HARARE – Zimbabwe’s flagship arts talent search show, Dreamstar returns this year for its eighth edition after a two-year hiatus induced by Covid-19.

Speaking at a media launch ceremony in Harare, Jakaranda Culture and Media Corporation (JCMC) MD Napoleon Nyani outlined a crash programme set to lead to the finals mid-October this year.

This year’s show is going under the theme “Inspire to aspire”.

Nyathi chronicled the successes of the talent scouting platform he said has “set new standards and pushed boundaries in the Zimbabweans arts sector”.

“Many young people and many young artists should be able to aspire to evolve their own art and to also impact their communities,” he said.

To broaden the talent search initiative, Nyani said, Dreamstar has allowed entrants to video record their performances using smartphones or suitable electronic gadgets and send the footage of their craft under a screening exercise that would lead into the roll-out of the traditional physical auditioning process.

Nyani said this was a way of decentralising the initiative to the country’s remote areas to catch raw talent from some less privileged youths with no means to access provincial auditioning centres.

According to the roadmap drawn by organisers, 1 – 25 July 2023 has been designated for collection of contestants’ data and videos across the country’s 10 provinces.

After sifting through all the material that would have been sent via smart phone, Dreamstar has set aside 31 July to 3 August to conduct preliminary auditions with semi-finals set for 4 and 5 August.

The period between 1 and 7 September will see the airing of episodes amassed through collected data and this would lead to the finals on 14 October.

This year’s Dreamstar contest is being done as a television show with finals set to be beamed live.

The winner of the competition walks away with US$3,000 while the second and third placed winners get US$1,500 and US$500 respectively.

Seven other winning contestants set to complete the top 10 will all walk away with prizes, coupled with an opportunity to go to China and a surplus of work related opportunities facilitated under JCMC.

Founded in 2014, some of the objectives of Dreamstar are to identify and groom talent from all corners of the country as well as afford further training and platforms to showcase pure talent and art.

The cultural heritage hub is part of JCMC, Zimbabwe’s media and culture hub which endeavours to instill strong cultural values among Zimbabweans by supporting artistic expression and cultural social exchange with other nations.

Also speaking at the launch ceremony, Dreamstar founding trustee and chairperson of African Empire Group Steve Zhao chronicled the history of the initiative and further announced plans to set up the Zimbabwe Dreamstar Artists Foundation.

“We want to use our network to raise money for Zimbabwe’s upcoming artists…we want to raise money locally and internationally.

“We also want to send our young artists through the foundation to trainings and cultural exchanges,” he said, adding that a number of Chinese companies have expressed interest to sponsor the programme.

Dreamstar is an initiative by local Chinese and Zimbabwe’s arts community to discover, nature talent and push it to the world stage.

It is co-organised by the China-Zimbabwe Exchange Centre and JCMC and supported by the Chinese embassy in Zimbabwe.

Recognised as a key cultural exchange vehicle by the Chinese government, the initiative has managed to identify and groom some of Zimbabwe’s best performers and artists and given them exposure and further training abroad.

Some of its alumni are musicians Mwenje Mathole, prominent boy band Fusion 5 Mangwiro, Probeatz, Novuyo Seagirl, Sean Mambwere, a multi award winning choreographer and dancer.

The competition is open to all performing arts, poets, acrobats, painters for as long as all that artistic expression can be performed on stage and exhibits originality and Zimbabwe’s culture flair.

TWITTER: @nkosanad809