Gijana is the sixth contestant to be voted off South Africa’s popular singing contest.

But it was a fierce battle for a spot in this week’s Top 4, with just under nine million votes cast from last Sunday’s Top 5 Spectacular to the close of voting at 22:00 on Tuesday, 27 October – by far the most votes ever cast in any single voting cycle in Idols SA history.

Having just turned 16 when he first auditioned back in March, Loy-Loy – as the irrepressible teenager affectionately became known – was the baby of Idols SA Season 11, but he dominated the competition from the very beginning. He was one of the very few contenders who scored yeses from all four of the judges in his original audition, and at Sun City already Somizi Mhlongo told the teen that he had a bright future in the music business, after his performance of Usher’s Good Kisser in the solo auditions.

But this youngster from the small Eastern Cape town of Uitenhage always had a bright future anyway. At school he was a very focused student, singing in the school choir and competing in rugby, tennis, and athletics. And he was always determined to go to university, even if he should win Idols SA. “Economics,” he said. “I want to sell stuff – be able to package and sell my image to the people.” Hardly surprising since his stepdad runs a tavern and his mom is an accountant and also runs her own transport business. “Granny also ran her own business, a spaza shop – so I grew up with entrepreneurship,” the level-headed young man pointed out at auditions.

And that determination was his attitude from the very start of the Top 10 competition. “Keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll be in the Top 2,” Idols SA judge Gareth Cliff predicted after his performance of Emile Sandé’s Next To Me in the Top 10 Spectacular, and he blew the judges away again the following week in the Top 9 show with the Sara Bareilles ballad, Gravity. “Your artistic intelligence is beyond me,” said an impressed Somizi Mhlongo.

Randall Abrahams thought Gijana’s performance of the Bobby McFerrin classic Don’t Worry Be Happy in the Top 8 Spectacular was “absolutely top level”, and when he did the House hit Don’t Look Down, by Martin Garrix in the Top 7 “Showstopper” Spectacular, Abrahams thought the one quality he had over all of the other contestants was charm.

“I don’t know how to fault you,” Mhlongo exclaimed after Gijana’s dual performances of the Boyz II Men hit It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday and Hold Back The River by James Bay in the “90s vs Now” Top 6 Spectacular. He thought that Gijana could give the likes of Usher and Chris Brown a run for their money.

In the Top 5 Spectacular Gijana sang Zahara’s Ndiza and Bob Marley’s One Love. Cliff was impressed that Gijana had managed to dominate in virtually every genre of music across the competition, but Abrahams unfortunately didn’t think that Loy-Loy’s performances would be memorable enough to keep him in the competition.

Fans can catch Gijana live on Arye Kellman’s internet-streaming show on CliffCentral at 16:00 on Monday, 2 November to find out what’s next for this charismatic youngster.

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