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Pop hopefuls stand Idol
Pop hopefuls stand Idol
29 May 2003
By Andrew McGarry, The Australian
BEFORE the Ten Network's head of entertainment, Stephen
Tate, dragged himself out into an icy Adelaide morning
yesterday, he was nervous about the start of production
for his latest project.
He needn't have worried.
When Tate arrived at the Hotel Adelaide International
at 5.30am, young hopefuls were already queueing round
the block in the freezing cold for the first auditions
for Australian Idol, the latest search for a musical superstar.
By the time doors opened at 8.30am, the numbers were estimated
at nearly 2000. The crowd included friends and families
of entrants, but more than 1000 people auditioned throughout
the day.
"Adelaide has just exceeded all our expectations,"
a buoyant Tate said yesterday. "If that's the case
in the capital with the smallest population, we're bracing
ourselves when we get to Sydney."
One of the early qualifiers for the next round was Melissa
Skinner, from Angaston. Melissa, who said she was "15
and a bit", had set out for Adelaide with her mother
at 3.40am, arriving at 5.15am.
"It wasn't really that hard, you just had to give
it your best, go for it and get in," she said after
entertaining the judges with her own composition, called
Misunderstood.
"I want to make people happy with what I'm doing,
but I want to do music that I love," said Melissa,
who had been singing since she was 4.
In line were Amiel Matthews, 22, and Simon Baldock, 21,
from Victor Harbor. The pair, who are in a band together,
played guitar and harmonised to warm their voices up while
waiting.
"A packed stadium with tens of thousands of people,
that's the goal," Baldock said, but that dream will
have to wait, as neither made the cut.
Auditions move to Perth on Saturday. A pool of 100 will
be picked from which the final 40 will appear on the show
starting in July. The just-finished American Idol had
a peak audience of 38.1 million viewers for the final.
The hosts will be Channel V personalities Andrew G and
James Mathison, with a judging panel of singer Marcia
Hines, producer Mark Holden and Ian Dickson, an executive
at BMG Australia. The series winner will receive a record
deal and contracts with BMG.
The judging panel consist of singer Marcia Hines, former singer
and now writer and producer Mark Holden and BMG record label
representative Ian Dickson.
