Season 14 of the most watched music show in South Africa started on Sunday. The first auditions hit the shores of KwaZulu-Natal, with Idols SA season 9 winner Musa Sukwene joining the panel as a guest judge.
It wasn't long before the hashtag IdolsSA trended on Twitter with a total 20.8k tweets by the end of the show. The start of this round of auditions though didn't seem to go down smoothly, with a lot of chancers trying their luck for their two minute slot of fame.
Somizi was certainly unimpressed, making a strong statement of loathing attention seekers, and all the judges were in agreement.
So Somizi can't deal with attention seekers? Really? pic.twitter.com/ZOBIbOPJUB
— The Elephant Man 🐘🇿🇦 (@Gatsheni_S) July 8, 2018
With this in mind, Idols SA host ProVerb decided to play a trick on an Instagram prankster Leon Gumede, 26, convincing the judges to pretend that Leon's audition was the best "they have ever seen".
@Leon_Gumede this right here destroyed me😂😂😂 I'm sure @DonaldInDenial was in stitches #IdolsSA pic.twitter.com/0IMFUCSWhM
— VictorFrankensteinℹ️ (@SameOldBape) July 8, 2018
Why? Because ProVerb felt Leon only came to joke around and needed to be taught a lesson. After his rather theatrical audition, the judge's raved on and on about how good he was, throwing in how his husky voice was amazing.
Leon's face clearly showed how stunned he was. The cruelty in this whole prank was allowing him to celebrate, only to be told later in an interview that he had been 'Idolisticly pranked'. Another of Somizi's words.
The look on his face had me dead😭🤣 #IdolsSA pic.twitter.com/37outZHESh
— 😍SnapChatGangsta 💅 (@Puddles_BandzZ) July 8, 2018
After the long day, from the many who came out, only twenty four wanna be musicians secured their golden tickets. Two of these belonged to 18 year old Xae Mamela from Pinetown and 17 year old Nosipho Silinda from Ladysmith, who seemed to have caught Twitter-ville's attention.
I loved the young and innocent Nosipho with that Beyonce emotional song #IdolsSA pic.twitter.com/gmqRyWVh5u
— Tshepo Mohonoe™ (@tflavour) July 8, 2018
She will be in the top 10 ! #IdolsSA Beautiful! pic.twitter.com/v9OKCCDBHb
— Sphamandla KaMavovo🇿🇦🏳️🌈✌🏿🎙 (@MandlaMkhize) July 8, 2018
Best and the only performance for the night. Well done Xae #IdolsSA pic.twitter.com/U1FeeDOCvF
— Luphe (@nosispaka) July 8, 2018
The audition clip that got me a golden ticket!!!🎉 pic.twitter.com/qLZYLMOPVv
— Sir_Harris'on (@Harrison_MK) July 8, 2018
The other half of twitter didn't seem impressed with this comeback of the show, judging by some of the tweets. Only time will tell if Idols SA will return to being one of the top shows on Mzansi's favourite list.
#IdolsSA. 😂🤣😂 this was a perfect closing pic.twitter.com/WhxEpR6rdc
— Te bo Go🇿🇦 (@mel_9x) July 8, 2018
Next week, Idols goes all the way to the Mother City, Cape Town, with guest judge DJ Cleo joining the panel.