Harare — The CBZ A Academy show is drawing close to its grand finale, with the last group of contestants having been selected.

The Weekend Gazette will try and predict who will win this year's competition. From the look of things all signs point to the coveted price of a full recording contract going to the city of Bulawayo. There is an overwhelming likelihood that the winner will be a male participant.

Judging by the standard of singing witnessed at the CBZ A Academy's Bulawayo auditions, which where held at a hotel in that city, one could easily tell that indeed 2007 is Bulawayo's year. There was such a massive turnout that judges were kept busy the whole day.

The Weekend Gazette therefore predicts that Mkhululi Dube of Bulawayo will be this year's CBZ A Academy music star for the simple reason that the 23 year-old singer is full of confidence and is very versatile. He also enjoys his music and has a good voice too. He also boasts a very good stage presence and can really move the crowd.

Brian Chiyangwa should come second because of his versatility, energy and composure.

The only female still in the running for the top prize, Sindisiwe, completes the top three. The 23-year-old Bulawayo songtress is blessed with a powerful voice but needs to work on her versatility and voice control before she can emulate her idol Miriam Makeba.

The rest of the finalists, Tinashe, Norbert, Simplex and Bruce have also given the top three a good run for their money. Bruce is still capable of springing a surprise and remains the dark horse in the competition.

The judges have also come under scrutiny, with viewers divided over who's hot and who's not. Here is how we rate them, Willis Wattaffi comes first mainly because of his fair analysis, which is always spot on. He remained level headed despite some horrendous behaviour by some participants in the preliminaries. But he takes the mantle for his vast knowledge of music.

Albert Nyathi comes second. He always had something that encouraged participants to keep going and was jovial and constructively criticised the participants. Imelda Mahaka came third because she paid particular attention to minute details of participants such as dressing, voice control and stage management. Admire Taderera, although he will argue that he was simply doing his job and owed nobody any favours -- was a bit mean and took the confidence out of some promising participants.

Meanwhile the curtain comes on Big Brother Africa II this weekend when the winner will be announced in Johannesburg, South Africa. The remaining housemates are 29-year old Nigerian Ofunneka, Tanzanian Richard and Angolan Tatiana. Weekend Gazette prediction is that Ofunneka will win Big Brother Africa II on Sunday.