By SAM PHIRI –

SOUTH AFRICA’S leading musical reality show Idols season 10, has reached its sweetest zenith after enthusiasts made their decisive choice of who remains in the top 11 bracket.
It was a heart-beating moment for the entire remaining top 16 from the first and second groups except for Ivan Roux and Vincent Verhoog whose qualifications came by a stroke of luck last Sunday.
Idols fans have voted in their hundreds of thousands and made their voices heard, and – with a little help from the judges – the SA Idols Season 10 Top 11 finalists have been announced as, in alphabetical order: Bongi Silinda (23), a professional backup singer from Nelspruit, Mpumalanga; Cape Town student London Louw (24); and Vincent Bones (29), a worship leader from Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal.
The four contestants, who garnered the most votes were Kyle Deutschmann (27), a chiropractor from KwaZulu Natal; Lize Mynhardt (21), a B. Comm student from Stellenbosch University, Free State; professional singer Musa Mashiane (24) from eMalahleni, Mpumalanga; and Tumi Morobane (21), a first-year Musical Theatre student at the Tshwane University of Technology, who hails from Vosloorus, Gauteng.
And the final two spots in the Top 11 line-up were filled by Idols judges Randall Abrahams, Unathi Msengana and Gareth Cliff, who exercised their Wild Card privilege and picked two Capetonian ladies:
Durbanville singer Demi Lee (24) and 20-year-old Roxy McVean, who is studying music at COPA in Cape Town but originally hails from Durban.
“You will know that I am not frequently impressed,” Randall noted, announcing their choice, “but you should know that it was very, very difficult this year.”
Aside from the privilege of competing for a chance to become South Africa’s next Idol, the Top 11 on Sunday night walked off with a spectacular prize package comprising, a brand new Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini Smartphone each on a free 24 month contract, with 100 free minutes, 50 free sms, and an extra 50GB of data, courtesy of Telkom Other prizes included personalised set of luggage courtesy of Ford, Truworths fashion to the value of R5 000 each, Shure GLXD24E/SM86 Digital vocal wireless system valued at R10 850 each plus vouchers for a Yamaha PSR-E443 keyboard or a Yamaha CPX500 guitar for each Top 11 finalist.
The Top 11’s long journey to the Idols Season 10 finale will kick off with a two-hour live show next Sunday, September 21 – with some expert guidance from this week’s musical mentor, American singer-songwriter Gordon Chambers, who has written hits for the likes of Usher, Beyoncé, Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin.
In the meantime, some of the Season 10 singers who are memorable for other reasons are starring in the “Wooden Mic Special Edition” show every Tuesday at 18:30 CAT on Mzansi Magic – along with some never-before-seen footage from the Idols Season 10 audition road show, when the judges thought the cameras weren’t rolling!
Idols Season 10 is a co-production between pay-television channels M-Net and Mzansi Magic and airs on Sundays at 17:30 CAT. To stay on top of all the Idols Season 10 news, follow Idols SA on Twitter @IdolsSA and the official Idols Facebook page at “Idols South Africa”. And for more information you can log on to www.dstv.com.