Toke Salami and her brother at Ibadan NGT Auditions

Here is the message from the producers of Nigeria’s Got Talent,

It was no walk in the park for the judges of Africa’s biggest talent hunt show, Nigeria’s Got Talent over the weekend as they made final decisions on acts from auditions in seven cities across Nigeria.

Themed the ‘Culling Episode’, Episode 6 saw judges Kate Henshaw, Dan Foster and Yibo Koko select 50 outstanding acts for the semi-finals.

“I am looking for talents that are original, have interesting content and are Nigerian based,” said entertainment entrepreneur, Yibo Koko.

“If I can see room for growth and improvement in what you do, then you have my vote and support,” actress, Kate Henshaw added.

The episode was an excellent reminder of the amazing talent across the country, showcased in the past five episodes. Ibadan auditions saw the likes of 11-year-old singer, Toke Salami and 49-year-old magician, Stephen Faunwei. Across Port Harcourt, Warri, Enugu, Benin, Abuja, Calabar and Lagos, the show encountered comedians, ventriloquists, fire eaters and dancers, including Benin’s darling, 8-year-old Amarachi.

The judges divided the acts in categories which included; singers, dancers and musicians. Not surprisingly, there were several disagreements amongst the three about who deserved to stay on and who should be out, but they finally decided on 50 talented Nigerians to make it to the next round. Acts from 29-year-old Ekeng Bassey to 36-year-old Bariyu Yusuf couldn’t hide the excitement as they received the life-changing calls from the judges.

“And now, it’s game on!” says Debby Schulman the producer of the show. “This is the first show of its kind in Nigeria, where we finally see excellent talent from across the country battle to win hearts and minds it isn’t about a particular talent, it’s about how much you are able to use that talent to make the hearts of the viewer soar.”

The semi-final round kicks off next week and in this round, viewers will have the power to vote and save their favorite contestant weekly. It will be aired on AIT (10:30 PM), STV (8:00 PM), NTA (4 PM), TVC

(9PM) and Soundcity (6:30 PM). Fans in the UK can watch the show on HITV UK Sky 193 (8 PM).

Hosted by Andre Blaze, the judges for the season are radio host Dan Foster, actor Kate Henshaw and entertainment entrepreneur, Yibo Koko.

The Airtel-sponsored first season of Nigeria’s Got Talent began to air on 16 September and will run until December 2012.

The Got Talent franchise worldwide, which is in its sixth year, has produced many notable performers in the last couple of years including Diversity, Bianca Ryan and Britain’s Got Talent’s 2009 1st runner up Susan Boyle, whose debut album became the fastest selling UK debut album of all time, selling over 3 million copies in the U.S. It is the only talent competition show that is open to any age and any talent with auditions taking the show to numerous cities in search of one-of-a-kind talent.

Nigeria’s Got Talent is sponsored by Airtel and supported by Cool FM, Wazobia FM, Nigeria Info 99.3 FM and Tastee Fried Chicken. For embedded clips and full episodes of the show, as well as artwork, please visit www.GotTalentNigeria.com. Like the show on Facebook at

www.Facebook.com/NigeriasGotTalent and follow on Twitter at

www.Twitter.com/NigeriasGotTalent.

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