Jasmine Kibatega, winner of The Next Pop Stars first edition, and Ish Kevin, the competitions first-runner up, are up in arms with contest organisers for failing to fulfill promises related to the singing competition prizes. This comes after the winner of the competition sued organisers but failed to proceed with the case due to low financial means, according to a tweet by Jasmine on December 30, 2021. The tweet, in which she tagged the president, also stated that organisers failed to pay a single amount in the $50,000 that was set to be given to the winner, among other promised awards including a trip to the USA, and a tour of the production headquarters of SONY Music and SM1, one of the best music label’s in the world, which is also among the contest sponsors. The karaoke singer also revealed that the contest organisers admitted to have received the money but never released it to the winners. The tweet added, “I believe that Rwanda is a developed country and well versed in human rights implementation, and a Rwandese shouldn’t suffer this much injustice and unfairness.” @PaulKagame Your excellency, my name is Kibatega Jasmin,I am 27years old and I am a proud Rwandan citizen. I won a singing competition in 2021 called @The_NextPopstar sponsored by @sonymusic, @IGIHE, @RBAInfo and the prize money was 50Million and a trip to the United States — Jazmin KIBATEGA (@jazmin_kibatega) December 30, 2021 She continued in the tweet that she has been suffering from emotional and physical trauma in the past months. Ish Kevin, real name Kevin Sekamana, also called for intervention on the case, noting that such complaints shouldn’t appear in the music industry especially at a time when it has just started experiencing a boost. “The future we want for the industry is not in line with such actions. We hope to see a change in the next music competition that will take place in Rwanda,” he said. “It is truly sad and unfair to sell us a dream and take it away,” he added. In a previous interview with The New Times, Christian Dushime, one of the organisers of the xompetition said that the impeding of the prizes was due to covid-19 pandemic, which stalled the progress of almost every sector in the country. However, this time, Dushime and other officials from the competition declined to comment on the case. Since the case is in the court,you will have to wait for what the court will say about it, Dushime said. Meanwhile, different top players in the industry such as Bruce Intore, one of the leading event promoters were not pleased by this and called for justice for Jasmine and other winners of the competition. The Next Pop Star contest came as a 10-year project that seeks to unearth the most talented artistes in Rwanda, with a target of elevating local musical talent to the international stage through music distribution via different international music platforms.
