Idols 11 Top 3 Spectacular Summary: Siphelele Bids Farewell

The result of this week’s vote will be announced during the live broadcast of the Top 3 Spectacular on November 15.

IN an extraordinary voting cycle that saw nearly 10 million votes cast for the Idols SA Season 11 Top 4 contestants this week, 24-year-old Siphelele Ngcobo was the contestant who received the fewest votes, and had to bid his Idols SA dream farewell.

The KwaZulu-Natal native came so far on his Idols journey, having returned this week from an incredible whirlwind tour of London with his fellow three contestants.

The musical theme for the Idols SA Season 11 Top 3 Spectacular at Pretoria’s State Theatre last night was music chosen for the contestants by the extraordinary group of professional musicians that make up the Idols Band and the show kicked off with two spectacular duets.

The only woman left standing in this competition, 23-year-old Mmatema Moremi, performed Ariana Grande’s “Love Me Harder” with Rhema Varrie (21) and before the result of this week’s voting was announced, 24-year-old Siphelele Ngcobo and 24-year-old Karabo Mogane teamed up to perform L’loyd Cele and Loyiso Bala’s hit “Thando”.
There were also spectacular guest appearances this week by the South African group Gangs of Ballet and by the Motswako Originator himself, Khuli Chana, along with Patoranking.
But then it was time for the competition part of the evening. With only two Spectaculars left in which to impress the judges and the fans, this week the Top 4 were mentored in London by someone who understands the pressures on them right now: Ben Haenow, who won the eleventh season of the U.K.’s The X-Factor in 2014.

Rhema Varrie kicked off the show in high gear performing Miguel’s hit, “Adorn”, and he performed the Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back” in the second round. Rhema forgot some of his lyrics in the second performance and Gareth Cliff said he hoped that the voters would forgive him. Somizi Mhlongo agreed that Rhema should not make it easy for them to assume who’s going home next. “You let yourself down,” Unathi Msengana agreed. And Randall Abrahams thought that Rhema was off-key in the first song and that he looked like he had no fun with the second song. “It looked like the last place that you wanted to be was on this stage tonight,” he complained.

Karabo Mogane chose the Al Green classic “Let’s Stay Together” for his first round song and his second song of the evening was a South African hit, Zahara’s “Umthwalo”. Gareth cautioned him to keep his eye on the prize and stay focused. But “if there’s one performance I want to forget it’s this one,” Somizi said honestly. He did not think the tone of the song was suited to Karabo’s voice. Unathi loved Karabo’s performance of the Al Green classic and she thought he did his best with the Zahara song. “You did your best,” she said. But Randall didn’t enjoy the Al Green song – “everything was legato,” he complained. And he though Karabo’s second song choice might pick him up some of Siphelele’s votes.

Mmatema Moremi’s first-round song was the Chaka Khan anthem “I’m Every Woman” and she closed the show with Mafikizolo’s “Happiness”. Gareth pointed out that that was not an easy song to perform. “It’s a brave and inspired choice and it made you look great!” he praised. “Thank you for bringing a smile to my face,” Somizo agreed. Unathi noted that she had concerns about Mmatema’s performance of the Chaka Khan song, but she was very impressed with the Mafikizolo song. And Randall cautioned Mmatema to stay focused, that she hadn’t won yet. “In the top three you have to be absolutely perfect,” he warned her.

The result of this week’s vote will be announced during the live broadcast of the Top 3 Spectacular next Sunday, 15 November, on M-Net, channel 101 on DStv, and Mzansi Magic, channel 161 on DStv.

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