Ghana's Most Beautiful (or, how Chris got himself on Ghanaian TV)

What do you get when you blend American Idol, a beauty pageant, and Canadian Heritage Minutes, and then transport the concoction to Ghana? Well, you'd pretty much end up with Ghana's Most Beautiful, which airs on Sunday nights on Ghana's TV3.

A bit about the show:

Ghana's Most Beautiful airs live on TV3 Sundays at 8:00pm! It's a contest between 10 beautiful female contestants, each representing one of the ten regions of Ghana. These young women compete to win cash, a car, and glory for their region. Viewers at home can text the name of their favorite contestant to prevent them from being "evicted" (there's no communal house; I assume the term has been approrpiated from the wildly popular Big Brother Africa). As far as I can gather, every week, each woman writes and performs a short (4-6 minute) one-person play, adhering to the "character" to which they have been assigned (character examples include: prostitute, a woman in labour, and a neglected, elderly woman). Each skit is designed to teach a moral lesson about the traditional Ghanaian female roles (examples: don't live with a man before marriage, cultivate a healthy relationship with your husband, respect your elders). There's also a standard cheesy TV host, and two judges that comment after each performance, all of which combines to give the show an "American Idol" feel.

On Sunday, we attended the live airing of the show. Actually, when the evening started, Taylor (my coworker, housemate, and general life partner), Kris (our friend who we met in Ghana, who also goes to the same University as Taylor) and I had no idea what type of event we would be attending. Bashir (a Ghanaian, who is good friends with Kris) had told us that we'd be attending a "cultural" show, which I assumed meant that it would be a live traditional cultural performance. We had no idea that it we were attending a live TV show! There was no guest list or ticketing process, which was surprising. I've since learned that the show's final episode, held in the National Conference Center, is a grand affair for which you must purchase tickets.

When the four of us arrived, it looked like we would be unable to find seats. However, one of the producers spotted us (let's just say we were pretty easy to pick out of the crowd) and gave Taylor and me front row seats (!). Of course, the camera found its way to us a number of times (Kris and I each had full-screen close-up shots). People at work excitedly told me that they had seen me on TV3 the night before!

The show itself was awesome. The women are all incredibly talented actresses. My favorite was Yaa, who played a drunk barren woman. She spoke almost entirely in Twi (the local language), so I didn't understand very much of what she was staying. Nonetheless, I found her performance hi-larious - she was really focused and in-character the whole time (even when a piece of her costume unintentionally fell off)! (You can text "Yaa" to Vodafone short code 8888).

Even though it was an elaborate and obviously expensive soundstage, it was by no means a "Western"-feeling experience. The audience was quite rowdy, to the point where they were heckling the contestants as they were performing! My favorite heckle was when a contestant was playing a woman caught off-guard by the onset of labour. The audience reaction: "PUSH!!! PUSH!!!" There were other moments that I found awkward, though. For example, when the contestant playing a prostitute simulated an on-stage rape, the audience was howling with laughter and approval. It was definitely a Lost in Translation moment.

The show ended with a surprising twist! For the first time, instead of submitting them to the scrutiny of the judges or the viewers, Gideon (the Ghanaian Ryan Seacrest) asked the women to nominate each other for eviction. The women (who seem to have grown quite close) refused to do so ... the first to act, a near-tearful Lamisi instead opted to selflessly nominate herself! The other women followed suit, and Gideon appeared at a loss for words. He was prepared to leave the eviction to the discretion of the judges, but the live crowd (myself included) urged him to change his mind! Therefore, there were no evictions for the week, which made the crowd burst into a frenzy! Seriously, people were leaping out of their seats hugging each other as the credits rolled.

All in all, it was a surreal experience - one that I won't easily forget!