Australian Idol - Final 12

I wasn't going to watch Australian Idol this year. I swore off it after Kate DeHuge won it without any talent whatsoever last year (at least nowhere near as much as her competitor, Emily Williams). But, Wifey being Wifey (and what a delight to behold she is, too!), the show was invariably going to be on the TV in our house regardless of what silly ol' me had to say! So now I've seen the performances and will no doubt continue to see them as the weeks unfold.

So I may as well spout my views on the topic here for you all to ignore / argue with me about / dwell on. (BTW, amongst other things, Wifey and I are singers, so I know that of which I speak.)

Tonight, in a shock surprise result, Australia actually did the right thing and voted out uber-nervous Joseph Gatehau, who was in all reality one of the worst performers from last night's show. Whoa! Could this year be different? Will the voting public actually vote for the best singer to win the competition this time??!




Probably not, seeing as super singer Lavina Williams (sister to last year's Emily) was also in the bottom three. There are four people I want to go on record right now as being worthy of being in the top four spots, regardless of order: Lavina Williams, Guy 'Mutto' Mutton, Bobby Flynn and Ricky Muscat (if he stops singing R&B all the time). If those names don't mean anything to you, you can confirm their faces here.

Those I consider of great talent but unfortunately not as good as the above four are Damien Leith (in fact, he's so good he almost made the above list a top five), Chris Murphy (a consummate entertainer by anyone's standards, but just not quite good enough to be in the top group), Lisa Mitchell (she's classically trained with an exceptional voice, but she's too weak for this competition), Reigan Derry (ditto) and Jessica Mauboy (even dittoier).

Those who should be the first to go (if there's any justice in the world) are Joseph Gatehau (check!), Klancie Keough (sorry, Magical_M, but she simply doesn't have the voice for it) and Dean Geyer (nice guy, great voice, but nothing special). Unfortunately, they simply can't cut it with the rest of them.

But knowing the foibles of a phone-in voting system, talent doesn't have to be there for them to win (as we've seen). All they need to get them through is a single-minded fanbase that's voting on everything but singing ability (and we all know what wonders that can do for a future career!), and they're in.

It's all fine and good to call the winner the Australian Idol "as voted by you", but don't necessarily claim that they were also the best singer in the competition that year, because it simply isn't the case.

We'll see if this year is any different. I'm pleased to say we're on the right track with tonight's result. We'll see how far we can get before I'm really cheesed off.


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