Gimme a Song enjoys third TV season

From social media to live national television Joshua “Jojo” Joseph took his “brainchild” Gimme a Song to the streets and with well-known entertainers to spark joy in viewers. Joseph is well-known for his radio hosting duties on Next 99.1’s Home Time Show alongside Fro Hummer and Assassin.

Joseph aired the third season of Gimme a Song featuring artistes such as Joshua Regrello, Hey Choppi, Motto, Mical Teja, Teddyson John, Trinidad Killa, Tempa. and Major Penny.

This show started seven years ago when Joseph came up with the idea after watching YouTube videos.

“The idea came to me to do a game similar to Song Association, but of course with everything else, when you’re coming to a Trinbagonian market, you need to adjust it to suit the palate of the people. So that’s what I did, I tried to get some of the biggest names in the game as far as entertainment goes to come to the show to make it something worth the watch for the viewer.”

The show first started on Instagram before moving to YouTube and then to TTT where it’s been housed for three seasons – the third season ran from January 20 to February 10,

“Seeing my brainchild evolve from just being an idea because when I had the idea first, I did a pilot episode and this episode was not to be released, it was just to pitch around to some of my friends just to see what their thought processes would have been, how they felt, if they like it and if it was making sense. Whilst I was getting feedback, I saw two girls do something very similar and they were going to post their video and I said I can’t have people thinking that I’m following them, so I just decided you know what, I think this is good enough to post, let me just post it, if the people love it, they love it, if they don’t love it then we scrap it at least it’s not a case of someone saying Jojo following them.”

Joseph said even though he posted the video with terrible audio, lighting and nothing where it’s supposed to be, everyone loved it. He said going from that a third season with sponsors leaves him feeling amazing and in awe with the evolution of his and the series journey.

What is Gimme a Song? Well, guests on the show are given a word and all they must do is sing a song with that word from any genre whether it be soca, reggae, hip hop, hard rock or even gospel. Guests must sing within ten seconds and they cannot use the same song twice.

“We also have a segment in the show called Finish D’ Lyrics. We go out in the streets and ask random people to finish the lyrics of songs for us, so we will play the song and we will try to use some of the most popular songs with lyrics that aren’t easy to come by and we play it at a point and we stop it a certain point.”

When he goes out to do these segments, he said it’s quite interesting especially because he’s mistaken for Daniel Lovelace – entertainer and creator of YouTube series What Yuh Know.

“Last season, I met two extremely interesting characters, I met a lady by the name of Rosemarie in Arima. The song for Arima was High Mas by David Rudder and when the first verse started which goes, “And our Father…” Rosemarie actually started to recite the Our Father prayer not the song, the prayer. I was there just trying to keep a straight face and Rosemarie was just going and I’m like ‘Oh yes, give dem.’ "

The other very interesting person was from Port of Spain and we were doing It Wasn’t Me by Shaggy. He started to perform in the streets of Port of Spain and for the most part, he performed out of key, out of tune and offbeat to what was actually happening in the It Wasn’t Me song.”

As for in-studio experiences, Joseph said a segment the show had last season called Sing It or Wing It with his guests was most memorable. In this segment, the guests have to eat a hot wing if they are unable to think of a song. This segment saw guests go against the clock or against each other in a spicy showdown to determine whose music knowledge is superior.

“I’m talking about these wings are steaming hot.”

“I would also like to take the show and carry it as far and for however long I can. I try to ensure that every season evolves, I believe that in creating content you need to create it from the perspective of the viewer, for example, Greys Anatomy or Law and Order SVU two of the longest-running TV series would have evolved. There would have been different characters, added new twists and it wouldn’t always be the exact same. For me, I put myself in the position of a viewer, if I’m looking at the show, every episode, every season, it should be different.”