By Spy Uganda
Budding singer Ethan Kavuma aka Eth Lawinsky, of the ‘Mwoli’ fame, is on Cloud 9 after he was on Friday crowned winner of the Sanyu FM Hot Mic Search, which has been going on for the past four weeks.
Kavuma, 27, won the Sanyu FM Hot Mic Presenter Search after beating 1,300 contestants in the competition that involved exhausting challenges coupled with weekly tasks.
Shortly after being crowned winner Kavuma, who was competing with former Urban TV presenter Timothy Code and Philomena Kyamteera, shed tears of joy after he was announced the winner of the hot contest, before being crowned by the Ruparelia Group Managing Director Rajiv Ruparelia.
The gig at which he was crowned started with a jaw-dropping performance from the top ten finalists in the competition, who all wowed the judges with their acts until the top three contestants were selected.
In his remarks, Sanyu FM Managing Director Rajiv, encouraged the other contestants not to lose hope in building their talents, but instead keep developing them because one day they will also become winners.
Rajiv, who is also a motor rally champion, said that; “To other contestants, you all gonna be winners, always, and this is not the end of the journey. This is what I call the start of the journey of your passion. (Klonopin) You chose to be here not because of the money but because you wanted to follow your dreams. To me that is vital. Just because you didn’t win this particular competition doesn’t mean you are not the best. You continue to develop your talent, put everything you can on developing it, developing yourself to higher standards.”
The Chief Judge of the contest Chris Ireland, one of the pioneer presenters on Sanyu FM in 1993 when it started, said that even though Kavuma won, the other finalists Timothy and Kyamteera will also be awarded with job offers at Sanyu FM.
Ireland said that; “We had over 1,300 entries and we came down to 10, then to three and the person selected was Ethan. He goes away with Shs3 million plus a two-year contract to work at Sanyu fm. The other two guys selected as well were very good and will also get jobs as the manager has confirmed that.”
During the competition, the contestants were required to use their social media platforms to promote Sanyu FM, whereby the number of likes from their posts about the competition would contribute 60% of their total votes while 40% would be from the judges.
The management of Sanyu FM has for the past few weeks been working on modalities of rebranding the station by recruiting celebrated radio presenters like Roger Mugisha, comedian Patrick Idringi aka Salvado among others.
The move followed the sacking of all the old staff members after they staged a strike a few months ago, protesting reduction of their salaries due to the effects of COVID-19 on Uganda’s economy and the radio station’s finances in particular.
It should be noted that Sanyu FM, which is owned by tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia under the Ruparelia Group of Companies, is the first and oldest private FM radio station in East and Central Africa and has been in existence for 27.
