THE finalists of the ongoing Kili Star Search will be unveiled in Dar es Salaam in early June. And as the search goes on, judges have been able to go to cities as Mwanza, Moshi and Mbeya. The serene environments wrought by the lakes and mountains' scenic pictures have contributed to making the entire search that more potent.

In actuality, as the final regional search takes place in Mtwara today, it is important to note that the search was two things: the final shows for the three winners per region have showed that genres as hip hop and reggae are gaining acceptance. And then there was the performance of this year's Kilimanjaro awardees from Bongoflava artistes, taarab, reggae etc. The performances brought with them a retinue of guest artistes from the different regions that they took place.

This almost divided the audience into two, talented young blood or at the very least aspiring from upcountry and on the other hand the crew from Dar es Salaam made up of the event organisers, musicians and their friends. The crowds were huge and the talent on stage was as big as the numbers. Here's the thing about the stages; most of those on it were names you have heard on the mainstream, and they proved that you can do best in studio and on performances too and give some good music.

The Kili award winners kept the audience moving on its feet, with their energy, swingy beat and flawless Swahili lyrics. Impressive because they were all winners and they proved it to their fans. Like Banarba, he threw a few words in his high energy performance and did pretty good jigs. There were shouts of recognition for judges like Juma Nature and Prof Jay who are also big artistes in the industry. These have for years given hugely popular Tanzanian beats, fusing old Afro sounds and bongo flava In the meantime, the search for the second last participants of the Kili Star Search was in Mbeya at Sokoine Stadium on Saturday as the last three finalists battled out to get one to go for the Dar es Salaam finals.

Today, the battle for top slots is in Mtwara. Organisers say winners of the Star Search have now reached 12 following the coming of the fourth stage of the competition last week. This effectively heralds in a new era in their musical journey since they will record their songs sponsored in studios in their respective regions. According to organizers, Frontline Novelli, the competition has already gone through four regions, getting three winning representatives per region.

Explaining the entire process of the Kili Star Search, the Frontline Director, Irene Kiwia said the three winners from each region, would be given chance to record a song and subsequently do a group song, for each region. After recording a single, the three winners will each have a performance of winners per region, from which a winner shall get the chance to perform in the final special performance to take place in Dar es Salaam on June 3.

The regions already visited are Dodoma, Mwanza, Moshi and Mbeya whose respective winners have already recorded and each region of Dodoma, Moshi and Mwanza-winner for the grand Dar performance finale have already been gotten. From Dodoma where the process to get talent stars started, Halima Ramadhani, Juma Madaraka and Issa Dubat came out winners, but following the final performance in the region Issa Dubat, a student at CBE beat other contestants and would represent his counterparts at the Dar es Salaam grand finale.

In Mwanza, winners were Bertha Dennis, Chrostian Joachim and Marcus Antony. The road led to Kilimanjaro, where the exercise was overseen by star judges in the music industry, including one who is an entertainment editor with Mwananchi Newspaper and onetime coordinator King of Rhymes competition which gave birth to Afande Sele from Morogoro - Mr Henry Mudimu. The second judge was Joseph Haule, a.k.a Professor Jay, who is a multi award winning music artiste who has been in the music industry for ten years now.

The third judge, Juma Kassim Nature, who is also a musician, from TMK Wanaume Halisi and the fourth judge was Queen Darleen an award winning reggae artiste. Kilimanjaro, for the first time, produced best Hip Hop contestant and would represent Moshi in the special Dar es Salaam concert of winners. His name is Gaspar Fadhil Sungura, a.k.a Chagga Boy who also contested at the regional level with Charlz Mushi and Atufigwege Mwailunga. The winners in Mbeya were Neema Aggrey, Furaha Challi and Amina Chibaba and they last night performed at Sokoine grounds at a final show that will see one winner come to Dar es salaam.

Speaking at different occasions, the judges, who raised eye brows in each region thanked the sponsor for having put its firm feet and sponsoring this talent search. On his part, Juma Nature said this had set in a new era where unknown talent is supported, unlike in his young obscure days when there were no institutions to show young ones the light-apart from today, when the young underground artistes also use other means like social media to get to the light.

Adding on this, the Frontline boss, Kiwia said the aim is to bring to the fore the talent which has not been seen before yet it exists when one makes inroads upcountry-the same reason Kilimanjaro lager put their wings to sponsor such initiavies to bring more artistes to the public. "The problem is that people assume that everything is in Dar es Salaam. But the truth is there is so much talent upcountry," she said.

The next and last judging process takes place in Mtwara at the week's end where three winners will turn out and subsequently get one top to join the Dar es Salaam gala. One of the recent shows, as part of the Kili talent search that stood out was when Taarab guru Hadija Kopa exuded a high sense of energy in a performance that seemed that the battle of the champions as she sang more songs, was sharply dressed, more swaggerific, and put up a more energetic performance from the start to the end. On the other hand, a greater part of the same fans also concluded that while she performed well in the above areas, other stars in other genres as Bongo Fleva were also energetic, sharply dressed, greatly interactive, involving and talkative throughout the evening. Ace Taarab star Kopa rocked Moshi with fellow Kili award winners in the Bongo fleva genre, Ali Kiba, Omy Dimpoz, Roma Mkatoliki AT, and the Warriors .

Before the Kilimanjaro award winning stars for 2012 hit the stage, the evening started with curtain raisers who exuded a high sense of grasp of the rap genre before a mammoth crowd that kept charging as they awaited the former. Underground artiste Sungura shook the crowds off their feet with his track 'Ndizi Yangu'. First on stage were best artiste for the Reggae genre who were from the Warriors group from the East who ruled the stage for more than an hour with a certain dozen songs including their best award winning song this year 'Arusha Gold'.