Spirited Adventurer

Okay I promised ‘Adventure’ so what more can I do than to tell you about my Australian Idol try out experience.
I had wanted to try out last year (before I turned the big 3-0) but they had an age limit of 28. So as you could imagine I was devastated and had a Karaoke party instead – where I became TP Idol and was voted by all of my friends as the best damn singer ever. Yay for me!

THEN my life changed one night while ironing and watching an Idol special (because hey I just can’t get enough of it), and they informed me that the age limit had been upped! I would have jumped for joy except I had an iron in my hand and there wasn’t enough space to swing a cat in my front room, and the place was so old I am sure my book shelf would have fallen over …anyway, I went on the website the very next workday and saw that I could qualify. So that was it – I was in training.

So I bet you never knew I could sing!

What I wasn’t sure of was whether I could sing SOBER, but dammit I was going to try.

So I did what all budding Idol’s do, I booked in a singing lesson. Now I think ‘out of body experience’ best describes what took place. I think I shocked myself so much when I sang those first few notes of the AVRIL LAVIGNE song that my soul tried to separate from my physical form. This normally happens when others hear an AVRIL song, but when my voice started…don’t make me go there girlfriend.

This was so far out of my ‘comfort zone’ that I had entered some sort of Twilight Zone.

Anyhoo, I did learn some great tips – how to take care of your voice my drinking lukewarm or room temp drinks (not beer as I originally thought), breathing from my diaphragm (such a gross word since they applied it to a pregnancy control device), not to eat nuts, citrus, or anything that I could choke on when singing (okay, so mental note will eat NOTHING on Idol day), and what songs didn’t suit my voice (which were almost every song that man has ever created).

After I got over the fact that it wasn’t the microphones fault that my voice was so awful at times, I started to relax and…

the lesson was over.

So I went home pale and confused and decided to choose a song that I liked to sing.

I have no idea of what my neighbours thought about all this, as I started closing myself in my toilet to sing. That way I knew I would sing at least twice a day – when I got up and just before I went to bed. :)

Over the next couple of weeks I moved house, so the whole thing went on the back burner, but I had my project plan and my project team – I got my friend Hayley to style me, with Brendon’s feedback. My sister-in-law Lee-Anne assisted with hair dying and I got my hair cut the week before. And I practiced my heart out – at least once or twice a week for about 10-15 minutes. I think the turning point was when I heard that you have to audition TWICE before you even get considered to audition on ANOTHER DAY for Mark, Marcia and Kyle. Fair to say that at that stage my goal of auditioning in front of Mark, Marcia and Kyle was modified to turning up on the day!

So the night before as ‘luck’ would have it, I stayed at the Penthouse suite (sweet!) with LJ, Adam and Michael (love you guys) and had a last minute practice and got some great advice, and some well earned laughs.

It had an awesome outlook down to Darling Harbour so I could see how many people had camped out in the rain, and I could laugh like Doctor Evil from the balcony at them.

I got up early and after assistance from LJ with my hair, look and make up, I walked on down to my destiny (or my demise- I wasn’t sure which one). And after I went and got an Egg and Bacon McMuffin (hey there aren’t many food places at Darling Harbour) I sat down and got to know the locals. And yes, at first I was getting ‘down wid it’ with a group of 16 year olds. Yes, I felt very old and dorky. Although I hid my age when completing my registration form, I was happy that they thought I was younger than 30 (..and way cool I am sure).

I lost my posse when Anna and Hayley came to visit, and I also lost my line up spot and ended up registration number 456/590 something.

We registered and then sat in a big auditorium, with numbers being called in lots of 30 where you would line up outside some doors and wait to go in. It was all a bit scary looking but I was relieved to see that at least people came out (hey sometimes you never know….). There was a Garnier stand, with people who would do your hair, and a Maybelline (I think it was) stand with people who would do your make-up. I just sat and chatted. Nothing compelled me to take advantage of what was on offer, even when the Telstra girl wanted to take my picture on her phone for the BLOG.

After I said no I realised how ridiculous it was to say ‘No I don’t want my picture taken, before my audition for a National Television Program where I will have my picture taken a thousand times!’. Sometimes my logic is amusing.

So after a 7:30am start, and a few visitors throughout the day (thanks Brendon) I think it dawned on me at 5pm (when I still hadn’t auditioned) that there were people there who were taking it seriously who weren’t making it through – and I was glad I wasn’t taking it seriously. There were some great singers and I realised that there can be thousands of people with good voices but you do have to have something ‘special’ about you to separate you from everyone else.

Some people obviously got through so they could be ‘fed to the lions’ in the name of entertainment. And after waiting all day, and having to audition twice before going the next step, I realised why people got their disillusioned hopes up and were emotional on camera. Oh the wonderful world of TV. But I do have to say these people were willing participants and were as overjoyed about getting through as the really talented people – so they were playing their part quite nicely.

My time came at around 5:30pm, and they marched us through to an atrium area, where we were explained ‘you will audition for a vocal coach and a producer, and what you want is a blue card. This means you will go off to another area and audition for the Executive Producer, and then you want a pink card which means you’re through to the next round’. We were then siphoned off to one of three rooms A,B or C. Room A was meant to be the ‘hard’ room where practically noone was getting through. Some people were only getting to sing one or two lines, some had to sing 5 songs before being told no.

Luckily I got Room C – phew anything but A.

Whilst waiting the young girl next to me asked what I was singing and when I said Deborah Conway ‘It’s only the beginning’, I wasn’t surprised that she didn’t know it. After all I am not sure she was born when it was released.

When she asked me to sing some of it, I just said “No, I’m only singing for the judges” in a snobby way so she thought I was really good. Sometimes you need to mess with their minds!

That girl went in and came out pretty fast – no go. I heard her sing and she was pretty good, but the same as everyone else and I am sure she was nervous. So it was my turn.

I got a burst of nervous energy when I walked into the room and I cast my eyes on Erina the vocal coach from Idol. In fact I jumped up and down as I walked in and did a big ‘Yay I got Erina’ which had the desired effect – they were like ‘call security who is this loony tune?’ Actually I was so energised and relieved that I chatted and told them my story about the whole age limit thing, and they eventually asked me to sing.

So I stood on the ’x’ marked on the carpet and announced that I was going to sing ‘It’s Only the Beginning’ by Deborah Conway like some five year old in a talent quest. I started with the chorus (good suggestion LJ and Michael) and I could hear my voice which did sing in tune (thank god) but was clearly nervous. Funny how you can participate and spectate all at once. When I got to the end of the chorus I stopped.

That’s right people - I didn’t wait for them to ASK me to stop. I stopped on MY terms and in MY time.

Actually when I stopped I realised that they hadn’t interrupted and I covered my embarrassment by asking them why? Why hadn’t they asked me to stop? And the answer was that they weren’t going to let me go through. I think to their surprise I was happy and I asked if I could get Erina’s autograph – obviously the first request of the day as they weren’t prepared and no matter how hard I tried they weren’t going to sign a blue form for me. A bit more chit chat and a few more jokes and I was walking out, very thankful for their time and happy about the whole experience.

So that is what it is like to try out for Idol and I have more admiration of anyone who goes through that competition and now a greater understanding of what they go through. And I gained a lot of confidence from trying out and redefining myself as a singer (not a professional one, but someone who can sing). And if you’re considering something like that or trying out for anything, you know it’s worth it, just to be in it and experience what it is like.

Highly recommended and when I watch the Idols this year I can say – I would have been better than that!