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| Dede’s American dream |
1/27/2007 |
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Entertainment of Saturday, 27 January 2007
Dede’s American dream
Dede Mantey has certainly grown as an entertainer by all standards. First appearing as Jon Germain’s co-presenter on ‘Smash TV’ with her trademark ‘awayish’ outfits, and then moving on to game shows and themed parties at the capital’s hot spots. After that ‘Rhinos’ commercial she sort of found her niche as a voice over artist as well. Most people would first think of the commercial before the original reggaeton version comes to mind when that song plays. Well, Dede took her game a notch up, whiles aiming to become a major player in the circles she knows best: entertainment. Sometime last year American Dream Multimedia was birthed with her as CEO and in the last three weeks her late night talent hunt show -- ‘American Dream Out of Africa’ has been running on TV3.
The show is looking to find exportable musicians and models to rep for the motherland across the seas. ‘Slip ‘n’ Slide Records’, a US based recording label will be recruiting would be winners for Def Jam. Yeah, that’s the part that gets to everybody. The fact that nobody has heard a Def Jam rep make a public statement about the show has gotten a lot of folks questioning the authenticity of Dede’s promise to hook up local artists and models in the US. But according to her, by the time the show picks up all of that should stop. “We are trying to create a platform for all these kids with talent who feel like they are stranded,” she says.
The first three episodes of the show featured auditions for artistes doing everything from rap, R&B to gospel. The production is really good and the fancy editing makes it look a lot like something you would see on satellite TV. Of course they could always tweak it some to make it even better. But OM Studios looks very much like they are on top of things. Last Friday, the show moved into the second phase of auditions for models.
“This part was open to both male and female models and we got some interesting faces,” Dede said. “We were looking for an unusual look, that is African and outstanding.”
‘American Dream out of Africa’ has some industry heavyweights behind it. The judging panel includes Abraham Ohene Djan of OM Studios, Hamma and Apeatus. Samini came on as a guest judge in the beginning, before sliding out at the latter stages of the auditions. He actually co-presented the show in the premier edition. The show will go full throttle in the coming weeks and viewers will be hoping for a better time slot for the show. And as Dede promises, the show might have more surprises for the audience. Look out for the show at 11.00pm every Friday on TV3, with a repeat on Wednesday afternoons. Stay tuned and see who gets that Def Jam record deal and who the lucky model will be.
Source:
JIVE
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