If you didn’t watch the show on TV, you sure have missed so much as the contestants have stepped up their games from the word go.

The evening started with Joseph apologising for Adora’s absence as he single handedly hosted the show. Ese opened the show with a beautiful rendition of Beyonce’s ‘De Javu’, the judges could not but commend her confidence and smooth performance which the faculty agreed to. Next to perform was the Port Harcourt singer Chidinma doing justice to Alicia Key’s ‘If I got nothing ‘. Joba impressed the judges with rich vocals as he lifted everyone with Westlife’s ‘You raise me up’. Velma sang ‘Always be my baby’ by Mariah Carey with so much vocal dexterity but the Judges frowned at her not-so-good demeanour.

The judges came hard on Kamar whom they felt did not really pull through with his performance. They felt he looked the part, but did not act and sound the part, never sacrifice singing for pleasing the crowd. Faculty concurred with judges and agreed that they would work on him. Next was the birthday girl, Princess from Liberian, earning a standing ovation from her beautiful performance of Toni Braxton’s ‘You mean the world to me’. Zaliha surprised the audience with her beautiful rendition of Whitney Houston’s ‘I have nothing’. Though the judges did not but noticed her nervousness, the faculty promised to work on that.

The first class philosopher, Ruth in her natural elements stopped at nothing to wow everyone. She got the judges on their feet clapping. She was generously commended for her microphone control, stage presence, running emotions etc. After performing Mariah Carey’s ‘I can’t live, if living is without’. Closely followed was Roy, who maintained the bar that was set by Ruth performed ‘Fool Again’ by West Life'. Pretty Ethel, the only Ghanaian in the Academy did not drop the standard either. She came up elegantly to perform Keri Hilson’s ‘Pretty Girl’. Jennifer Hudson must have felt really proud of Monica if she was present to hear her sing ‘Spotlight’. Monica did justice to this song and got loads of accolade from both the judges and faculty.