news articles 15 october

[Inside Australian Idol]

Marcia's Idol chatter
From Sydney Confidential
October 15, 2003

DICKO's "getting better", Mark Holden is just "a mouth" and Australian Idol voters need a helluva wake-up call.

Australian Idol "Mum", Marcia Hines, has spoken - and like a parent to a child, she's "very disappointed" with the nation's voters.

"Wow. Where do I start? I'm just astounded," she told Confidential after viewers declared Paulini one of the three least favourites of the six remaining contenders on Monday night.

"I'm really disappointed in the kids - and the adults - out there and the way they're voting," Hines said. "We're really trying to find someone that is actually good, not just good-looking."

She said, "Everyone was speechless backstage" after the show, in which another favourite, Levi, was voted off.

It appears the Sara-Marie phenomenon has hit Idol, where viewers assume "everyone else is voting for the favourites" so they're voting for the underdogs - or the spunk rather than the voice.

"I know a lot of kids are voting for the young spunk but that doesn't mean the spunky one has got a voice that can represent Australia on the international stage," Hines said.

"Hello! Look at that guy in America who's 20 stone but no one cares because he's got an amazing voice."

On her fellow judges, she said Mark "Buddabing Buddabar" Holden just keeps shooting off at the mouth while Dicko appeared to be softening in the final stages of the show.

"Look, I think Dicko's OK now, but Mark lets his mouth go and says some crazy things, you know. I think, 'Geez, come on man'. What a mouth."

And in a final lecture for the Mum and Dad viewers: "If you're too embarrassed to vote in front of your kids, call from another room and vote. We don't want another trippy night like Monday night."

The Daily Telegraph


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[Inside Australian Idol]

Idol racism ruled out
By Luke Dennehy
October 15, 2003

AN Australian Idol judge refuses to believe racists almost voted a star performer off the show.

Paulini Curuenavuli, of Fijian origin, nearly got booted off the show on Monday night.

Curuenavuli scored the second lowest number of votes.

Queenslander Levi Kereama was the only finalist to score lower.

Judge Ian Dickson initially thought Curuenavuli may have been the victim of racism, but now believes her fans were complacent.

"To be honest, my initial reaction was, 'Jesus Christ, this country is racist'," Dickson told the Herald Sun.

"But then when I calmed down and thought it through, and I don't think that is sustainable as an idea."

"I think this prob ably, if anything, has given her supporters a wake-up call," he said.

Victorian Rob Mills is expected to be one of the final three come Monday night, judging by Dickson's comments.

He said Mills has lots of work to do with his voice, but all the finalists have room to improve.

"He could teach all the rest of them a hell of a lot about PR, which is a huge part of our business," Dickson said.

Curuenavuli's near-departure was nearly overshadowed by judge Mark Holden's harsh comments to Kereama.

Finalists will be at Highpoint on Saturday promoting the release of their new single Rise Up.

Herald Sun


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[Inside Australian Idol]

Idol voting 'a mockery'
Comment by Vicki Englund*
October 15, 2003

MOST people following the progress of Channel 10's search-for-a-star series, Australian Idol, would have scratched their heads after watching Monday night's show.

The resident judges – singer Marcia Hines, entertainment manager Mark Holden (yes, the former Carnation guy), and BMG record company representative, Ian "Dicko" Dickson – were certainly mystified.

The reason for the kerfuffle was the results of the viewer voting.

One of the competition's top performers and most gifted singers, Paulini Curuenavuli, found herself assigned to the bottom three of the six remaining finalists, with her future in the show in doubt.

A stunned silence overtook the audience, with Hines simply saying she was staggered that the person who gave one of the standout performances the previous night (along with soul aficionado Guy Sebastian) should be facing a possible exit.

Dicko was more forthcoming, claiming it was "an absolute disgrace" and that he no longer understood the competition.

It highlights – if proof were needed – that the voting process is inherently flawed.

For those who aren't familiar with the show, the artists perform on Sunday's program, then if viewers feel inclined, they can vote for the "best" (or more likely, their favourite) either by SMS or telephone.

The main glitch lies in the fact that people can vote as many times as they like over 24 hours, which leaves the way open for all sorts of discrepancies to creep into the system.

The most glaring example is the case of cute bad-boy contestant Rob Mills, or "Millsy" as he's affectionately called.

A hit with hormone-driven schoolgirls nationwide, the average-voiced Millsy, who's really more suited to fronting a pub band than being a pop idol, keeps managing to stay in the competition.

Why? Because those same hormone-driven schoolgirls are apparently voting for him no matter what the quality of his performances. His singing on Sunday night was passable at best, and Dicko told him outright he'd be heading home to Melbourne come Tuesday morning.

But as Dicko is a judge in name only, and the outcome is now left to the voters, it wasn't to be.

Instead, appealing Brisbane R 'n' B singer Levi Kereama, who admittedly had a pretty shaky performance himself on Sunday, ended up being ousted. Curuenavuli got a reprieve for another week, along with fellow bottom-place-getter, the country-rock- flavoured Shannon Noll.

Noll is another case in point. Yes, he's a pretty good singer in his genre, and he blew everyone away with a blistering rendition a few weeks ago of the Moving Pictures' ballad, What About Me.

But you can't help wondering if the country boy's whole town of Condobolin, NSW, and everyone else within a 500km radius is voting for him out of loyalty rather than because he deserves to win.

On Monday night, after the shock about Curuenavuli wore off, a teary Hines swallowed her usual diplomacy and was moved to state that she hoped the Australian public was voting for a voice, because that's what the competition is about.

But is it? After all, what is an "idol" if it isn't someone who's extremely popular? The pop charts are full of famous names with ordinary voices but who happen to have some sort of X-factor which touches a nerve with the public.

Kylie Minogue is a prime example. Once dubbed "the singing budgie", she can carry a tune satisfactorily but is hardly Aretha Franklin. But star appeal – she's got it in buckets.

Heaven forbid if Mills ends up winning Australian Idol purely because his rabid fans are text-messaging tens of times each, while admirers of Curuenavuli or Sebastian politely make only one or two calls of support for them.

It just goes to show you can never trust the taste of the general public, and it should provoke an examination of an unfair voting system that can lead to a ridiculous result.

What every voter should remember is that the winner is to make an album in the near future and has to deliver something worth buying.

Will the fickle, short attention spans of schoolgirls mean there are going to be thousands of Millsy CDs in the $5 bargain bins within six months?

Vicki Englund is a Courier-Mail TV critic

The Courier-Mail


www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7566050%255E28477,00.html

[Inside Australian Idol]

Kelly rocks the boat
By Alexandra Economou
October 15, 2003


NOW that Kelly Cavuoto is out of the Australian Idol spotlight, she can reveal all about the other contestants and the judges.
WATCHING Australian Idol, it often seems like one big happy family getting together for a singalong. After speaking to Adelaide rock singer Kelly Cavuoto, it's obvious that this isn't always the case.

Not that it is all bitching and backstabbing; just that there is more to some people than meets the eye.

Cavuoto made it to the final eight in Channel 10's national talent search, but was voted out last week. Now that she is free of the stringent media restrictions that govern all contestants, she can spill the beans.

According to Cavuoto, the judges are a mixed bag, with Ian "Dicko" Dickson a legend, Marcia Hines a bit antisocial and Mark Holden a poser.










And she has a definite idea of who she believes will win.

For a 22-year-old from Paradise, who had only played in bands, Australian Idol was a whole new world.

About 7000 hopefuls turned up for the first round of auditions in capital cities around Australia four months ago and the three judges whittled them down to just 100.

If that wasn't nerve-racking enough, the final 12 hopefuls had to share a house, with cameras ever-present, and perform in front of a live studio audience each week.

They also had to keep choosing the perfect song to keep them in the competition.

For Cavuoto, being labelled the "rock chick" meant her choice was somewhat diminished. She chose to sing such classics as Silverchair's Tomorrow, Evanescence's Bring Me to Life and Killing Heidi's Mascara.

She admits the pressure was intense.

"Some of the songs I probably wouldn't have picked if I had more time to think about it," she says. "At home, I can download them from the Internet and get a feel for them. I probably wouldn't have chosen Tomorrow, even though I like the song."

While Cavuoto's Idol journey ended last week, she is positive about the entire experience - just don't call her the "rock chick".

"It annoyed me a bit," she says. "It is a gimmick and I know that it helps."

Gimmick or no gimmick, it certainly paid off for a girl who was originally convinced to enter by friends.

"They said if you don't do it we will kill you," she laughs. "I didn't even think I would make it through the first two auditions before we saw the judges."

But the real pressure started when she was chosen for the top 100. "Some people got a bit more competitive," she remembers. "Once it got to the top 12, we realised we didn't want anyone to do badly."

With five people left in Australian Idol, her thoughts about the final winner are varied.

"Shannon is a favourite with the young girls, Guy is like Stevie Wonder, Cosima has tried to change herself too much and Millsy is a larrikin," she says.

"I would say Shannon because I think mums love him and he is an all-round top bloke. He doesn't have a nasty bone in his body."

The show has certainly delivered some surprises and Cavuoto says the early exits for Cle and Bek were a bit of a shock. "I think the girls have it hard," she says.

It seems the weight of expectation impacted heavily on some of the finalists - namely Lauren and Cle.

"I wasn't surprised that Lauren was voted out," Cavuoto says. "She was just too timid and too scared when she was performing."

She also says some people have tried too hard to be someone they are not. "Cosima told me she didn't feel entirely comfortable with her new image," she says. "She is more suited to the Celine Dion-type ballads."

While she admits you have to have a "thick skin" to survive, she says it wasn't always easy to deal with the bad news after a performance.

"There was one time when I totally lost it," she says. "But generally it was OK."

Out of all the judges, it is clear that Dicko holds the most clout.

"I think he has been a bit TV-ed up but he said to me to call him and chat later," she says. "He seems to have our best interests at heart."

In fact, Dicko seems pretty taken with Cavuoto. "I think she represented something that was slightly different in her rocky attitude," he says.

"I said don't run away with the idea that you're doing it for the fans, because pop music is very eclectic these days. I was trying to get across that you don't have to sing all these morbid, turgid melodies." He thinks she may have been more successful if she had sung pop songs in a rock fashion.

Cavuoto doesn't think Marcia Hines is suited to the competition, despite the fact that she is a "beautiful lady".

She never became close to Mark Holden. "He tries to be cool," she says. "And he always knows when the camera is on him and plays up to it."

She is also not a big fan of the cast song Rise Up - a Mark Holden composition.

"It is very similar to Vanessa Amarosi who Mark writes for," she says.

Cavuoto also wonders whether the cast album will crack the Top 10.

"It will only do well if it is marketed well like the rest of the show," she says.

For her, the show has been a learning experience and she feels she has grown as a performer.

"I have totally grown and I have seen myself from the first auditions," she says. "People have been saying you have got potential. They say I do have what it takes."

But don't expect the Cavuoto solo show to roll out any time soon.

"I would love to be in a band," she says.

* Australian Idol can be seen at 7.30pm on Thursday, Sunday and Monday on Channel 10.

The Advertiser

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