Talent 5 in partnership with South Sudan Artist Association on Tuesday night officially launched season 4 of Talent Search.

The annual singing reality TV show is fully sponsored by telecom company, Vivacell. This year, 23 contestants will be competing for the top 3 positions. The winner gets 15k ssp, second place gets 7k ssp while the third will win 5k ssp.

The young contestants will learn how to sing and perform in front of judges and audience at Nyakuron Cultural Center. The public will vote for each contestant using a specific allocated codes to Vivacell.

Hot in Juba’s Lotole was at the launch Tuesday night and noticed some serious lack of coordination among the organizers. Singer Menimen who is a recurrent head of singers faculty for the show was seen arguing with Vivacell’s Sales Representative. The Vivacell’s rep seems to have been upset that the program had not started on time.

The attendance in the theatre hall was a quarter of the usual number. The event was MCed by Ambason Alex due to the fact that the supposed show host MC Jam turned up at 9pm. According to Jam, who seemed upset, the organisers informed him late about his role.

The first day of talent search was graced by a performance by CJ Oman with various opening performance from most of the contestants. Some contestants left early due to the delay while others were left out.

This season saw popular judge Lam Tungwar giving way to two female radio presenters; Heavens of Eye Radio and Achol Achek of Capital FM. Triple X and some Kawaja remained as judges. With the rampant insecurity in Juba… We hope the organizers start early to allow the people to turnout in large numbers like previous seasons.