Desire Tusiimire, the first of seven Ugandan contestants to audition at The Voice Africa impressed the coaches with her vocal prowess during her debut performance of Jireh by Maverick City, thus motivating coach Awilo Longomba to push the button in her favor. The continental music competition is sponsored by Airtel Africa.
Unlike other musical contests, The Voice Africa involves blind auditions in which coaches hear the talent perform and if they are impressed, they push a button to select the talent for their team. If more than one coach pushes the button, the talent will then have to choose which coach they want to work with. If no coach pushes the button, the talent will be eliminated from the competition.
The Voice Africa a Pan-African TV Music Reality show kicks off blind auditions with great talent across 14 African countries including; Chad, Congo, DRC, Gabon, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia contesting for the USD $100,000 prize package and a recording contract with Universal Studios, the leading music producers in the world.
Desire’s family was excited to watch her perform during the blind auditions on the 2nd of April 2023, her Aunt, Diana Ninsiima recalls that she has always loved music right from her childhood and has also been known to like acting and drama as well. Narrating that, “Desire’s passion for music started way back when she was still young. In high school, she was in the creatives, by singing, acting and all that stuff.”
Her uncle Denis Katungye mentioned that “Desire’s love for music may have been inspired from back home when my father, Desire’s grandfather would bring back cassettes of music for them to listen to.” He added, “Desire embraces all songs, she sings and dances to any song.”
“The Voice Africa is something that took us by storm, none of us saw this coming. When she told us that she was among the 7 that were chosen to represent Uganda, we could not hold back our joy. I remember holding my little phone and filming everything directly from the TV and then our family picture appeared,” Katungye recalled fondly.
Like most African families, Desire’s family was skeptical when she chose to do music at the university and they even offered advice for her to change course and do something different but Desire never gave up which Diana says came as a lesson to show that when passion burns in someone, you support them.
Other talents that have so far auditioned are; Fonoela Ratovosom from Madagascar, Paula Kachala from Malawi, Tangi Amos Tshungu from Congo, Kesia Ruth, Kamphata from Malawi, Esther Mabika from Gabon, Elvis Ejiro from Nigeria, Shannah Daka from Zambia, Perside Haza from Congo, Capricia Koumba Mackarios from Congo, Lucian Ludovick from Tanzania, to mention a few.
The talents will be coached and supported by renowned African artists like, Nigeria’s Yemi Alade, Charles Arthur Locko Samba popularly known as Locko from Cameroon, Lady Jaydee from Tanzania and Awilo Longomba from Congo. The weekly episodes will be hosted by Uganda’s Gaetano Kaggwa alongside Nigerian actress Dakore Igbuson.
Each of the 14 counties has 7 representatives who are taking part in the competition and the winner will be determined by viewers who will be voting via different channels. The episodes will be broadcasted on cable TV, Free-To-Air, YouTube and Airtel TV across the continent from March to September 2023 when the winner to walk away with the $100,000 grand prize will be announced.