Namibian rapper Erick Sell, popularly known as EES, will be vying for a spot when he is pitted against 99 other hopefuls at this year’s The VOICE of Germany TV show.

The show is in its 15th year, marking a special season with many all-stars from previous seasons joining and competing in the show, making it quite a highlight on German television and also way more competitive.

Based in Germany, EES told VIBEZ! he was ecstatic about the platform and getting an invite to be included in this year’s line-up. “All I can say is this is big, this is really big. I was not able to talk about this for a long time. Now I’ve finally got the okay to talk about this, to spread the photos and everything,” he said.

EES has been making a name for himself in the German music scene over the years and was approached by the worldwide franchise to be part of the show this year. “I’ve been in this industry in Germany, and you’ve known me for a long time. So you make a lot of connections. You just hustle for so many years. So, at some point, they have heard of my name or seen me somewhere and stuff like that. That’s how this whole thing came about, that they approached me.”

“The show gets about five to 10,000 subscriptions or people who want to take part every year. But they also go out and look proactively for some artists that they find interesting and try to convince them to be part of the show. That’s how they contacted me. And I was at first a little bit sceptical because it’s a show where you actually have to sing cover songs.”

The first stage of the show is not broadcast. The producers of the show audition all the artists who submit themselves via the form on the website. The artists selected by the producers then proceed to the blind auditions, where they have to perform cover songs for the coaches. “I’m not a cover artist type of guy. I like to produce my own songs. I struggle with actually singing covers. I struggle remembering the lyrics and so on. I was a little bit sceptical, but then I thought it’s a nice challenge for me to go and sing cover songs of other artists. And so, yeah, that’s how it came about. It’s a huge honour to be part of it, and there are only 100 people going into the show, and to be part of those 100 who actually made it into the show,” he said.

EES mentioned that he will stay true to himself while representing the country as best as he can.“ I am going to try to be as authentic as possible because then you are at your most confident, and that’s what people see when you are being you, they know it, and it’s yeah, and obviously push Namibia forward as well because Namibia gives me so much strength this side to be confident.”

Each team of singers is mentored and developed by its respective coach. In the second stage, called the battle phase, coaches have two of their team members battle against each other directly by singing the same song together, with the coach choosing which team member to advance from each of four individual “battles” into the first live round.

“I think it’s the biggest music television show on German television with millions of viewers,” he concluded.

His first-ever performance on The Voice stage is on 26 September at 20h15. –slunyangwe@nepc.com.na