Just three episodes into Varsity Sing’s debut season and there have been a fair share of emotional moments. The hairs-standing-up-on-the-back-of-your-neck kind of stuff. Or as Emo Adams says, “My hoendervleis het hoendervleis gekry – in fact, ek het chicken pox!”
That was just one of a number of quips that the Afrikaans singer-actor delivered when commenting on a choir’s performance from the guest judge seat.
The 38-year-old from Mitchell’s Plein joined the Varsity Sing judging panel for the Eastern Cape leg of the competition. Best known for his part in David Kramer’s District 6 (the musical), Adams now has his own show on kykNET, Jou Show met Emo. No stranger to the stage and entertainment industry, Adams very nearly steals the show with his constructive, but witty critiques of the Varsity Sing choirs’ performances.
His less technical assessment of the pieces brings a necessary balance to the judging panel. And his antics have sent audiences, choirs and even fellow judges into stitches.
In a competition that stirs up so much emotion, the lighthearted moments provided by Adams between the intensity of items such as TUT’s Op Die Rante last week, is a breath of fresh air. With just one episode remaining for Adams, audiences will miss his feedback, which has an every-day-viewer’s-opinion feeling to it. You could say Adams has been ‘the voice of the people’.
Adams is not to be upstaged by his fellow expert judges, Loyiso Bala, Christo Burger and Marvin Kernelle, going as far as disagreeing with the three of them on one or two occassions. As a former choir member himself, Adams has taken an instant fancy to the Varsity Sing platform.
“[In choir singing] You learn discipline, you learn to be on time and you learn to put 150% in for everything you do,” said Adams. “It teaches you respect and at the moment it’s good for nation building, as people sing together and work together.
“So I think if you look at this platform and the platform it is giving youngsters, it’s amazing.”
It may just be the beginning of a special relationship between Adams and Varsity Sing, as viewers will see in the elimination episode. Following one choir’s stellar performance, Adams responds by saying that he’d love to have them on his next CD.
So whether a performance moves you to tears, or Adams has you crying in a fit of laughter, embrace the show for the reasons our entertaining guest judge does, who summed it up perfectly on the show when he said: “This is beautiful. This is discipline. This is nation building.”
Don’t miss Emo Adams in tonight’s elimination episode of Varsity Sing at 20:30 on kykNET (DSTV channel 144).
