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Showbiz Reporter
After a gruelling competition and record breaking season with 79 million votes cast, 24-year-old Karabo Mogane was crowned this year’s Idols SA winner. The season 11 grand finale took place at Carnival City, Johannesburg on Sunday where Karabo, a former Stellenbosch student, together with runner up, Mmatema Moremi performed during a stunning live show.

For his efforts, Karabo who shrugged off competition from thousands of Idols hopefuls, walked away with a prize package worth R1.2m and a recording contract with Universal Music Africa. In addition, headline Idols SA sponsor, Telkom SA, will be flying the idol to Los Angeles next year where he will attend the finalé of American Idol. American Idol will be coming to a close next year after 15 seasons.

Karabo will also open for South African supergroup MiCasa on the final concert of their “Dare To Love” tour at Carnival City on December 11. That day will be historical to him as he will also release his debut album.

With his soothing voice, the musician who had an opportunity to sing with Judith Sephuma at the finale also performed his debut single Ding Dong, which was recorded earlier this month. The single is now available for download and is already charting on the South African iTunes chart.

Asked how he would spend his prize money, Karabo said he was planning on renovating his parents’ house and buying a car for his father. The Idols finale was a musical feast as some of SA’s top artistes such as Sephuma, MiCasa, Nakhane Toure, Emtee and DJ Citi Lyts and last year’s Idols winner, Vincent Bones performed at the sold out event.

But, the night belonged to this year’s Idols addition, judge Somizi, who took to the stage and performed Black Coffee’s ‘We Dance Again’ with Toure. The dramatic choreographer found himself trending on social media networks after he debuted a new dazzling look on the Idols stage.

Sporting a blonde wig, Somizi threatened to steal the online thunder from the Idols winner’s announcement as most attention was on him. Memes of him soon surfaced with others calling his hairstyle rural and earthy likening his hair to thatched roofs. Some simply posted an image of a grave site saying it was meant to bury Somizi’s weave once he decides to remove it.