Vincent Bones, the 30 year-old worship leader from Pietermaritzburg heard tonight at the spectacular live finale at the Carnival City Casino and Entertainment Centre on Gauteng's East Rand that he received the most of the more than 4.5 million votes that were cast during the last week of this tough singing competition, thereby defeating fellow finalist, the charismatic Nelspruit singer Bongi Silinda (24).
Apart from winning the coveted title, Vincent walks away with a prize package worth in excess of R1 Million, comprising:
R700 000 cash prize from headline sponsor Telkom, M-Net and Mzansi Magic;
24 month SmartHome Supreme internet connectivity package from Telkom including a 55 inch Samsung SmartTV, a wi-fi router, a 3G mi-fi router, a range extender, and 100GB data, worth R50 000;
R247 300 Ford Fiesta Titanium with award-winning 1 litre Ecoboost Engine from Ford South Africa;
R80 000 worth of fashion from Truworths;
Shure ULXD Digital Wireless system and personal monitoring system worth R118 000;
R60 000 worth of Yamaha musical equipment
An installed DStv Explora decoder and three months DStv Premium subscription worth R4219 from DStv
And of course a recording contract with Universal Music Africa that will launch his career as South Africa’s next superstar!
“We have two incredibly talented singers with mature voices who are able to cover a large spectrum of music, and I think that they both have bright careers ahead of them. We look forward to working with Vincent on his album,” Universal Music Managing Director Randall Abrahams said today about the Idol X winner and runner-up.
Both Vincent and Bongi are already burning up South Africa’s airwaves with the hit singles that were written especially for them, Vincent’s sultry track “Let Me Love”, and a song called “If I Got You” for Bongi.
Idols Season 10 is a co-production between pay-television channels M-Net and Mzansi Magic and the channels recently announced that, as a result of the popularity of this season, Season 11 will commence shortly. Auditions are scheduled for early 2015.