COTH to honour Reebs in style
Being honoured home is the best thing than being only honoured outside your home-town.
MBOMBELA – Church on The Hill (COTH) has decided offer royal honour to one of the greatest gospel singers in the land, Kanyamazane-born and bred “Queen of Gospel” Rebecca Malope on home-ground at the end of March during a religious sermon at their Kamagugu-based church premises.
On that day, the normal sermon will take on a different tune, as the build-up to honouring Reebs, as she is popularly known in music circles, auditions will be held around Kanyamazane, Daantjie and Pienaar on a date still to be announced by the organisers, whereby, the Top 50 will be announced.
According to Bishop Mxolisi Lephoko of COTH, “The Top 50 after being selected, will undergo vigorous training on various musical skills in preparation for them to contest for the Top 10 places.
It is after the Top 10 that the Top 3 contestants will be selected and these three will contest on the night of honour, whereby, Rebecca herself, will choose the winner who will be crowned on the day.
“The judging panel will consist of two qualified musicians, a gospel presenter from Ligwalagwala FM and a marketer, because if you have these four components of people, they will be able to select the right variance of singers during the auditions. It has to be quality singers who are also marketable,” said Bishop Lephoko.
The winner will receive a recording contract from Rebecca Malope and will be exclusively marketed through her company.Why did COTH choose to honour Reebs?
“Firstly is that she originates from Mbombela and has earned big and numerous achievements, but this time around, she is being honoured in her home-town, which is homely and different. She is the first to be honoured in our inaugural ceremony.”
As this will be an annual event, it is not only musicians that will be honoured by COTH, but from a cross-section of careers. Being honoured home is the best thing than being only honoured outside your home-town.
It gives sense of fulfilment that, yes, I’ve achieved success and it will further motivate others to follow suit,” said Bishop Lephoko.
According to Bishop Lephoko, from the Top 50 winners, COTH has a plan to establish a Mbombela Mass Choir that will catapult success at international level. “The main objective here is to nurture local talent from grassroots level to being internationally-acclaimed. We don’t want to leave these highly talented dormant, but we’ll further develop them into stars, through Rebecca Malope’s legacy,” he pointed out.
Surprise of the day, from Reebs, is that she will also donate a fully furnished house to a poverty-stricken family headed by a granny who lives with her children or grandchildren, as is the norm in African society, to leave grandchildren with grannies to fend for. “Reebs wants to alleviate poverty from such a family on the day.
She and us and all our partners in this project will physically partake in constructing the house for the family. From the house plan right to the completion, all stakeholders will have an input,” ended bishop Lephoko.Mpumalanga News is a media partner on the project.
