By Uche Amunike
After weeks of watching the top 12 contestants of the 2022 Nigerian Idol reality show slug it out on stage to earn fan votes, Delta-State-born Progress Chukwuyem has ended up flooring all contestants, as he emerged winner Nigerian Idol Season 7, which was wrapped up, Sunday night.
The lucky 21year old Progress coasted home with a cash price of N30 million, which is equivalent to $73000, a brand new SUV, a year’s supply of Bigi drinks and a Bigi branded refrigerator. He also got an EP and a music video, a DStv Explora, fully installed with a 12-month premium subscription and a weekend getaway from TravelBeta.
His victory was announced at the Grand finale which was broadcast across all Africa Magic stations on Sunday, by the show’s host, IK Osakioduwa.
During the Finale, Progress and Zadok were the last two contestants standing, after the eviction of the other ten contestants.
D’banj and Simi, who are also judges for the show, thrilled the audience with their beautiful performance at the show. D’banj had a performance with Progress and Zadok, while the winner of Season 6 of the show, Kingdom Kroseide performed his new song, ‘Father’s Got it All’ with the other 10 finalists.
Pheelz wowed the already excited audience with his viral song, ‘Finesse’, while Zadok thrilled them further with his performance of ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody’ by Whitney Houston. After this, D’banj entertained them with a medley of some of his biggest hits like ‘Emergency’ and ‘I’m on Top of the World.’
This was followed by an outstanding performance by the latest winner of Nigerian Idol Season 7, Progress Chukwuyem, as he thrilled the audience with Ariana Grande’s ‘Bang Bang’, after which soft spoken Simi performed her hit single, ‘Duduke’.
Progress and Zadok went on stage again and performed a song that was originally written by D’Banj. Just before their performance, D’banj explained to the audience that it was a song he wrote at one of the most trying times of his life and added that he wanted the two finalists to tap into the song which is titled ‘I Got My Answer.’
Progress Chukwuyem, who emerged winner, Nigerian Idol Season 7, is a songwriter, performer and music minister. Aged 21, he beat his strongest contender, Zadok to the top prize which is estimated at N100m.
In a recent interview with press men, Progress stated that one person who will be super proud of him if he emerged winner, Nigeria Idol Season 7, would be his late mother whose prayer point had always been for him to walk home with the Grand Prize of the seasonal reality show.
Meanwhile, Nigerians have taken to social media to congratulate the new winner, Progress, for what they tagged his ‘exceptional and amazing’ performance and what they tagged his ‘well deserved victory’, while also consoling the first runner-up, Zadok, who they described as a wonderful performer while praising him for his strong stage presence and powerful voice.
