IAN MBUGUA: IT’S GETTING TOUGHER!

After Kenyan contestant Debarl Inea mercilessly butchered Nameless’ hit song ‘Deadly’, on Sunday’s nomination show, the Tusker Project Fame judge Ian Mbugua admitted that the competition is getting to its most challenging stage.
For once, Ian politely noted a few things need to be fixed to enable the contestants to do their best, like letting them choose the songs they would like to perform. “It does not make much sense to give them a song that they do not feel.”
That is perhaps what earned Rwanda’s Christian an eviction from the house. He’s on record, saying that he was familiar with about five English songs - given his upbringing in the then French-speaking country.
The candid Ian was surprised that the contestants were made to sing from playback, as opposed to the band. “With only three weeks to go, you’d expect them to be using the band,” Ian remarked, in an interview after the live recording of Sunday’s show.
With the elimination of the weakest performers over the past week, the seven remaining contestants can now ill afford to perform badly.
Indeed all but Kenya’s Patricia Kihoro and Uganda’s Leah Atute have been on probation. And for Debarl it is the first time. Uganda’s Caroline Nabulime, Rwanda’s Alpha Rwirangira and Kenya’s Bernard Ng’ang’a a.k.a Ng’ang’alito, are also on probation.