Jack Daniel’s hosted their annual Music Scouts competition at Turbine Hall in Newtown in a star-studded event that included Khuli Chana, DJ Ganyani and T-Bo Touch who also doubled as the JD Music Scouts for the competition. In a heated final, 3 MCs battled it out with Gigi LaMayne the victor on the night. Khuli Chana said about LaMayne, “She performed like a superstar. You could see a lot of time and effort went into planning her performance. It was very theatrical and she kept the audience engaged throughout. She fused music and dance spectacularly in her set”.
Gigi told the press: “I never expected to get to the finals, let alone win. I’m glad to have been the first female Hip Hop act and the youngest, to win among so many submissions! It still hasn’t sunken in and I hope that this win remains as a source of motivation to other young people in and around my community.”
The other finalists included Zinzi Kahnish [look out for her in the FEB issue of HYPE] and Blaq P who made it to the last round after thousands of entries were filtered.
This epic campaign kicked off in August in partnership with the JD Music Scouts, moving around the country to provide a platform to countless aspiring musicians at 140 regional warm-up gigs. In so doing, the campaign continued Jack’s love affair with music by helping showcase up-and-coming artists creating their own authentic sounds. Nominated from a combination of public votes via the Jack Daniel’s Facebook page and valuable input from the JD Music Scouts themselves, the grassroots level search has uncovered some of South Africa’s most inspiring talent.
Gigi now sets her sights on America next year where she will attend the Miami Music Conference.