Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - 15 finalists chosen |15 July 2017
The 15 finalists for the 15th ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ talent show for children have been announced.
A meeting with the 15 selected candidates was held last week at Espace building and this year 13 girls and 2 boys make up the finalists.
Bennet Accouche, the creator and artistic director of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ told Seychelles NATION that “the selection was as usual very hard as there were many very good candidates. There were 103 candidates who applied and the audition took place over a period of one and a half months. Some candidates will take part in next year's show. Now that the audition is over, the candidates are now coming on an individual basis to practice their song. In a couple of weeks they will start performing in front of all the parents”.
Mr Accouche also mentioned that “normally we take children from 5 to 9 yrs old but this year because there were a few kids who are already 10 and were all keen to perform. I therefore made an exception this year by including a 10 year old child in the programme.
As usual the songs chosen by the candidates are in English, French and Creole with different genres.
“This year was particularly difficult to choose as there were so many talented candidates. Some candidates had to come at least three times before they were finally selected. Most candidates wanted to sing the gospel song 'I know who I am' and also songs from the film Moana.
How long will you work with the children before the show? Mr Accouche replied “each child will come at least once a week for individual practice with me. At least 2-3 weeks before the show they will perform in front of their parents so that they get use to an audience before the main show”.
Any surprise for this year’s show? “This year is the 15th show and we were planning something big. We wanted to bring all the past little stars that performed in the first edition on stage but unfortunately they will not all be available as some of them are still studying abroad so I have decided to reserve the special show for the 20th anniversary. Guest performers for this year will include One Harmony choir, special talent performer, former Twinkle little star performer, parent performing with child etc... and also our surprise guest which the public will discover on that day”.
“It is to be noted that I have retained a few names for next year's show. A little advice to parents is to prepare your child before coming for the audition. Many kids come to audition and do not even know what song they would like to perform in the show. The better prepared they are, the better their chance of being selected. I would like to appeal to members of the public to come in large numbers to support our little stars. Who knows tomorrow they may become big stars like Telsy, Tania, etc. They (Telsy, Tania et al) all started in Twinkle Twinkle Litttle Star,” noted Sir Bennet.
This year’s show will be held on August 19 and 20 at the International Conference Centre Seychelles (ICCS) and tickets will be on sale soon at R150.