World Idol

[Andrew]

So, your country has had the awful hype machine come to your country? So just so everyone knows, Pop Idol was the original in the UK and basically a panel of 3 judges (One always has to be nasty) choose a top 40 from whoever around the designated country turns up to Audition. From there the audience votes via phone and SMS to get their favourite performers into the top 12. Then over the weeks, that number is whittled down to find the "Idol"

But more ironically, New Zealand came up with the Popstars Idea, sold it to Australia, who then sold it to the UK, then in turn Pop Idol was made to rival Popstars. Pop Idol then sold the Idol Franchise to America and a ton of European Countries, and finally back to Australia.

But on Boxing Day, World Idol with air all of the respective Idols from their countries have come to compete against eachother in a rather interesting world scenario, where a panel of 11 Judges (One from each country) passes judgement on their singing performance. From there, the voting will apparently be weighted so every vote is equal and you cannot vote for your own country's Idol. And on January 2, we'll have our first World Idol.

Now I hated Australian Idol, it was cheesey, drawn out and had some just plain awful singers, and I'm not too happy with the winner the teenyboppers voted for, but the world Idol concept seems pretty darn interesting, an interactive, internation show, its the first of its kind and it draws my attention.

Here are the contestants and Odds on to win.

Kelly Clarkson - USA - current odds 5/2.

Will Young - UK - current odds 3/1

Guy Sebastian - Australia - current odds 6/1

Heinz Winckler - South Africa - current odds 8/1

Alexander Klaws - Germany - current odds 8/1

Ryan Malcolm - Canada - current odds 10/1

Jamai Loman - Netherlands - current odds 10/1

Alicja Janosz - Poland - current odds 14/1

Peter Evrard - Belgium - current odds 14/1

Kurt Nilsen - Norway - current odds 20/1

Diana Karazon - Lebanon - current odds 20/1

So what do you think of this show and who do you think will win.

My bet is that Kelly Clarkson will take it out, cause we hear her EVERYWHERE, and it'll be between Will and Guy for 2nd place.

[titandude21]

I haven't heard anyone's singing clips other than Clarkson. While I'm not here to make assumptions on how the others will perform, Clarkson has so much popularity nationwide and possibly worldwide. It'll be very hard to beat her. I hate to be a frontrunner, but if I were to bet money on this, I'd put it on her

[Heracross20]

Not to mention the fact that Kelly Clarkson is simply an amazing singer (better than both Clay and Reuben imho). Although I have heard only 2 of the other contestants, I am simply a huge fan and remember getting chills everything she would sing.

[Craig]

Actually I believe Canada was the originator of the Popstars series 8)

Anyways.. I think the american girl will win.

[Andrew]

Wrong Craig. New Zealand creates quite a lot of good TV concepts, Popstars was originally theirs. As was Treasure Island (another reality show)

[Jay]

I can't stress how much I hate Guy Sebastian -- not to mention he hasn't had time to prove himself, I mean, one released single is supposed to get him the world idol title? Nuh uh, sorry.

Clarkson deserves to win it.

[Ninetales3001]

Ryan Malcolm's face is really scary.. he better not win. XD ..I hope Kelly Clarkson wins though, because she's really pretty and she does have a really awesome voice. The other singers, I have NFC who they are. ^^;

[The Rusted One]

Originally posted by OzAndrew
Wrong Craig. New Zealand creates quite a lot of good TV concepts, Popstars was originally theirs. As was Treasure Island (another reality show)

It's because we're all so bored we need to create other things to entertain us. And it never works.

...

To be honest, I couldn't care less who wins; I'm not exactly a fan of Guy Sebastian, and frankly, the only other person I know of involved in the Idol series is Kelly Clarkson (well, that newer US winner, and the runner-up, but I'm not sure of the names. Reuben _____ and Clay Aiken? Something like that). While I do think she can sing, etc., I don't know if I'm so enthusiastic as to say she deserves to win, nor interested enough to say I hope she does.

[soggy_cardboard]

ooooooooooooooh, yeah, NZ rocks
but i dont know if its a good thing that we created it

Like others, i hate "guy" i dont really care who wins, but i think Kelly Clarkson should win, because i can sit through her song without screaming...

[Gligar_Man]

i win for not knowing who any of those people are

[Indecent Exposure]

Originally posted by OzAndrew
where a panel of 14 Judges (One from each country)

I may be wrong here, but is Simon Cowell being counted as America's judge in this thing? If so there's technically 2 British judges... not that it really matters since just like in the latter stages of the national competitions, they're just there to get cheap pops from the crowd.

Anyway, I seriously hope Kelly clarkson doesn't win... why? Because she makes terrible music. Like many musicians these days, great voice, horrible music taste. I want Will Young to win for the single reason that a few weeks back he finally released a decent single, so that's one up on most pop stars. Either that or I hope that nobody votes for any of them No, that's cruel, I'm sure their parents will vote for them.

[Chris]

Talking of Pop Idol-related events, it was the UK final of Pop Idol tonight. Pretty much the whole of Birmingham (the home city of Mark, one of the finalists) lost all Internet/phone capabilities for the night, which goes some way to explaining why these things piss me off so much. I can't comment for the rest of the country however (did you have any problems accessing the Internet/dialling out, or was it just Birmingham? - please reply). The same happened last year, but only for a few hours.

Oh, by the way, Michelle won. Which made a crap night even worse, because now my mum keeps wandering around the house moaning about how Mark should've won.

[Ninetales3001]

Originally posted by Indecent Exposure
I may be wrong here, but is Simon Cowell being counted as America's judge in this thing? If so there's technically 2 British judges... not that it really matters since just like in the latter stages of the national competitions, they're just there to get cheap pops from the crowd.

He obviously meant one judge from each different Idol show, which are from different countries, not from where they're born. lol

...anyway

I wonder who will be the Judge to represent Canadian Idol... haha Canadian Idol was so pathetic compaired to American Idol. They held auditions at Metrotown, a mall I like go to every weekend here in BC, and it was so jam packed. Our Idol winner is really lame, he has a good voice (obviously) but besides that he's stupid. XD They allways seem to pick beautiful girls and ugly guys (which people say are hot which is really gross haha) in the finals of Idol shows... (Well, that opinion is formed from watching American and Canadian Idol only... ^^; ) I know it isn't a beauty contest... but come on, when someone like CLAY AIKEN can become who he is now just by being on a TV show.. it terrifes me! *eye twitches* XD (and hell, he didn't even win American Idol!!)

[Indecent Exposure]

Originally posted by Ninetales3001
He obviously meant one judge from each different Idol show, which are from different countries, not from where they're born. lol

Cowell is a British judge, from the British show. He's the main reason the show became such a succes in fact, and one of the main factors in America buying the rights to produce their own version of the show.

[Silver Ledian]

I've only heard 2 of those Idols singing, so I can only really judge who I want to win in terms of putting those 2 up against each other.

I agree that Kelly Clarkson is a very good singer but I don't think there's much originality to her voice. I liked her first single to be released over here, 'Miss Independent', but I thought her second single - a double-A side - 'Low' and something else, were pretty bad.

Will Young, on the other hand, has a really original voice and since winning the first series of Pop Idol in the UK, has made some great and original tracks. I think because of this unique voice, which you can distinguish a mile off, deserves to win it.

It's quite funny to see Lebanon with a Pop Idol. I'd have expected many other countries to have the competition, never the Lebanon Good luck to them all though.

[Kris]

It could be interesting. The confusing bit is we (UK) have two Pop Idols after last night. Even though Im sure it was fixed. Just like the first one actually.

Is it going to be aired on TV?

[Indecent Exposure]

Originally posted by Kris
It could be interesting. The confusing bit is we (UK) have two Pop Idols after last night. Even though Im sure it was fixed. Just like the first one actually.

Is it going to be aired on TV?

Unfortunatly yes it is. Christmas day in fact. Well, at least "Only Fools..." will be a little bit of good Christmas television.

And why do you think the thing was fixed? It's the stupid British public that vote exactly how people tell them. The only reason Will Young won last year was because everyone was all psyched about Gareth Gates, so people started backing Will Young to be different. And once somebody sees their favorite TV celebrity backing the underdog, they all follow suite. And by the end, the majority of voters were trying to be different, so Will won. Fortunatly however, the last year has showed they made the right decision, at least Will Young isn't completly annoying. And lets be honest, when it comes to this years competition, none of them deserved to win a record deal, at best they're girl/boy band singers. The only uniqueness any of them had was the winner didn't have a perfect figure...

[Chris]

Originally posted by Indecent Exposure
The only uniqueness any of them had was the winner didn't have a perfect figure...

"Perfect" is a gross understatement, as I'm sure you know...

Let's be serious though. Michelle is neither "pop" nor "idol" (I'd hate to think what kind of role model she's going to play for the ~6 months she's around for), so it's painfully obvious that the vote was rigged... Even Simon Cowell half-admitted it last week.

[Andrew]

Well, just saw the show here, and my god, wow, what a ton of... rather dull and safe songs. And some people that just plained sucked.

First off Judges. Spent far too much time on the incoherant Polish judge, the rather bland Uk judge and Simon Cowell sounding like a broken record. Occassionally they said something inspiring, but was all far too heavily edited.

Andrew G and BugEyes, I really wouldn't have minded is Andy G had've gone over, he's usually not a tool, can do a decent interview and isn't up himself. I bet BugEyes whinged that it wasn't fair Andy G was allowed to go and he wasn't so they both had to stay at home and be boring as the camera swivelled around them ever 15 seconds.

The UK Hosts, wow, those HAD to be the biggest foreheads I've seen in quite a while (Including TGED from Dawsons Creek Daytime Reruns). They weren't particuallarly funny, and come to think of it, as part of the Idol liscence, they must all need two male hosts, both rather daft. I agree with Hobbits.

Now the performances.

Alexander belted out Maniac, oh god, here was a person I thought would've been better suited to the movie "Zoolander". He had the Zoolander look and the whole "Do you know how hard it is to be really really ridiculously good looking". His jazzercise routine provided me with chuckles as I envisaged him hosting an early morning aerobics show but his singing wasn't great, his movements laughable, and a rather bad show opener.

Jamai sang an awful Elton John Song "Sorry seems to be the hardest word" and to keep my finger hovering above the off button seemed to be the hardest thing to do during his boring song and corpselike grabs at the screen. Ug. Go away.

Diana, Sand some song I can't remember. Wow, she grabbed my attention, nicely dressed, young, not anorexic. Her voice was lovely, and for a moment I winced in pain remembering Liban's Wildcard performance. But indeed, she ain't going to win, nice voice, bad song gal. I liked Dicko's comments on her, spot on mate.

Heinz, reminded me so much of Rove McManus! www.rove.com.au I think it was his cheeky grin and half decent song that kept me watching, he was definately one of the better ones. I think he's got a shot.

*This is where my memory lapses, so I can't remember the correct order*

Belgan Peter, ug, he got the shaft in the recaps. And he got a shaft in my opinion for looking like a lost hippy. And the fact screaming and bellowing does not equal music or a bit of singing talent. Go away. Now.

Polish Alex, heh, awful song gal, sorry to see you trip on your way in and way out. She seemed a bit lost, and a bit annoying in places. And the fact she was about as posable as a brick.

Ryan from Canada, ug... *Tries to think positive* *Fails* What a bland performance, if I had some of those rose tinted glasses, maybe I would've been tricked into thinking that was a good song you gave. You kept looking at your feet, and into that mesmorizing smoke. I didn't like you or your performance.

Kelly Clarkson - What the HELL were you wearing? I'm sorry you had to hack up some man's suit you found at an OpShop and wear it because you're so poor, oh wait, I'm sorry, YOU HAVE A STYLE CONSULTANT. Sack that person immediately. She had a pretty good performance, but the clothes! THE CLOTHES! BURN THE CLOTHES!

Will Young - All you managed to light was my hope that this awful performance ended up in a misfire in the flames. Good enough voice, but didn't drive it home and looked like that mic stand was propping his body up. Such a BORING performance.

Guy - Thank god you had some Charisma! I liked his post interview, and the fact that he gave a half decent song out. He's got a good chance.

Kurt - He reminded me of a blonde Brady Bunch Bobby. Or B4. Coincidently, my sister commented on his performance "I give it 4/10 for the amount of 50 cent pieces he can fit in between his front teeth" a pretty good performance, but messed up a tad.

Also the camera work, where the hell do they hire they people? I don't like a rollercoaster experience through my TV whilst trying to listen to a song that's already awful enough.

So yes, it wasn't fantastic, and it wasn't awful, I would've liked to seen some more from the judges, but my bets are on.

Kelly 1st.
Will, Guy and Heinz 2nd
Kurt 3rd.

*Shrugs* We all know Kelly's going to win.

[Kirei]

Me and Ade had to watch it because my sister gets control of the TV all the time and she put it on. It was repeated this morning and she watched it again then for some reason. It was awful!! Even the funny looking ones weren't funny enough to make it worth watching. I think that american girl has a horrible whiny voice and I don't like our one Will either, I don't like any of them. I thought norway was best and that one with long hair because he was a bit stupid. I prefer eurovision!

[Chris 2.1]

How cheese-like is this? Right, in the Uk, we had the following:

Popstars - loads people make a band of 5. It was called Hear'say. The losing 5 then made a group, called Liberty, soon changed to Liberty X after Liberty was taken. Hear'Say all became bitchy and broke up, and Liberty X are really popular...I think. 2nd Albums already out; Hear'Say released 3 songs :p

Pop Idol1 - Will won. This was the start of THE CHEEKY GIRLS! And didn't Darius end up here? Gareth, Zoe Birkett, Sarah Whatmore (No, i DON'T want more! hehe....*silence*) also had singles out....some others did, too. When did Rick Waller start?

Popstars - BOYS V Girls - or something cheesy. They made a boy band and girl band. The girls, Girls Aloud, got Xmas No1 last year and the boys split up after their second song, 'shakespeares way with words' was unpopular. What was the tune again? Anyway, GA are prety popular.

Pop Idol2 - Michelle won. Totally fixed, sorta. Simon Cowell said "I want you to win" like right at the start and OH.YOUR.GOD she ended up winning. I was surprised Sam went. I liked Sam. Michelles song sucks.

AND NOW WORLD IDOL? GETARTOFFIT!

Humph.