Olatunji Oladotun Alade, an undergraduate of the University of Lagos, has emerged winner of the Lagos regional finals of Airtel One Mic, a music talent-hunt competition for tertiary institutions driven by leading telecommunications service provider, Airtel Nigeria.
The 200 Level student popularly known as ‘Dotman’ held off very strong challenge from five other zonal finalists in the keenly contested regional final held at the Beverly International Events Centre, Bariga, Lagos, to win the star prize, a brand new KIA Picanto.
In addition to the star prize, he was also rewarded with a full artiste makeover and recording deal with ID Cabasa’s Coded Tunes.
The contestants for the Lagos regional finals were drawn from Yaba College of Technology, Lagos State University and the University of Lagos after an intra-school competition which produced two representatives for each school to make up the six final contestants.For over two hours, the six finalists vied on the stage with their lyrics and creativity under scrutiny of the trio of music producer, ID Cabasa; rapper and musician, Reminisce and Vector Tha Viper who were the judges on the day.
As the finalist performed acapella, freestyle and their individual studio songs, the judges assessed them on appearance, stage performance, crowd connection, punch line, wordplay, and creativity. The judges finally reached a unanimous decision in favour of Unilag’sDotman whose skills outshone the others.
Congratulating the winner, Airtel’s Regional Operations Director for Lagos, Mr. Femi Oshinlaja acknowledged the performance of all participants and noted specially the performance of the overall winner who he said is indeed deserving of the grand prize, as his talent and ability particularly endeared him to the audience and judges.
He further reiterated Airtel’s commitment to empowering talented young Nigerians with the right platform to achieve their dreams and go on to become global stars. “With platforms like Airtel One Mic, these youngsters can become the best they can and even possibly go on to become great stars. Asides from Airtel One Mic, we also have the Airtel TRACE Music show and some other platforms we are rolling out to provide Nigerian youths the opportunity to showcase their God-given talents,” he said.
The highly elated “Dotman” who could not contain his emotions expressed his appreciation to Airtel Nigeria for providing the youth a platform to achieve their dreams and most especially for the One Mic project which has helped set him on the path towards achieving his dreams through music. He thanked Airtel Nigeria for the reward and its constant support for students in the tertiary institutions
“I am overwhelmed with joy today for emerging winner of Airtel’s One Mic project. I thank Airtel Nigeria for this initiative. It is an encouragement that will inspire me to the peak of my music career. I am very much grateful to Airtel,” he said
The initiative whose objective is to discover and promote musical talents from tertiary institutions in Nigeria fits into Airtel’s overall commitment towards encouraging and empowering Nigerian youths at achieving their dreams through various identified passion points.
