Last weekend, the selected girls for boot camp met with the judges for the first time on the buzzing new reality TV show, ‘ICONS: Divas Edition’. The encounter was a mix of laughter, drama and an all round display of diva or the lack of it. While some contestants exhibited confidence and dedication to music, others lacked confidence and other showed signs that they weren’t into music for the long haul, despite their obvious singing talents. So who had enough juice to make the judges’ final cut and who got the boot?

The Judges, Gena West, Stephanie Benson and ‘Quantos’Ackah-Yensu made the difficult final cut based on their interactions with the girls in boot camp and on the performance of all 35 girls at the audition finale. There was good news however for three more girls as the producers of the show have decided to increase the finalists from the initially publicized 21 to 24. This means that there will be 8 groups competing for the ultimate prize.

I met the girls recently and saw the amazing transformations that they had undergone in terms of grooming, confidence and bonding with one another. I may not know much about hair and weaves but after seeing the girls’ makeover for their photo shoot, I can confidently say that the earlier rumours of Storm 360 blowing thousands of US Dollars on Brazilian weave is untrue. I secretly asked a stylist on set and she simply laughed in a manner that almost automatically meant hell no!

Anyway since I wasn’t there for hair sake; I also interacted with the girls to have a fair sense of their personalities and what they may bring to the show. By observing the girls during the photo shoot, I could tell that some bonded more with certain people than others. I overheard one particular alliance of girls saying to a crew member that they all had affected accents because they are ‘travelers’ – and that surely caught my eye (mind you, I have four of those). If these girls are put into a group by the judges, certain that group would be a ‘handful’ and a ‘mouthful’ – full of attitude and drama with interesting consequences.

After observing from afar, I decided to get more up-close with some of the girls to see what they would bring to the show if they were chosen amongst the Top 24.  The girls certainly come in different shapes, sizes, and character. Some were more confident than others, while some were reserved and others more in your face! Some of the girls totally have the diva concept getting too much into their heads; they acted in a manner that clearly wasn’t the ‘real them’. When I even asked very basic questions like ‘what is your name’, they had to put the left hand on the waist and snap with the right hand before mentioning their names? Laugh out loud!

I am certainly waiting with a keen eye to see if they were able to snap their way into the competition when the 24 finalists are revealed this Sunday 8.00pm on TV3, Net 2, Multi TV, Crystal TV, etv Ghana and Metro TV, with a repeat on GTV at 9:30pm.