Last Sunday saw a return to the Studio B of TV3’s Adesa We, contestants from all the three seasons of Mentor on one stage.

From the first Mentor to the third, one has representatives with one mission: competing among themselves to determine who the real Mentor is.

It felt somewhat nostalgic when contestant after contestant mounted the stage to show their own way of performing to the excitement of the audience.

Nostalgic because these are people we knew from their raw stage until Mentor made stars out of them and here they are back where it all begun.

Except the stage on which they performed last Sunday did not belong to Mentor. The programme on which all these budding stars had gathered was The Battle, the new show that would excite our Sunday evenings over the next few weeks.

The station wants to bring back the enthusiastic support for the show that made people watch a mere music talent programme instead of football even during the world cup last summer.

Taking part in this contest are 12 young men and women who have all seen everything there needed to be seen as far as the Mentor game is concerned.

There are two from the first season and five each from the second and third seasons of the music talent show respective.

They are Hakeem (Mentor 1), Isaac (Mentor 1), Joe (Mentor 2), Kofi (Mentor 2), Prince (Mentor 2), Vic (Mentor 2), Cee (Mentor 2), Erico (Mentor 3), Faya (Mentor 3), Paa (Mentor 3), K.G. (Mentor 3) and Dela (Mentor 3).

It’s a shame that some of the most popular contestants from the first edition, namely Prince, Andy, Maya and Ruth are not taking part in this competition as that would have really settled a lot of controversial topics that have been raised by some commentators, especially Mark Okraku Mantey.

However, I have had explanations from TV3 to the effect that they had invited all the people they thought would make the show interesting and as they needed 12 people the above-named were the ones who responded.

Some said they had other things to take care off.
Again TV3 have been explaining that this is not a Mentor show as the fourth season of Mentor would take place during the last quarter of 2008.

The rules of Mentor do not apply here. For example, there will be a change in the format of eviction for The Battle. The judges would have no vote but would have the power to save and evict one contestant out of the two contestants with the least vote from the bottom during the live performance.

Also, the contestants would not be confined to the same house as was done with Mentor but will go over to TV3 for rehearsals leading to the Sunday evening shows. It will run for about seven weeks leading to the declaration of the winner.

Mounting that “blue stage” to present The Battle is Anita Erskine. I thought getting sucked into the dreary world of corporate affairs management at cellular company TiGo would leave her with little time to do these kinds of things, but not Anita.

She is back on stage and has started to colour the show more blue than it really looks. She launched the programme last Sunday when each of the 12 contestants performed their most favourite song when they were in their respective Mentor competitions.

It expects to be interesting but I am wondering if the non-competitive flag being lifted by the organizers would make it more or less exciting.

Here are people who have moved from obscurity to celebrity status pitching tent against each other to see who emerges as the conqueror of all the mentors.

So will it be Joe, Prince, Isaac, Erico or Cee. Honestly, if this thing proves to be worth the time needed to sit and watch, I am sure I will be rooting for one of these five.

Maybe I should scale it down to Joe and Erico. This is because the two operate from opposite ends of the same stick, in my view. Let’s see how it goes.

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