This Is The Voiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice !

There's a reality-TV show called The Voice. The idea is to try out amateur singers, train them, get them singing all sorts of different musical styles, find the best one and record their first album with them. There are several shows of this type, it always feels a bit rigged because the applicants have been singing for ages before trying for the show, but they seem to receive good training and it certainly boosts their public notoriety.

This one was coming to Mayotte. The director of the French show was to show up in Mayotte on the day of the grand finale, but meanwhile, local singers, music teachers and music representatives of all sorts had advertised, welcomed, judged and trained the various candidats. This being Mayotte, there weren't exactly the fifty thousand applicants you get in mainland France. Closer to one hundred. The local music people narrowed it down to thirteen.

On the last day of Christmas, on the grand finale last Saturday, the French director was part of the jury. The audition was open to the public for a fee, and took place in a local nightclub. There weren't that many people in the audience, I'd say fifty or so, but it was fairly interesting. These were the singers:

 

 

 

 

 

The competition was held in Mayotte for the whole of the Indian Ocean, so there were candidates from Reunion Island, Congo, Madagascar and Mauritius as well as people living in Mayotte, both Mahorese and French. Even one Italian and one half-Lebanese. The video below shows part of Zili's song, a traditional Mahorese chant.

But of course, this being Mayotte, nothing ever goes quite as planned. The French director is very well-known in France for having directed several successful musicals. The audition was on Saturday; the director arrived on the Thursday before. And on the Friday, his hotel room was - how shall I put this - inspected for valuables by local burglars. He had brought over 10,000€ of equipment (computers, sound equipment, cameras...) as well as all of his professional files and documents. He lost the lot. Why he had that much stuff with him for a four-day trip doesn't matter. That's not the point.

The point is that this is a guy who absolutely wanted to come and hold the singing auditions in Mayotte because they'd never been done here before, and he was convinced there was as much talent in Mayotte as there was in France. He'd already scouted for talent in Reunion Island and even Tahiti, but never Mayotte, so he was looking forward to listening to the Mahorese apprentice singers. Now, he's got a lovely image of the department to take back.