Australian Idol - WINNER!

Well, he did it. Damien, ugly teeth and everything, came through and won Australian Idol. I must admit, even though he was my preferred winner (and I even voted for him), I was a little surprised to hear his name read out.

I always expected Jessica to walk away with it.

Like I said last week, both of them are excellent singers, and Jess in particular has a certain 'diva'-style quality to her that makes people sit up and take notice.

But for the reasons I already went into here, I thought Damien would do a better job of the 'Idol' mantle.

And now we'll see whether or not he proves me wrong.

(He got a standing ovation in the Sydney Opera House, damn it!)

It was great to see the others in the Top Twelve re-appear. Bobby, Guy and Lavina were great, Ricky, Reigan, Chris and Dean were okay, and Lisa, Klancie and Joseph were crap. (For their part, Jessica and Damien were both very nervous to start off with, but you've gotta excuse them that. Just this once.)

As for the other performers, Guy Sebastian was good, Shannon Noll was not (does anyone understand what he's saying? - he has the worst annunciation in the world!), Marcia and Deni Hines were boring (bad song, and Deni can't reach the high notes), Anthony Callea was excellent as usual, The Young Divas were bland (particularly Kate DeHuge, who really brings that quartet down), and the less said about Jessica Mauboy's Nanna Harriet "touching herself", the better!

But what was this? Angela Bishop interviewed a massive tomato on the red carpet:


"Agh! Look out! It's a giant tomato!"

Did Casey Donovan intentionally look for the worst possible dress she could wear? And is there a reason she's the only former Idol not to sing at the final? (Besides the reasons that she's crap, nobody cares about her, and she hasn't got an album out because she's crap and nobody cares about her?)

This is the kind of mistake teenage voters have made in previous years with their choice of the female Idols. But thankfully this year common sense prevailed.

Jessica was the best kind of performer - a true professional and a gracious loser. She'll go far and I'm sure she'll land a recording contract (hopefully not before she decides what her 'niche' or 'angle' is going to be). We don't have to worry about her.


Beautiful and talented; Jess won't have
any trouble getting an album out after this.

And Damien Leith is hopefully going to do very well for himself also. How proud would his wife have felt? I can't imagine it. She 'discovered' him in an Irish pub, brought him back to Australia, married him, convinced him to audition for the show, and then there she was, sitting in the Sydney Opera House and watching her husband being crowned as Australia's favourite amateur singer for the year.

Amazing.


My GOODNESS, it's a good thing they
went to work on Damien's appearance
since these photos were taken!

I think it's a great idea that they're not going to rush an album through in five days this time (they must have finally worked out that as a basis for a good first album, that approach doesn't always cut the mustard!), so I hope Damien gets to add a Celtic/Irish flavour to the album and make it interesting.

It'll be great to hear what he comes up with.

Until then, I'm gonna sit back, relax, and enjoy the knowledge that us Aussies voted in an Irish expat as our Idol. Who says we're a pack of racist snobs? Multicultural Australia, I say.

Well done, Damo. Have a pint on me.*



* Your shout, though.


.