Abu Dhabi teenager pursues his MTV dream

Abdu Nada flew to London this week for an interview with MTV bosses - he is one of the top five contestants vying for a three-month internship with the music channel.

DUBAI // An Abu Dhabi teenager will appear before a panel of MTV judges this week after making it to the final round of a student competition.

Abdelrahman Nada, called Abdu by his friends, a 19-year-old Egyptian who has lived in the UAE all his life, has made it to the final five out of thousands of hopefuls who entered a competition to land a three-month internship at the UK offices of the music channel.

The business undergraduate at Brunel University flew to London earlier this week and will be interviewed by MTV bosses tomorrow.

“I need to keep my confidence up. I don’t want to stutter or get scared,” he said. “I have a lot of people supporting me, which gives me lots of confidence. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have made it through.”

Mr Nada was picked for the initial rounds of the competition after submitting a video of himself talking about why he loves MTV.

The channel then asked the public to vote on who should make it through to the next stage. Mr Nada earned 974 votes, the most out of the top five. The former student of Abu Dhabi International School said he had tried to avoid watching videos of his fellow candidates because he didn’t want to shake his confidence. “When I meet them, I’ll get to know them,” he said.

As one of the top five, he will automatically earn a one-week work-experience placement with the broadcaster, which is some recompense if the interview does not go to plan.

“If it doesn’t work out, I’m still a finalist,” he said. “This is an accomplishment in itself.

“We’re all winners at this stage, it’s just that there’s going to be one overall winner.”