The winner of Tusker Project Fame 3, Alpha Rwirangira, made a pleasant surprise  appearance and brought the house down during last Sunday’s probation show.

Alpha, who walked away with Kshs. 5 million (about Rwf35 million) and a recording contract from Gallo records during last year’s TPF, was in the country to promote his new album.

In yet another pleasant bolt from the blue, Christian, his former TPF3 competitor featured as one of Alpha’s back-up singers clad in military fatigues.

During the thrilling performance, contestants did not fail to impress the crowd with their songs by various artistes from across the East Africa.

Atete from Rwanda  wowed the crowd with her rendition of Wahu’s "Running Low”. Even the hard-to-please Ian had to agree with the crowd’s verdict. Judge Hermes, however, did suggest that she needed to work on her voice a bit more.

Her performance with her compatriots on Saturday was exceptional and the contestants from Rwanda, who TPF Presenter Mich referred to as "3G”, reached out to their Kenyan fans when they added the words "Hakuna wasiwasi” to their Rwandan victory song, "Intsinzi”.

Last week’s Head of House, Juveh, put on a lovely show but the judges and faculty alike were not impressed as they all know what he is capable of.
Gabiro, also from Rwanda, did not have a good night as Judge Ian went as far as terming his performance as "pathetic”. 

On the flipside, Steve had a good night with judge Juliana saying that he looked hot on stage and Hermes told him that  he had star quality as he performed Ali Kiba’s "Cinderella”.

Uganda’s Rachel, and Tanzanians Leah and Aneth also had a great show as their performances were powerful , endearing and well delivered although judge Ian did advise Aneth to forget about the moves and concentrate on the voice. She had wowed the audience with her wild gyration as she performed Shanel’s "Nakutaka”.

In a bizarre twist of fate, Thomas of Uganda was evicted from the Academy due to his lack of co-operation and inability to work with the Faculty throughout his first week at the Academy; earning him the dubious distinction of being the first contestant to be recommended for eviction by the Faculty.

The other Ugandan contestant, Davis, had a good weekend run as he was the go to drummer for all the other contestants in the House, as they performed their country songs on Saturday.

His love interest in the House, Gaga from Rwanda had an amazing performance last night when she performed Nikki’s "Niwe wako” and Juliana gave her a 10/10. When Davis was asked about his intentions vis-à-vis Gaga, he gave a cryptic "Let’s see” answer.

The true star of the night was however, the rapper K-Denk from Southern Sudan, who earned the crowd’s admiration with rap freestyle just before he got on stage to perform TID’s "Sura Yako”.

The judges were, however, not moved by the crowd’s response as Juliana said that she wanted to hear him rap rather than sing and Ian wondered whether he was actually singing in Kiswahili.

He was summarily put on probation by the judges, but from the looks of things he might last longer than anticipated in the Academy as the Kenyan fans vowed to vote for him and put him in the house.

With this weekend’s live show performances, TPF moves into high gear as those on probation try to work and ensure their stay at the Academy lasts forever while the rest try to avoid being put on probation.

There is so much to see during this season. Tune in from 8.30 pm - 9 pm (East African time) and, 10 pm - 10.30 pm (Central African time) on Citizen TV, UBC TV, TBC TV, RTV, and SSTV

Log on to www.tuskerprojectfame.com for a piece of the blogging action.