You've heard and read about the MTVBASE VJ search, but that's about all you've seen. Well it's time to take things a little further. This week audiences will get their first look at the four who stand a chance to walk away with this amazing prize.

One of which is 19year-old Rhodes student Kyle White.Now I've been in contact with Kyle and he was in Grahamstown last weekend, and let me tell you if the others want it as bad as Kyle does, they're gonna have to bring more than just their A Game. The boy is good, confident, knows his music as well as how to get a party started at a local nightclub. But he needs my and your help.

The MTV Base World Chart Express Show brought to you by Fanta debuts this Wednesday night on e.tv at 21:30 and MTV base/DStv Channel 88 at 20:00. Season 1 winner and now seasoned TV professional Sizwe Dhlomo kicks off Episode 1 by introducing the four contestants poised on the brink of stardom. Just as a refresher they are Fikile Moeti (20), Xylon van Eyck (21) and Sandy Mzolo (18) and of course Kyle White (19).

This is what else you can expect on the first show: - A brief retrospective on Sizwe’s whirlwind year as the first ever MTV base VJ: the story of how a self-effacing Durban bank executive and computer programmer became a TV star! - Worm (bass player with Port Elizabeth punk rockers The Finkelstiens) auditioning in Port Elizabeth - Crazy antics from auditionees desperate to secure a slot in the final: the Durban contestants who stripped down to their underwear to impress the judges; the Port Elizabeth contestant who went swimming with the fish in the local fountain and the girl who thought licking the ground would secure her callback in the Cape Town auditions! - The diary of two auditionees – Brandon and Kyle – who failed to make the grade in Port Elizabeth but who traveled to Johannesburg for a second chance: with surprising results! - Stunning performances from SA music stars: Young Nations, The Finkelstiens, Lungelo, Prokid, Maggz and Kabelo.

But now this is where you come in as Viewers. Kyle and the other three need you to show your support. Votes will open from tomorrow night and you need to cast your vote over SMS by doing the following:

Fikile, sms: VJ FIKILE to 34700
Kyle, sms: VJ KYLE to 34700
Sandy, sms: VJ SANDY to 34700
Xylon, sms: VJ XYLON to 34700.

Very exciting times, I will keep you all posted. But Vote as of tomorrow night yeah?

Posted by jvonblog at Monday, October 30, 2006 | Permalink | Comments

Justin Timberlake may be making waves with his new album, but he isn't the only former NSync member doing it. Fellow band mate JC Chasez has also been hard at work on his second album. This is the follow up to 2004's 'Schizophrenic,' which saw a significant amount of album sales and a string of hits... like "All Day Long I Dream About Sex" and well a couple more...

His new song which debuts soon is called "Until Yesterday", a song co-written by Justin Timberlake. I wonder if he is hoping to equal his former band mate in success, seeing as though JT is the man of the moment. Well it should be interesting, let's wait and see what JC comes up with. If you wanna listen to the single click here and let me know your thoughts... I'm not completely sold, but I do think it'll grow on me at a later stage.

Another artist hard at work is Gwen Stefani... She drops her new album "The Sweet Escape" on the 5th of December. "Wind it up" is the first single taken off the album. It's got a wierd techno vibe going on, but you definitely know it's her cause it has it's "Hollaback" influence. The song is produced by the fabulous dudes from The Neptunes. But they aren't the only bug names who've contributed to this album, others like Akon, Tony Kanal, Nellee Hooper, Sean Garrett, Swizz Beatz, Dave Stewart and Keane’s Tim Rice-Oxley have also had their time with the new mother Stefani. Good on her by the way for getting straight back to work after the birth of little Kingston.

On her official site Gwen, who is married to Gavin Rossdale says, “This album is surprisingly different than the last one. I started recording it last year before Kingston was born and it’s definitely evolved over the last year. The dance sound is very ‘now.’ It’s modern…not so retro.” Gwen will be doing a tour around the States early next year so head to her site or stay tuned for details on this blog... I love new music.

Posted by jvonblog at Wednesday, October 25, 2006 | Permalink | Comments

It's another sad day for the South African music industry. 29year-old singer Lebo Mathosa died in a car accident earlier this morning. It's alleged that Mathosa's driver lost control of the Toyota Prado they were travelling in on the N3 highway on the East of Johannesburg. Details are still sketchy but investiagtions are underway. Instead of leaving a sombre blogpost I have decided to rather pay tribute to Ms Mathosa this week, and to celebrate her life and her achievements.

Lebo shot to fame in 1994 as a member of kwaito group Boom Shaka. She fronted Boom Shaka with her stong vocal capabilties. She then released her first solo album in 2000 with her debut single Intro, a track that features on her album Dream. The album went Gold in just four weeks. It also won her several South African Music Awards including Best Dance Album for Dream, Best Dance Single for Intro and Best Female Vocalist. It seems as though 2001 was a good year for Lebo as she performed at the South African edition of the North Sea Jazz Festival in Cape Town. In addition to all her achievements Lebo has also toured many foreign countries like Malaysia and England to name a few. She has also shared the stage with world class musicians and recorded tracks with local and international artists, including with Keith Sweat on his Africa only album release.

Her music has continued to grow from strength to strength with her appealing to no only a black market but has also cross over to a white market too. In fact she's scored her self a number of hits on radio stations across the country including Yfm, Metro FM, 5 Fm music and 94.7 Highveld Stereo. May she rest in peace and her music live on for years to come.

Posted by jvonblog at Monday, October 23, 2006 | Permalink | Comments

Hey all you Londoners and well everyone else... if you like the sound and vibe of South African radio this is for you. RadioSA is an Internet radio station based in the UK. The RadioSA.co.uk site is an extensive, feature loaded site full of news, podcasts and galleries. So if you're feeling homesick and are pining for a little South African flava tune in, stream live and enjoy. Music Industry Online did an interview with the creative minds of Radio SA... check out the full interview here.

This is pretty similar to Podcast DJz (Cleone Cassidy's little baby) in a sense in that it caters predominantly for a South African audience. I think this is a brilliant idea in that it is creating a lot of international exposure for our local musicians.

Posted by jvonblog at Thursday, October 19, 2006 | Permalink | Comments

Justin Timberlake - My Love

Man of the moment Justin Timberlake has just dropped his second single- My Love from his second album FurtureSex Love Songs. It's brilliant... It's Number one across the globe and now you get to hear the new song, and check out the video at the same time.... The Boi can dance hey. Damn dwag

Posted by jvonblog at Wednesday, October 18, 2006 | Permalink | Comments

For those of you who are based in Grahamstown at the moment look forward to this. On the 26th of October aka next Thursday you can head on down to the Roxbury theatre and catch the documentary evening as put on by the fourth television students from the Journalism School. Tickets cost R25-00 and refreshments will be provided in the interval. Details are:

Time: 18:30- 19:00
Dress: Smart casual
Two theatres, two long documentaries and three short documentaries in each. There will be an interval and refreshments will also be served! We then swap over and the same thing happens again. Good, awesome evening and I encourage all of you who can to get on down. But for those of you who aren't here check out the site... http:rutv4.ru.ac.za. You can check out my documentary here...

So Pop queen Madonna has apparently adopted a one year-old from Malawi. Last week rumours were quashed obviously because details and logistics hadn't been finalised. but now little David Banda is on route to London where he will live somewhat of a different life. Now there are many debates going on at the moment as to whether Madonna was given preference because of her celebrity status. I, on one hand, understand that people think she is just jumping on the band wagon along with Angelina, but she is a UN embassador and she is giving little David a better shot at life... rather than living in an orphanage. Let me know your thoughts...

Posted by jvonblog at Tuesday, October 17, 2006 | Permalink | Comments

Well for all the South Africans out there we all know that Jay Z is in town. In fact tonight he kicks of his South African leg of his "Water" tour. This is to raise awareness to the world water crisis. The tours will be filmed by MTV and aired on the channel, so look out for that or get to WaterForLife.mtv.com to read his tour diary. Jay, who is signed to Roc-A-Fella records, is said to be worth a staggering $340 million... the life of a HipHop star. What I like about this chap is that he is doing something constructive with his millions.

Now pictured to the right you see Jay is with the lovely, oh so wonderful and talented Beyonce, who is said to be in the country. NOW why didn't anyone say she was coming, jokes I know it's not her manager's job to inform me... but oh if she is performing am I going to be upset. I think she rocks and to think that the lovely B, who has just released her second solo album B Day, is in SA... wow this concert is going to rock. At the press conference in Johannesburg yesterday organisers briefed the press saying that no questions on Beyonce would be entertained... Hmmm sneaky. I reckon that's the first sign that she is indeed in the country.... but for what? I wonder if she's here just to check up on Caribbean beauty Rihanna? There were a couple of rumours going around that Jay may have a little soft spot for her... I think he just thinks she's talented, nothing to do with her looks :)

Well for the Cape Tonians enjoy the show, take photos, videos and phone suckers like us. If you're in Jozi or Durbs you'll definitely wanna go check the show out. I believe tickets are still on sale. Hey and if you do go bring on the stories Seriously!!! Bye for now

Posted by jvonblog at Wednesday, October 11, 2006 | Permalink | Comments

A recent visitor to South Africa and arguably one of the best perfomers in the world, Robbie Williams is now calling on the public to help him out. As if we haven't done enough (Album sales, tickets for concerts... the list is endless) but it's not just to help him out, YOU benefit too. Robbie is collaborating with seven different filmmakers at the moment to create 7 videos for his new album Rudebox. And this is where YOU come in. He has called on members of the public to produce a film for the track The 80's. You win you walk away with an awesome £7,500.

On the official site Robbie says:

"This is the record I've always wanted to make. It's reignited how I think about what I can do with music myself, 'Rudebox' was done in a guerrilla way, no plan of action, it just evolved into what it is naturally. That's what I like about film today and why I wanted to do this project and competition. Just like in music, you can create a masterpiece out of an i-book and some digital footage, as much as you can in a fancy studio. That's how 'The 80s' began life itself, in my bedroom in LA with my friend Jerry messing around on my Mac. I'm very excited to see what the film makers can come up with."

So for more details check out the site. Anyone heard the song by the way? It's really different and a little wierd at first, but it does grow on you. Or not. Let me know what you think... and if anyone is keen to get involved or participate in this project. And for my American readers I know that when I was there last year a lot of you didn't know who he was, so check his site out, listen to the songs and you'll love him. He is one of the best.

Welcome Rihanna and Jay Z to South African shores. More info on them later.

Posted by jvonblog at Tuesday, October 10, 2006 | Permalink | Comments

So I may not have scored a top 5 spot in the MTV Base VJ search in Cape Town (Thanks for the support y'all), but another Rhodent did! Congratulations to Kyle White- a first year journalism student here at Rhodes, who made it through to the final four in the search. Kyle last week auditioned in Port Elizabeth making it though to the top five of that leg... but that wasn't enough. he kpe trucking and now he is through to last round. Brilliant. It's at times like these that I wish I had DSTV so that I could get involved, interact and hopefully contribute a successful win. But then there's Fikile- the Cape Town winner, I haven't seen Xylon from PE and not forgetting the newest finalist 18-year year old Sandy Mzolo... Interesting times. Ok this is the deal if you are lucky enough to catch the search on TV. On the 8th Novemberthe four will compete in a live grand finale. So I want to start a little Rhodian campaign, VOTE KYLE FOR VJ, anyone keen? Drop me a mail, I'll submit it to the peops at MTV and then at least we've contributed yeah?

In the spirit of a Pimp and Shnitz go large by Cape Town I shall be sharing some information with you loyal readers on the Caribean beauty and the Hip-hop heavy weight as they touch down on SA shores. Man of man am I sad I'm not gonna catch them, but those who are lucky enough to see them... enjoy. I'll give you some musical information, just so that you're completely up to scratch with them as musicians.

Posted by jvonblog at Monday, October 09, 2006 | Permalink | Comments

This is going to be like a personal wank but I'm over it... This weekend I made my way to Cape Town for two main reasons. The one was to get my American visa cause I'll hopefully be going back to Aspen in a couple of weeks. The other was to audition for MTV Base. The channel, flighted on DSTV is looking for a new host to present the World Chart Express show... and because this is what I love i.e TV, music and entertainment I thought it was the chance of a life time. So when I headed off to the V and A Waterfront I was but nervous, cold, hungry and slightly hungover. After three hours of waiting, avoiding being the Eminem of this leg of auditions I finally auditioned. Because of my radio experience I decided to go in blind and speak off the top of my head. Once the minute was up I knew, well at least I thought I knew, that I hadn't done my best and that was the end of the road. We then we back to kriby's place had a couple of snacks and spoke about the joys of life... It was at that stage that I got the sms. It reads:

"From MTV VJ search, u r one of the judges favourites! Pls make sure u r around the venue 4 a call back!" I could've cried I was so excited, so we rushed back to the Waterfront to see where this round would lead to... When we arrived there were women kissing women, one lady licking the floor, a guy climbing up the polls and another lady stopping traffic. All in the name of fun and the extreme desire to be an MTV VJ. I had to think about what I would do just in case I too had to do something crazy... I considered getting an MTV tatoo or shaving my hair. Now that would be damn extreme for me, hell my hair! Anyway so I avoided well and then went back into audition one more time. Later I found it that I had made it to the top 30 out of about 200, so i was damn chuffed. It was a lot better this time but I think the judges knew what they were looking for... In the end 20 year old Fikile Moeti took the title in the first leg. On the MTV site she says “Being selected as one of the three finalists to become an MTV presenter is just awesome! It’s the first step in what will hopefully become a dream come true for me.” I had the pleasure of meeting her, she's an absolute stunner and I wish her all the best. I could most definitely watch her on TV, and not only because she's hot... it's because she's good. She is joined by 21 year old Xylon Van Eyck who won the judges votes in Port Elizabeth leg.

If anyone reading this from South Africa would like to audition still get on down to The Rooftops, Rosebank Mall, Johannesburg this Saturday 7 October and the Playhouse in Durban on Sunday 8 October.

Posted by jvonblog at Wednesday, October 04, 2006 | Permalink | Comments