Times Of Swaziland: ARIEL EMPIRE LAUNCHES ‘GLOCAL UP: SEASON ONE’

ARIEL EMPIRE LAUNCHES ‘GLOCAL UP: SEASON ONE’
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Tessa Nxumalo on 13/07/2022 08:24:00


MBABANE – Ariel Empire has successfully launched ‘Glocal Up: Season One’.
It’s a countrywide music competition, for talented artists, who are in need of
a platform to showcase their talents. It will be aired on YouTube. Ariel Empire
is taking the industry to new heights and it’s only for Swati young artists. 
It’s a step in the right direction for artists as it will serve the purpose of
internationalising the Eswatini music industry. It will brand and groom young
artists to be at a level of international stages. The year-old record label has
always branded itself around uplifting young talents and securing a future for
artists in the country. This show offers an opportunity for musicians to receive
mentorship, music lectures and training.
perform
All music genres can participate in the competition. Free lyrical creativity is
given to them as they will perform original songs. The online auditions started
last week Monday, and will end on July 24 this year. Only the top 50 will
proceed to the second phase, which will be a studio session phase. The
inspiration of the competition came from Sancheziey, who is currently a part of
a competition called ‘Next Up Worldwide Music’, hosted by DJ Khaled. He won
the first and second rounds of the show with votes from emaSwati. The
competition will have its finale on October 21 this year, which will be the
sixth episode. In the quest of making this event of global interest, the
competition has amazing prizes for the winners, including a feature with the
renowned Swati-born South African artist Haem-O, who works in the South African
music industry, with features like of Emtee on a remix song titled “I wanna be
rich”.
opportunity
Haem-O’s song ‘Mama I told’ is a soundtrack from the Netflix series
‘Blood and Water’. The season winner will get an opportunity to work with
him. The winner will further perform at 2023 Epic Gig hosted by Toxik
Entertainment. A six-month professional photoshoot with Ikhayalethu Photography
Studio, an album recording deal and management for six months with Ariel Empire
are some of the prizes. In appreciation, the label is glad to be trusted by the
following companies and organisations for the competition; Haem-O Entertainment,
Sun Express Photo, Ikhayalethu Photography Studio, Oasis Healthy Beauty,
Platinum Barbershop, Cloud 9, Eswatini National Arts and Culture, Toxic
Entertainment (Epic Gig), SwearNas, The Venue.
Judges and Hosts;
The ‘Glocal Up’ season 1 will be hosted by the founder of Ariel Empire who
has been behind empowering a couple of youngsters, and with his single making
massive rounds on DJ Khaled Hosted competition called ‘Next Up’.
discipline
At the launch of the competition, held at Ikhayalethu Photography Studio in
Manzini, the judges disclosed that they will look at quality, personality,
performance, writing skills, creativity and discipline. Ariel Empire Trapstar,
Tsepo Nhleko revealed his gratitude to all the parties involved with this
initiative and invited artists not to miss it. The judging panel will have Eagle
Queens Inspirational Club founder who is also an artist manager, culture model
and event organiser; Zandisele Mavimbela also known as Eswatini Black Queen.
founder
She will judge alongside Dezze who is a founder of SwearNas clothing brand,
Season One Ariel Commentary Show host, and Lastly Tsepo Nhleko, who will be a
mentor to the participants. When reached for comment, Sancheziey said “Glocal
Up is here to show the world that Eswatini’s dusty streets have something
worth of billboards recognition to offer. The most important thing is that we
are all about the artists, personally I think this is a platform where we will
see the established young and upcoming artists of the kingdom battling to be the
best at what they do,” said the host. When reached for comment, CEO of
Eswatini National Council of Arts and Culture Stanley Dlamini said “This is
one of the opportunities that are a success story and is giving artists the
opportunity to be viewed by a wider audience and putting Eswatini on the global
map of recognition.”