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A nationwide talent extravaganza was held at Gulf Air Club in Salmabad where 37 groups of students from across the island showcased their skills in a hotly-contested final event of the Nescafe 2nd 'show 'em what u got' talent show, reports Asma Salman.
The atmosphere was charged both behind the curtains and in the audience. Musicians strummed up their instruments before getting on stage and their supporters cheered their friends with banners and thunderous applause.
Music bands, individual vocalists, Arabic rappers, jugglers, gymnasts, impersonators, dancers took the centre stage at the event that lasted more than five hours.
Zuhair Ali, Nescafe's field operations executive and a competition judge, said: "We had an impressive line-up of finalists and it was a tough competition to judge.
"We had very good talent from St Christopher's School and the youngest contestants at the show were 11-years-old musicians from the same school. We were judging groups according to their talent, stage presence, showmanship and interaction with the audience and we had some great entries."
Talent and entertainment went hand-in-hand at the event and Bahraini dance troupe Bad Dream Boys stole the show with their fantastic break dancing moves and won the first prize of $1,000 (BD378).
And, The Centurion, a St Christopher's Senior School pupils' rock band, walked away with the second prize of $650 (BD245).
Their performance got the audience dancing and cheering as they presented a song that was their own composition.
The third prize of $350 (BD132) was bagged by The Mighty Jugglers.
The show was hosted by performer and entertainer Tristen Braggs and Salman Mahmood who kept the crowd going through some long drawn breaks with their own music and songs.
Irish businessman Eamon Egan, who lives in Saar, a member of the audience, said: "It was an entertaining show with a variety of fantastic talent on display and I hope to see another talent competition next year."
Khalid Bukhari, another competition judge and managing partner of Dallah Promotions, said: "This is the second year that we have staged this event. Our primary aim is to encourage Bahrain's talent and provide a centre stage for them to perform.
"We are going to be bigger and better next year and will diversify the competition categories so that more and more young people can participate so that they can be seen and heard."
