After weeks of auditions, judges of Idols SA – Randall Abrahams, Unathi Msengana, Gareth Cliff and Somizi Mhlongo – have selected sixteen best contestants for this year’s singing competition.
The public will take over and decides on who should be crowned season 11 Idols SA champ!
Here are the top 16 who made it through to the live shows.
- Amanda Antony, 22, famously made it to Sun City in 2013 when Unathi gave her a Golden Ticket in PE after Algoa FM had spotted her great singing talent, but then she bombed out during Hell Week. She has recently completed her Music Studies at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
- Spunky Bridgitt Leahy, 18, hails from Creighton in the Southern Drakensberg and currently lives with her mom in Pietermaritzburg, where she is being home-schooled.
- Dineo Moseki, 21, lives in Vryburg with her sisters and nieces and nephews, where she works as a full-time professional singer. The pint-sized Dineo has been singing for all of her life, in school choirs and church choirs, and turned professional in 2012.
- Elwira Standili, 22, from Worcester gave up her Management Assistance studies once she won the coveted Golden Ticket at the Idols SA auditions in Cape Town this February.
- Karabo Mogane, 24, from Nelspruit studied Geoinformatics at the University of Stellenbosch before getting into the Idols SA Season 11 Top 16.
- Loyiso Gijana from Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape is 16, the youngest singer in the competition. Up until now he was a learner at Muir College in Uitenhage.
- Lungisa Xhamela (24) from Langa in the Cape gave up his studies in medical bioscience at the University of the Western Cape to pursue his musical dreams full-time, for the sake of his two-year-old daughter.
- Mmatema Moreni (23) from Limpopo qualified as a professional linguist who speaks four languages. Before she entered Idols she also worked as a part-time marketing assistant and worked for her church on the side.
- Nadia Herbst, 20, is a Business Management student from Paarl, who has already won the title of Miss Teen Cape Town and Miss Teen Western Cape.
- Nina Terblanche, 17, hails from Nelspruit, where she is a Grade 10 scholar who has Music as a school subject, and she also sings in the school choir and competes in Eisteddfods.
- Phila Madlingozi, 25, the son of the legendary Ringo Madlingosi, is an actor has starred in drama series like “Intersexions” and “Mutual Friends”, and has posted many of his own music videos on YouTube.
- Rhema Varrie, 21, was encouraged to go into music by his father, a Pastor, who spotted his potential at an early age. Varrie is currently a financial advisor who supports his extended family.
- Ruan Grobbelaar, 24, from Somerset West was studying software development at the University of Stellenbosch when he got his Golden Ticket at the Cape Town auditions in February.
- Shenay O’Brien, 25, is making history as the competition’s first drag queen in the voting rounds. Prior to Idols, Shenay shared a home in Roodepoort with her creator, former Tshwane University of Technology drama student and performer Thiart Li.
- Siphelele Ngcobo, 24, from Durban has been making his living as a singer since 2012. He studied classical singing in school and since matriculating he’s been focusing on gospel and jazz in his hometown of Inanda, near Durban, where he lives with his mother and siblings.
- Thami Shobede, 27, hails from Mthubathuba but is currently based in Johannesburg, where he worked for Transnet before making it into the Top 16 of Idols SA 11. He also plays the bagpipes – a skill he learned while being in the Defence Force.
Picture credit: Facebook
Source: Sowetan
