news articles 24 december

[Inside Australian Idol]

Guy fans wanted in UK
By Toby Forage
December 24, 2003


PRODUCERS of World Idol are desperate for young Aussie fans to cheer on Guy Sebastian as they prepare for the live recording of the results show on New Year's Day.
The 21-year-old South Australian is heavily tipped to be fighting for the title with America's first Idol Kelly Clarkson.



Researcher Clara Marshall contacted NEWS.com.au to appeal for Australians who are planning to be in the UK on January 1, 2004, the day of the show's recording.

"We're looking for about 10 or 15 Guy Sebastian fans . . . to come along to the live recording of the results show," she said.

"We want to get young, true fans of his to be there to support him on the day."

Fans can contact the show via its website at www.worldidol.tv for their chance to cheer Guy to glory.

Unlike Kelly Clarkson, who has become an international star on the back of her American Idol success, Guy has yet to climb every fame mountain overseas.

However, his popularity in Australia is already a phenomenon.

His debut album, Just As I Am, debuted at No.1, ending Delta Goodrem's run on 27 weeks at the top of the charts.

His first single, Angels Brought Me Here, became the highest selling Australian single of all time, outstripping Elton John's Candle In The Wind tribute to the late Princess Diana.

Guy and the other contestants from around the world have already recorded their songs for the international show, which is to be broadcast by Channel 10 on Boxing Day.

The process was apparently marred by the judges' cruel assessments of the contestants, although both Guy and Clarkson were spared such humiliation and complimented by the judges.

Guy also revealed last week that while most judges were busy trying to outdo each other on camera with insults, Australia's representative Ian "Dicko" Dickson was the only one good enough to offer some constructive criticism.

NEWS.com.au

entertainment.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4459,8250638%255E10431%255E%255Enbv,00.html

[Inside Australian Idol]

Turning fame into money

December 24, 2003

MILLSY, the Australian Idol reject more famous for snogging a Hilton than his singing prowess, is doing just fine out of his Idol venture.



Australian Idol finalist Robert Mills.


While he is yet to receive a BMG recording contract, the 21-year-old is capitalising on his new-found fame which appears to be lasting longer than the five minutes most of his fellow Idol contestants have experienced.

Millsy has been busy auditioning for Neighbours – with producers said to be impressed by his acting – as well as promotional work and corporate Christmas parties.


Last week he was in Sydney earning solid bucks for corporate chrissy functions which he followed with in-store appearances in Tasmania over the weekend.


He will be a guest on The Panel's Christmas show on Wednesday night and will stay in Melbourne for Christmas before heading to Wollongong's Cooney Tavern on Saturday night to meet more fans, his manager Gavin McDonough said.


His head can also be seen in the latest Sanity Records commercials and the Taylor&Khoo charity T-shirts ad campaign.


And he has even launched his own range of T-shirts for Miss Shop.


Millsy is, in fact, so busy he has had to quit his covers band, Megamen.


His Idol mate Shannon Noll's just-complete album will be on shelves February 9 with the first single – What About Me – out on January 26.


Another idol, Paulini Curuenavuli, has also been a regular on the Christmas party circuit and the baby of the group, Lauren Buckley, was one of the headline acts at 2GO FM's Carols, at the Express Advocate Stadium on Monday night in her hometown of Gosford.. She too is getting ready for the Idol tour. Another busy boy has been Idol finalist, Axle Whitehead, who has landed a "small speaking role" on Ten's Secret Life Of Us.

dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1266&storyid=680373

[Inside Australian Idol]

Millsy happy single
From The Eye
December 24, 2003


IT'S been a big year for Rob "Millsy" Mills.As well as Australian Idol, he was in the pages of every newspaper and magazine after a Spring Racing Carnival fling with heiress Paris Hilton.

"I've had a couple of e-mails, I replied to one, and haven't replied to the other I got the other week," he said of Paris.

"It was just one of those things, two young people that met up, she was from the States, I'm from Australia.

"Am I going to go over there? I don't think so. I'm not like a crazy kind of internet dating guy."

The Box Hill boy-turned-sort-of-pop star is happy being single.

Millsy is preparing for the Australian Idol tour.

Details are not 100 per cent clear as to the show's format, but during the first hour, each of the 12 finalists will sing for five minutes each.

The second hour will be full of duos, trios and other combinations.

Next year, Millsy hopes to have a record out, but might have to juggle a part on Neighbours after a recent casting.

Mate Blair McDonough helped him prepare for the casting, and he's waiting to find out if he's won a role.

"It's still up in the air," he said of the part on the soap.

"I thought it went pretty well."

Record company BMG still has the option to sign Millsy.

It has already picked up Idol winner Guy Sebastian, runner-up Shannon Noll and Courtney Act.

If BMG doesn't sign Mills, he could have an independent release next year.

After seeing what Sebastian has gone through, Millsy said he's kind of glad he didn't win.

"I don't think I would have liked to record an album in 12 days, although I think Guy could because I see him as an established artist," he said.

"He's just a freak.

"I'm still trying to work out who I am and what I want to be, but he already has that worked out."

Herald Sun

entertainment.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4459,8250027%255E10431%255E%255Enbv,00.html

[Inside Australian Idol]

Stage is set for idols on the move

By Torrance Mendez


GUY SEBASTIAN and his gang of 12 Australian Idol finalists have sold about 10,500 tickets for their concert in the Burswood Dome on January 31.

The box office opened on November 21 shortly after Australians voted Sebastian into stardom - and 6000 tickets were snapped up in the first 24 hours.

It is shaping as the event in which Perth songbird Cosima De Vito, 27, repays fans who voted her through to the last three of the blockbuster show.

She withdrew because of problems with her vocal cords and Channel 10 did not reveal whether she or rival Shannon Noll had the votes to reach the grand final.

"I'm really looking forward to singing in Perth," De Vito said yesterday.

"It will be an opportunity to show that I can sing and hopefully something will come out of it."

De Vito regretted not being able to perform before the nationwide television audience of more than three million who saw the final show from the Sydney Opera House.

Another finalist from Perth, 22-year-old Cle Wootton, said the series of concerts by Idol finalists in January and February were a brilliant opportunity.

"I'm hoping to do an original song," she said.

Both Wootton and De Vito backed Sebastian to win World Idol.

Wootton promised to be "glued to the TV set" when the performances go to air on Boxing Day. The results show will be screened on January 2 at 6.30am and repeated that evening.

Burswood Dome event manager Patrick Pierce said about 2000 tickets were still available. The nationwide tour begins in the Eastern States.

Some shows were added to Eastern States venues despite the fact only two of the performers could be considered professionals - Sebastian and Noll.

Ticket prices were $72.60 each or $66 when bought as a family group of four and $61.60 when booked in a group of 10 or more.

"Customers are mainly mothers with young daughters," Mr Pierce said. "And age groups are anything from seven to 60."


© 2003 West Australian Newspapers Limited
All Rights Reserved.


www.thewest.com.au/20031224/news/general/tw-news-general-home-sto117511.html

[Inside Australian Idol]

Idol riches
By Peter Robinson
December 24, 2003


Over the past two weeks, competing Pop Idol winners from around the globe will have argued over whose phone votes can add the most cash to Idol creator Simon Fuller's terrifying personal fortune ("will battle it out to be crowned the planet's biggest pop sensation"), and the results could go either way.

Will American Idol Kelly Clarkson romp to victory? And what about Belgium's rogue metaller, or even the UK "spunk", Will Young?

Anything is possible, as someone once sang - though this is the Fullervision Song Contest, so we already know the real winner.

Heinz Winckler, Idols, South Africa

The South African series boasted alleged voting syndicates, a presenter who was admitted into drug rehab halfway through the series and a grand final whose format was rejigged at the last minute from two to three contestants, avoiding an all-white finale. Still, enough of the boring stuff - let's talk about dogs. Heinz has a 14-year-old Maltese, with whom he recently stayed at the Twelve Apostles Hotel in Oudekraal - the only five-star hotel in South Africa to allow pets in bedrooms.

Kurt Nilsen, Idol, Norway

Kurt thrashed runner-up Gaute Ormsen, who has since been described as "the Norwegian Justin Timberlake". As in the UK, both Nilsen and Ormsen recorded the song eventually released by the winner - She's So High, a cover of a song which scraped the UK Top 30 in 1999. Back then it had been performed by the son of Randy "You know, as in Turner Overdrive" Bachman, and it is just as wonderful today.

Peter Evrard, Idool, Belgium

Evrard performed Nirvana's Lithium during the Idol heats and, after debuting what would be his first single on grand final night, commented: "I'd never have chosen that single, but it could have been a lot worse." Of his wardrobe he adds: "I always wear black because it's easy to combine. I don't have to ask myself whether this colour goes with that colour." Peter's debut album is called Rhubarb.

Ryan Malcolm, Canadian Idol, Canada

Back home in Amherstview, Ontario, Ryan - whose all-engulfing fame led him to open the recent Hamilton 2003 World Cycling Festival - and two other members of the Malcolm clan enjoyed minor success on the covers band circuit. Their ace-sounding A Bit of Nostalgia - Requestfully Yours is available for purchase now at www.abitofnostalgia.com. Ryan's own idol is golfer Mike Weir. Crazy but true.

Diana Karazon, SuperStar, Pan-Arabic region

"I feel success in every moment," says Diana, who won SuperStar in August following a gruelling, 21-week search. "Especially when I stare at my mother's face." Upon winning Diana said nothing but dedicated her performance to the people of Lebanon, the people of Jordan, His Majesty King Abdullah, the Arab nation as a whole and the children of Palestine. Which makes a change from "my stylist". Fortunately the final, in which Jordanian Karazon and Syrian Rowaida Attiyeh battled it out, managed not to cause any serious political "issues". The power of music, eh viewers?

Alexander Klaws, Deutschland Sucht Den Superstar, Germany

Some 62 per cent of German 14- to 49-year-olds watched the grand final, in which housewife's choice Alexander overcame flu and romped to victory. A shame he ever recovered, really. His most recent single was from a German Gladiator film. In Free Like the Wind he sings: "He fights hard, will he reach his aim? He'll survive for his friends, he is like a crying wolf tonight. He is the winner in the end." Well that's ruined the film for the rest of us, hasn't it.

Kelly Clarkson, American Idol, USA

Clarkson's stepfather calls her Mariah Kelly, because it sounds a bit like Mariah Carey, who is a singer, like Kelly. The hours must just fly by in Dallas. Upon winning, the ex-cocktail waitress filmed From Justin to Kelly, a summer holiday romp with runner-up Justin Guarini which made S Club's Seeing Double look like Citizen Kane. In tattoo news, Kelly has a Japanese symbol on the back of her neck, which means "Blessed". She also has a tattoo on her right wrist, though sadly it is not the word "Brian".

Jamai Loman, Idols, Netherlands

Jamai has an interesting selection of spectacle frames and has lent his tones to songs such as Always on My Mind, Love Is All Around and Everything I Do (I Do for You). There is, frankly, no way on earth that this man will win World Idol.

Will Young, Pop Idol, UK

Will's mature new direction is reflected perfectly by his new album sleeve, in which the world's first Pop Idol is pictured jumping off a dry stone wall. Will came out as a gay shortly after winning Pop Idol, but while you'd find Fred Durst more likely to discuss the ins and outs of life as a homosexual, Will did go out and buy Kylie's Slow on the morning it was released, opting for the 3.99 CD, rather than the 1.99 version. How very highfalutin'.

Alicja Janosz, Idol, Poland

Since winning Idol, Alicja has decided that she wants to be called Alex. Fair enough. A massive-selling debut album is already out of the way and she's tipped to represent Poland in next year's Eurovision Song Contest with I'm Still Alive, a song whose title seems to epitomise the struggle that all Idols face when it comes to their second album. Alex/icja puts her success down to God-given talent, hard work, and luck. "I don't know anything more than this," she concludes.

Guy Sebastian, Australian Idol, Australia

Guy - who calms himself down before a performance by entering what he terms "Grooveland" - is the newest Pop Idol of the lot. Crowned last month, Guy found maintaining his virginity "freaking hard", but the real tragedy in his victory is that the crown did not go to would-be Oz Idol Peter Ryan. Ryan's day job was ensuring weekly quotas were met in the mating section of a piggery in New South Wales. \

-- Guardian

The perfomance segment of World Idol screens on Friday at 7.30pm on Channel Ten. A live telecast of the results show will screen at 6.30am on January 2, repeated that night at 7.30pm.

www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/24/1071941763355.html