Africa-Press – Eswatini. Nine Choirs will be battling it out for trophies at the Standard Bank Choir Festival Competition slated for June 5, at Esibayeni Lodge.
Three choirs will compete in the standard category while six will battle for recognition in the large section. According to the order of performance for the upcoming competition, St Florence Catholic Church Choir will pave the way in the standard section followed by Eswatini Mighty Voices and FTM Garment on the last spot.
In the large category the legendary Manzini Choir will kick-off the competition followed by their biggest rival His Majesty’s Correctional Services on the second slot.
On the third spot will be Sweet Sounds, which will be competing for the first time without their founding conductor Mathokoza Sibiya who handed over the baton to Tsepo Sigwane. This will, however, not be the first time Sigwane leads the choir on a big stage.
On the fourth slot will be Mbabane Methodist Church Choir, which will be followed by Royal Eswatini Police Choir while Pure Voices who have graduated into the bigger league will close the competition for the day.
The draw was conducted during the soloists’ eliminations at St Theresa’s High School on Sunday where 20 finalists also qualified to compete at the same finals.
Standard Bank who has sponsored the competition to the tune of E250 000, said they were happy about the return of the competition, which was stopped for over two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bank’s Communications and CSI Specialist Nomawethu Jonga said the bank was excited about the return of the competition stating that they were looking forward to a competitive day on the finals judging by the standard of the renditions during the soloists’ eliminations.
“As the sponsor, we are happy to have continued this partnership with the choral music fraternity.
This is one of the biggest sponsorships after Luju Festival in the arts and culture space. We feel proud to be part of this competition especially because the choirs have come back with a bang even after the COVID-19 pandemic which grounded everything for two years. We are happy about the talent we have realised at the eliminations and are expecting fireworks at the finals,” she said.
She added that the bank was offering discounts for all those who would buy the tickets to the competition using the Unayo product.
This is the bank’s mobile money platform, which works through a mobile phone wherein those registered can cash in and out, send money, make transfers to any bank and to pay and receive wages among other services.
“I would like to encourage everyone to register for Unayo, buy their tickets through Unayo to benefit from this 30 per cent discount offer as we go to the finals,” she said. Currently tickets to the finals are available at any Standard Bank branch around the country.
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