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MTN Hitmaker

Ghanaian TV series or program

MTN Hitmaker is a television music competition created by MTN Ghana in 2011. The show is available to all amateur musicians living in Ghana or who are habitually residing in Ghana. Since its inception in 2012, the competition has fostered and injected several music talents into the public. Some of these artists include Kwame Eugene, Kidi, Fameye and Mr Drew.

01Format

Auditions

Every year's competition begins with a series of audition stages, the first of which, termed "Scouting," is guided by some of Ghana's beatmakers who are experienced in all music genre. This stage is open to all types of music performed by independent groups, and it chooses who will compete. The judges in charge of that year's event attend these, which are hosted in a public setting in selected cities across the country. Each participant who makes it to the next stage of the auditions is sent to a waiting room offstage from the main performance area and given a number that indicates when they will perform. Contestants are given two chances to perform for the panel before being judged solely on their delivery.

Live Rounds

After the format's inception and later alteration to match other reality shows, participants who pass their auditions and achieve a place in the live rounds of the competitions are allocated to beatmakers and compete against each other to secure a position in the live final of the competition. The competition's live episodes are staged in a specific location within the country, with live episodes for each season shown weekly on the TV3 network. The layout of the live rounds changes yearly by this stage of the competition, but it is more often organized as quarter-finals, semi-finals, and the final itself - earlier seasons differed, with the finals sometimes being separated into different rounds.

Those who advance to the season's final compete for the most public votes, with the number of finalists varying from season to season - later seasons allow each finalist to perform more than once, and also perform in groups. The winning artist with the most votes and the highest judges score is declared the winner and receives a monetary award together with a record deal.

02Judges and Hosts

Season Hosts Judges
1 Zapp Mallet Bessa Simon Ofie Kudjoe
2
  • Bola Ray
3 Okyeame Kwame Hammar
4 Peace Hyde Akwesi Aboagye
5 Eazzy Mark Okraku-Mantey
6 Berla Mundi Kaywa
7 Appietus
8 Richie Mensah
9

03Season synopses

Season Year Awards Ref
 Winners   Runner Ups 
1 2012 Naterial Chiki Miriam ATM (Atimbila)
2 2013 Koo Ntakara Cano Z Kofi Korea K Bee
3 2014 Torgbe Mac M Naba Snow B
4 2015 KiDi Abena Yaw Gunshot
5 2016 Kurl Songx F9 Kwame Eugene Sir Tino
6 2017 Freda Rhymz Mr Drew Yaw Berk Xali
7 2018 Okailey Verse Awal Erza Tamaa Amakye
8 2019 Lasmid Alibaba Kofi Pages Nessa
9 2020 Adepa Kobby Tuesday Gabi Nova Achiaa
Watch videos about MTN HitmakerExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article MTN Hitmaker, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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