BBAHousemates Unveiled 
Melvin Oduah
Beverly Osu
Melvin, a model and actor from Delta State, and Beverly, a video vixen, will be flying Nigeria’s flag in a house that has other 26 representatives from 14 countries.
Speaking during the opening show tagged “The Chase”, Melvin, wearing a leopard print men’s dress, said his friends and family inspired him to enter for the Big Brother as a longtime fan of the show.
He explained that having emerged finalist in two other reality shows (the 1st runner up GUS 6 in 2009 and also 1st runner up Mr Nigeria 2011), he hopes to use all the experience and charm to go all the way on Big Brother.
Also commenting, Beverly, a 21-year old model and video vixen from Lagos State (she became renowned with Brymo’s Oleku video) said that Big Brother’s viewers should expect “a total packaged African young diva to command the right qualities and characteristics of a blunt, sexy go-getter”.
The pretty Nigerian housemate, looking like a ray of sunshine in her figure hugging yellow dress, said she doesn’t really have any role model, choosing rather to take unique attributes from different people.
The evening started when the show host IK Osakioduwa, came in on stage riding on a power bike. He later set off an emotional moment when he introduced a short video clips tribute of the late Nigerian singer Goldie Harvey, one of the most beloved housemates from last year’s Big Brother StarGame who died on 14 February this year. The video chronicled some of Goldie’s time in the Big Brother StarGame house.
There were electrifying performances by African stars such as multiple award winning South African Afro-pop duo, Mafikizolo, who had the crowd rocking to their smash hit “Khona” and were joined on stage by the Mzansi ballet dancers.
Artistes from Nigeria were Mavin Records team of Don Jazzy, D’ Prince and Wande Coal. The trio set the hall alive with the audience enthralled with their energetic songs and charming personas.
After an electrifying start to the evening, all the housemates descended onto the Live Show stage before making their way into the Rubies and Diamonds Houses.
P.M.NEWS learnt that Season 8 will also be full of surprises. And the first twist of the evening was for the 14 female Housemates.
The ladies were given a chance to determine which of the two Houses they would be moving into, according to the male Housemates that they pick. But the catch was that they could not see the faces of the guys, but only had to pick the smile that they like the most out of the smiles of the 14 male Housemates displayed on screen on stage.
After each female Housemate had picked the smile that she was most drawn to, the guy who the smile belongs to came out onto the stage carrying a yellow or red cloth that signified whether they would be headed to Rubies or Diamonds House.
Although the Housemates walked into the Houses as pairs they will be competing as individuals and will spend the 91 days vying for each other’s affections for the US$300 000 cash prize.
