Khaya Mthethwa wins the eight season of SA Idols

Almost 3 million South Africans voted in the past week in the hottest Idols contest in many years.

Even before the big moment when Mthethwa took the title, the Idols season eight finalé was a spectacular live show, starting with a guest appearance by South Africa’s 'zef' rapper, Jack Parow. The star-studded show also included a performance by Zakes Bantwini and the guys of the season eight Top 10, Toya Delazy with the girls, last season’s winner Dave van Vuuren, and Freshlyground, singing their latest single, Take Me To The Dance.

The winner of the popular Wooden Mic award, Gavin Meltz, was in the audience and one particularly promising Wooden Mic finalist, Sarah Modiba from Johannesburg, was given a special surprise this year. Modiba was given an Idols makeover with coaching sessions from the Idols vocal coaches and she made her stage debut in tonight’s show, singing the ballad I Believe I Can Fly.

As the winner of Idols season eight, Mthethwa takes home with him a prize package worth almost a million Rand, consisting of:

- a recording contract with Universal Music South Africa;
- R250 000 from Samsung, plus R50 000 worth of Samsung products including a LED TV, a printer, a laptop and a camera;
- R48 000 airtime and 24 GIGS of data from Vodacom;
- R250 000 cash from KFC;
- a Ford Fiesta 1.6 Titanium;
- a R30 000 fashion voucher from Truworths;
- R50 000 voucher for musical equipment from Yamaha;
- plus a Yamaha Waverunner VX700S jet-skit and trailer; and
- a precision-crafted Shure UHF-R Premium wireless microphone system and a PSM®900 personal monitor system.

Mthethwa will start working on his album with Universal Music within the next couple of weeks and his first single, Move, which he debuted in the Top 2 Spectacular last week, is already getting airplay.

The video for Move can be seen on the official Idols season eight website at www.mnet.co.za/idolsSA and fans can also download it simply by SMSing 'Khaya' to 39006. It costs R15 per full track download and data charges are dependent on specific operator deals. T's&C's apply.

Season eight of Idols was a co-production between M-Net and Mzansi Magic.

Updates and further information can be found on the official Idols Facebook page, on Twitter or by clicking through to www.mnet.co.za/idolsSA.