An entertainment company, Ultima Studios, has said that its new music reality show, Next Afrobeats Star, will add value to the Nigerian music industry.
Ahead of the maiden edition of the show, top producers such as Osabuohien Osaretin, aka Sarz; Peace Oredope, aka P-Prime; Oluwajuwonlo Iledare, aka Puffy-Tee; and Alexandre Uwaifo, aka Andre Vibez, have been announced as the judges of the show.
According to the CEO of Ultima Studios, Femi Ayeni, the show, which will start airing in April, will be an avenue to reduce brain drain in the country and encourage economic diversification.
He said, “I have passion for young people. We don’t want the burden of leaving this place worse than we met it. Most of us are stuck here, without being able to migrate. I realise that afrobeats has become very huge. We did Project Fame for nine years, and we made a lot of RnB stars, so why not make afrobeats stars that we now export out of Nigeria and earn foreign exchange? The foreign exchange can only improve if we diversify our exports and substitute our imports. Instead of buying foreign music, we are now exporting Nigerian music.”
In a similar vein, Sarz, who is one of the judges, expressed high hopes that the platform will ‘help amplify everything’. He added, “I am a strong believer in collaboration and amplification. Every one of us (producers/judges) have been doing this in our own corners to increase the number of afrobeats artistes coming out of the continent.”
