So, Idols SA happened.

I honestly didn’t know it was still a thing. When I was aware of it, I mostly watched it for the failed auditions or attempts to score the ‘Wooden Mic’.

The time someone showed up with a ‘mankini’ and a python comes to mind.

We should also probably revisit that time a contestant showed up with her ‘mentor’. Spoiler alert –  he’s probably not her ‘mentor’.

For the most part, Idols is a masterclass in awkwardness, but the folks who make it through to the actual competition usually have something special.

This year’s winner, Luyolo Yiba, is pretty impressive:

It’s nice to know that some things never change – like the cheesy ‘original song’ that the judges inflict on the contestants in the final round.

Channel24 reports that Yiba, 24, from Buffalo River, took the top prize after a “gruelling competition” and “over 186 million votes cast”.

He joins previous winners Yanga Sobetwa, Paxton Fieles, Noma Khumalo Karabo Mogane, Vincent Bones, Heinz Winckler, Anke Pietrangeli, Karin Kortje, Jody Williams, Jason Hartman, Sasha-Lee Davids, Dave van Vuuren, Khaya Mthethwa and Musa Sukwene.

I recognise, maybe, four of those names.

The moment he won:

 

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The moment we all held our breath as the #IdolsSA winner was announced! Congrats once again to #IdolsLuyolo and hats off to #IdolsSneziey for a spectacular run as well!

A post shared by Idols South Africa (@idolssa) on Nov 17, 2019 at 9:34am PST

Yiba takes home a prize package that includes a record deal with Gallo, R1 million in cash, Huawei Matebook X, GT watch, B525 Router, and 20GB of Telkom Data, a Ford Fiesta 1.0 Ecoboost, a R100 000 Truworths voucher, and R80 000 Yahama music instruments.

Not bad at all – except for the part where he has to deal with Telkom. 

Congrats dude.

[source:channel24]