MUSICAL TALENT HUNT SHOWS: A MIRAGE? Getting competitors to re-enact songs that have made their marks is not the best approach to assess and score their musical ability or talent. Anyone can perform a song that has generated or created its own appeal or “a winning blueprint”. All it takes is to imitate the singer’s voice and delivery pattern. This ideology only allows a competitor to reproduce a song; note by note and tone by tone without any form of originality, and real talent being exhibited. Whoever reproduces better, automatically wins the competition. I want to believe this is a far cry from intended objective(s). The act of “copy, paste and display” will no way bring out the best talented competitor; it only re-echoes originality done by someone else. In other words, what they do in real sense is miming to songs. This can be likened to a chef who went for a cooking competition and dishes out already cooked or prepared meal, and is expec