BY PHUMZILE NDLOVU
MBABANE – Talent ‘n’ Motion Academy does it again, but in music this time!
The academy is fresh from celebrating one of their students Ndoniyamanzi Luhlanga (11) who won silver at the Dance world Cup.
Young vocalist nine-year-old Makhai Duane Bennett took the first position in the Vocal Pop Category at the Talent America international competition that took place in New York from June 28 to 30, 2024.
Bennett was part of the Show Your Talent virtual team because he could not go to America physically. On June 28, his video was played at the Time Square, New York in front of renowned American judges and scouts.
Yesterday (Monday, August 5, 2024), the results came out and Bennett came first in vocal pop, winning himself a full scholarship to attend the International Competition live in America next year. His scholarship is courtesy of scout Barry Kokler who is a well-known American scout and owner of Carson Kokler Organisation that was founded in 1992 and is an organisation that represents performers of all ages for theatre, film and television. Barry Kokler was part of this year’s judging panel.
Director of Talent ‘n’ Motion Academy, Velile Dube, who is also the director of the talent search show called Show Your Talent – Eswatini confirmed the news and said, “We are in complete awe and are so proud of Makhai Bennett for this huge achievement. He is such an amazingly talented singer even at this young age and I believe this is the beginning of bigger things for him. We are thrilled that he will now be able to fly and experience this international competition live. This just proves that Eswatini has so much talent and our mission at Talent ‘n’ Motion Academy is to make sure the world is aware of this.”
Dube said, “If I wasn’t in Prague for the Dance World Cup, I was definitely going to be in America to witness this international competition first hand just to help Eswatini understand how big it is, but because of this news, I believe I will also be accompanying him next year.”
Bennett was one of the five contestants who entered and won at the Show Your Talent – Eswatini which was held at the Eswatini Theatre Club in Mbabane last year August 2023. Show Your Talent was launched in July 2023 at the Mountain View in Mbabane in partnership with the Eswatini National Council of Arts and Culture and Kwakitsi Foundation (Her Royal Highness Princess Temtsimba Dlamini).
Dube said, “We owe all of this to Juanita Oosthuizen, who is the Director of Show Your Talent – South Africa and also the agent of Talent America in Africa. She has made all this possible for us here in Eswatini and we cannot thank her enough.”
Dube added that they are in the process of hosting the second edition of the Show your Talent – Eswatini competition and added that they could not wait to unearth more local talent that will represent Eswatini internationally. “I believe our next local Show Your Talent competition will be at the end of September and people who believe they are as talented as Bennett can take a chance and see. The world is their oyster.”
Talent America is a talent competition that has been running for 51 years and is open to performers of all age groups. It has an amazing proven track record for talent to be discovered and is where many of today’s renowned actors, models, singers, dancers and rising stars got their big break. The judges of this prestigious Talent America New York Competition are the entertainment industry star makers; Casting Directors, talent managers, managers, music executives, model agencies, scouts, producers, publishers, entertainment attorneys and talent executives from top TV shows.