people who were participating to bring people to support them. This year, we are taking it to the television studio so they could bring fans for support. The singoffs will consist of twelve persons.“
Like last year, the semi-finals will consist of six persons. Two persons will be eliminated to leave four persons who will be the finalists.
The semi-final and the final shows will take place at Carnival Village.
Guishard said the price of admissions has not yet been decided, but would probably be a bit more expensive.
“We are giving the winners cash this year apart from the prizes they would be getting from the sponsors. We are still deciding on the amount but I think it would be in the 1000s.”
Guishard said the voting for the semi-finals and finals will again be done via text messages.
“I feel that’s the safest way although some people are more popular than others. We leave it in the hands of the public to decide on who they think deserves to win. Purple and I, along with Masud Sadiki would be making comments as usual after each contestant sings and we will be having judges doing their thing on the night and their decisions will be final. The semi-finals and finals will not be live, but those on the ground’s texts will only make up a percentage of the votes. They will not decide the winner of the competition. “
Guishard spoke of what inspired him to host Kittitian Superstars .
“One day we started doing some singing and giving away prizes on the radio. The lines went crazy. I thought that I should take this forward. My interest from that show grew. We decided to step it up the following year and every year from since that, we tried to improve on the show. The show is a carbon copy from American Idol with our local touch to it.”
Guishard said this year should be exciting because it has a combination of talented contestants and well as great entertainers.
Plans have been made to hire a local band to back up the finalists, another first-time feature of the competition. The semi-finals are scheduled for September 29 and the final show, at which regional Soca artist Peter Ram will be the featured act, is scheduled for October 3rd.
