A Bigger reward package has been pledged for winners of this year’s Bongo Star Search (BSS) that is expected to start on August 28, this year on the I

Last year, Pascal Cassian, who emerged winner, had pocketed 25m/- and the managing director of Benchmark Productions, Rita Paulsen, has said that this time around there will be more.

Addressing journalists at a press conference in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday, Paulsen said that the casting session would start on July 17 and ends on August 12. She said main reason for increasing the winner’s package was to encourage enterprising stars to participate in the competition.

“This year BSS has been improved in order to offer more entertainment to fans and encourage more participants,” she said, underscoring that their ambition is to improve people’s lives through their talents.

“BSS 2009 was able to change Cassian’s life as he has already built a house and another participant who did not win, Sarafina Mushindo, went on to sing with top American mega stars. Mushindo, in collaboration with other superstars like Akon and Kerry Hillson, did a joint FIFA 2010 World Cup anthem ‘Oh Africa’, in which her face is seen painted in national flag colours.

On the judge panel and judging methods some of which have been heavily criticized, Paulsen said that this year radical changes are going to be made, but would not mention them as yet.

She said this year’s competition would be staged in four zones, namely Arusha, Dodoma, Mwanza and Dar es Salaam, to curbing what she termed nomadic tendency of some participants.

“Last year we had a problem of seeing participants shifting from one venue to the other trying to hit it out after failing in their previous attempts. “For example, participants we saw in Tabora were almost the same in Mwanza and also the same happened in Arusha and Dar es Salaam,” she said.

She said the casting date for Arusha has been set for July 17 and 18 at Impala Hotel, while in Dodoma it would be on July, 24 and 25 at Rock Hotel and in Mwanza it's on July 30 and 31 at Villa Park.

Coco Beach would be the casting venue for Dar es Salaam on August 10 and 12. She said that each region would be represented by three participants, calling for aspirants who botched last year to try again their luck this year.

The criteria for entering into the race are anybody with the age of between 18 and 99 and they should be ones who have no previous experience in a music band or recorded any music.