Budiey
FARAI HUGHGRIE IS THE WINNER OF THE U.O.X. BATTLE OF THE BANDS!
-The Champion walked away with RM5,000 cash prize-
U.O.X., the first and only prepaid plan in Malaysia designed by Xpax exclusively for university students aged between 18 and 25 years old will be once again caused a wave of excitement as it crowned its first U.O.X. Battle of the Bands Champion, Farai Hughgrie, last Saturday at The Library, e@Curve. This winning band walked away with RM5,000 cash prize.
The first and second runner-up, Once Upon A Time There Was A Sausage Named Bob and Hello, is this the band?, were rewarded with RM3,000 and RM1,000 respectively. The fourth place winner, Arabella, did not go home empty handed as the band was presented with RM500 cash prize. Hello, is this the band? also won the People’s Choice Award whereby the crowd were given one voting ballot each to vote for their favourite band.
The judging panel for the U.O.X. Battle of the Band made up of Adrian Lim, Managing Director of Sony Music, Ahmad Izham Omar, Executive Director of 8TV and local artiste, Aizat.
“I was pleasantly surprised by the outstanding quality displayed by the bands the other day. This gives me a lot of hope that the future of our music is going to be really exciting indeed!” exclaimed Ahmad Izham Omar.
The U.O.X. Battle of the Band kicked off with several campus tours around Klang Valley to promote the event and to unearth the talents to compete in this competition. In its audition held late October, a big line up of bands turned up and four finalists namely Arabella, Farai Hughgrie, Hello, is this the band? and Once Upon A Time There Was A Sausage Named Bob, was selected by a panel of esteemed judges comprising the likes of Aziana Ali, General Manager of Sony Music, the guitarist of Disagree, David and also Adil, guitar instructor from Bentley Music Academy.
The top four finalists battled it out during Xplay Shout!, a special edition of the Xplay party series held in conjunction with the Shout! Awards. Xplay is Xpax’s party series which aims to provide a healthy entertainment avenue to the young and, at the same time, provide a platform for the youths to express themselves.
“Xpax’s commitment is not only in bringing the best local and international entertainment acts into the country, but at the same time, to nurture, motivate and inspire the local talents. The U.O.X. Battle of the Bands is one such effort, on top of igniting the Shout! Awards,” said Dato’ Sri Shazalli Ramly, Chief Executive Officer of Celcom Axiata Berhad.
At the Xplay Shout! party, one lucky customer walked away with the latest BlackBerry Torch 9800 while three other lucky customers who checked in at the Xplay Shout! event via the foursquare application won a Nokia C3 device each during the Lucky Draw segments. Artistes such Hujan, Mizz Nina and Disagree also entertained the crowd of over 1,000 youths throughout the party which kicked off at 7.30pm. DJ Ash ended the night with its bass-thumping beats and simply electrifying spinning performance.
