Did you audition for Australian Idol?
Got any inside goss?
Send us your story and we'll post it on Inside Australian
Idol FORUM >> CONTACT >>
ADVERTISEMENT
||
Good, the bad and the tone deaf, too
Good, the bad and the tone deaf,
too
14 June 03
The Daily Telegraph
IN the US, more people voted to determine the show's winner
than signed ballot forms in the last presidential election.
Its British premiere season got more TV viewers than the
Sydney Olympics, spawned two chart-topping pop stars and
made the toughest judge, Mr Mean, a household name.
Yesterday Pop Idol, the biggest phenomenon in global
reality TV, came to Sydney.
It's known as Australian Idol but it is the same
juggernaut as its siblings - with the requisite hopefuls,
phoneys and show ponies.
The show's producers were completely unprepared for yesterday's
turn-out.
More than 4000 singers and stinkers from around NSW descended
on Sydney University in hot pursuit of five minutes of
fame.
Of those, just 60 were selected to advance to the next
round, where they will join other contestants from around
the country in singing for the show's official judges
- singer Marcia Hines, BMG general manager Ian Dixon and
artist manager Mark Holden.
There was G-G Law, a heavily made-up 23-year-old from
Melbourne who auditioned in her home state, didn't make
he first cut so came to Sydney to try again. "
" I was born on Australia Day and this is Australian
Idol, so maybe that's saying something," she said
in a bizarre American accent.
" There's so little time to impress the judges -you've
got, like, five seconds and they don't want to hear the
songs you've written - they just want to hear if you can
sing or not."
Her efforts were rewarded yesterday.
The muse was also smiling on Central Coast performer Ryan
Sheppard. Twenty seconds after he opened his mouth, the
judges decided they wanted to hear more of him.
After securing an all-important pink card guaranteeing
his entry into the next round, the 20-year-old Brent Street
Studios student thrilled the waiting applicants with his
version of N'Sync's It's Gonna Be Me.
" I got up at 3am to drive down to Sydney, so I'm
pretty tired now," he confessed later. "There
are so many talented people here -you've got to be yourself
and hope for the best."
Channel Ten head of entertainment Stephen Tate said the
standard of talent he'd seen so far had "blown [his] hair
back".
He hopes the show will be as popular here as British Pop
Idol and American Idol.
In the UK, it was even bigger than PopStars - and
Ten bosses here believe it has what it take to beat Channel
Seven's Stars.
In light of that, it's easy to understand how the producers
have managed to attract so many potential pop princes
and princesses - and a smattering of posers and pretenders.
" One girl sang I'm a Little Teapot and forgot the
words - thankfully the judges with children were able
to help her out," Mr Tate said. "We also had
one guy in Queensland who turned up in a dragon suit -
he sang Puff the Magic Dragon.
The turn-up at yesterday's Sydney auditions (which continue
today and tomorrow) exceeded the numbers, but not necessarily
the outlandish nature, of auditions held in other states
over the past week.
In Melbourne, one male teenager advanced to the next round
singing The Flintstones theme, while another girl's
rendition of I Touch Myself won her the judges'
nod.
Yesterday Killing Me Softly was murdered loudly
and crooned quietly, while anything recorded by Britney
Spears, N'Sync and Mariah Carey were also popular choices.
Some would-be performers were already revealing their
diva-esque sides.
One group would not speak to The Daily Telegraph
for fear of ruining their voices.
Another girl didn't want her picture taken "because
I don't want to be in the paper", while another said
she would perform - but only if the video cameras were
off.
Odd attitudes for those seeking mega-fame.
Others weren't taking it quite so seriously.
From under a black afro wig, Parramatta school student
Violet Merhi said: "I'm going to sing that Macy Gray
song [with the lyrics] 'I try to say goodbye and I choke'
- and then I'm really going to choke," she laughed.
The judging panel consist of singer Marcia Hines, former singer
and now writer and producer Mark Holden and BMG record label
representative Ian Dickson.
