It was a dream come true for talented Timi Julius, a 22-year-old indigene of Bayelsa State, as he emerged winner of the star prize of a N5million record deal at the First Rivers Music and Arts Project (RIVMAP).

RIVMAP is the brainchild of Prince Tonye Princewill, Leader of the Princewill Political Associates (PPA), designed “to serve as a platform for the emancipation of our youths from poverty and hopelessness by discovering, nurturing and grooming talent in the arts to stardom,” said the media consultant, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze.

RIVMAP is split into Music, Comedy and Dancing segments, with champions emerging in the various segments in a highly competitive final that gave the judges a herculean task in determining the eventual winners, Eze said in a statement made available to News Express.

Timi Julius carted away the N5m record deal in Music with the dancing group of the Thrillers winning the N2m Prize in the dancing category and Mr. Jacob John, a Welder/Fabricator from Akwa Ibom based in Port Harcourt, winning the N1m comedy prize.

Commenting on the project, Tamunoiminabo Wokoma of TamsRecords, a label based in Marseille, France, who collaborated with Prince Tonye Princewill’s Riverdrill Group to stage the project, said: “RIVMAP started as a project under the PTP Star Center aimed at searching for raw talents and grooming them to stardom in singing, dancing and standup comedy. This edition that has consumed over N20m commenced in May 2012 with over one thousand youths who after several months of audition and screening was pruned down to a reasonable size of 28 singers, 10 comedians and four dancing groups which was later trimmed down to four comedians, three dancing troupes and six musicians for the finals after intensive three weeks camping and training.”

Speaking at the grand finale held on Wednesday, Sept. 26, at Sylverbird Galleria, Port Harcourt, the sponsor, Prince Tonye Princewill, disclosed that the programme would be an annual. He reiterated that the idea behind the project is to take youths residing in Rivers State that may not have the opportunity to be promoted to rub shoulders with the best in the entertainment world as he intends to promote the champions in each segment to USA and Europe to have the best exposure in their respective industry with hope that they will become some of the best performing in the world.

*Photo: Prince Tonye Princewill unveiling Timi Julius, Winner of the Music category at RIVMAP 2012.