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I never thought I’d ever say this, but I have been thoroughly entertained with this wacky bunch for the last few weeks.

We’re into our 4th season of Idols here, and to be very honest, I’ve never gotten into this program, I’ve always felt that half the time it was a load of codswhallop and quite frankly there have always been better things to entertain oneself with on the goggle box when it’s actually being looked at!

I must admit, our first winner, Heinz Winkler, has an awesome voice and believe it or not, I actually have all his CD’s. He is a very talented young man and I’m not surprised he won the first time round. The 2nd and 3rd time winners have not done much at all, so I wonder what season 4 will produce.

Naturally, just like any other country, the panel of judges are all involved in the entertainment industry and have an opinion that I’d like to think means something in this day and age. Initially I was put off by the scathing comments that some of these hopefuls were subjected to and thought that quite a lot of what was said was downright cruel. Well, I think I’ve had my mind changed. Some of these people just cannot sing! We’re still watching auditions at the moment and I’ve had quite a chuckle at the expense of some of these people.

Of course there have been the comments along the lines of ‘you sound like Minnie Mouse on helium’ or ‘go outside, drop a brick on your foot and then you’ll know what I had to go through listening to you’, or ‘it’s like watching the bride of Chucky’ or ‘I feel like playing Russian roulette with a fully loaded gun!’ and so on. There was even one occasion where all four judges pretended to be asleep, this poor guy just kept on warbling away and eventually got the hint and made a very quick exit from the room.

The one judge, Randall Abrams, is the South African version of Simon Cowell and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him smile. I’m sure his face would crack if it did, and some of the things he comes out with are quite amazing especially when he say’s it with a deadpan expression on his face.

One hopeful informed them that she would be doing an ABBA song and his response was not very welcoming even before she started. Anyway, off she went and launched into ‘The Winner Takes It All’. Look, it was not bad, but she just did not have the voice for that song and I cringed for her. You can imagine the reaction at the end, 4 plain and simple NO’s! Of course our sourest judge, Randall, simply informed the lady, that they try and discourage hopefuls from singing anything by ABBA, as it just does not work. He went on to inform her, that the ABBA songs may sound simple when put together, but you have to believe that if Bjorn and Benny have been hailed as writing the best pop song in World with ‘Dancing Queen’, the rest of their catalogue is along the same vein. I could not have said it better, don’t know about ‘Dancing Queen’ being hailed as the best pop song in the World though.

I did something I have not done in a long time the other week and listened to each ABBA album from ‘Ring, Ring’ through to ‘The Visitors’ over a couple of days and I actually enjoyed it and it struck me as I went from the one album to the next, that Bjorn and Benny’s writing and composing became more sophisticated and mature as the ABBA experience moved on and as they themselves grew older and their life experiences changed which in turn allowed them to draw on for their motivation and direction. ABBA songs were not put together in 10 minutes it was a long process and I’m pleased that an Idols judge made the reference to ABBA in this day and age in the way that he did.

There have been a couple of other funny moments, like there are in all of these type of reality programs, but the best had to be the guy who traveled from one side of the Country to Johannesburg, then to Cape Town and then to Durban with a pal following him with a video camera recording his “road to stardom and pop idol fame”, and on each occasion he was kicked out, I mean the guy could not sing, and he wrote his own song each time, but if you don’t have it, you just don’t have it. I’d like to think he has now got it that he does not have it! What an expense to go to, three different cities and each time you get booted.

For someone who was never really into the series, it’s actually quite entertaining, but as a parent, I don’t think I could allow my child to subject herself to something like this if she really was not cut out for it. The old saying of only a parent could love that is so true in a show like this, so surely some of these hopefuls parents would have the decency to tell their little darlings they can’t sing!

But then, I suppose everybody has to start off somewhere and if you don’t try you’ll never know. I can no doubt imagine that some of the biggest superstars of our time have had their fair share of rejection before they became the successful artists that they ended up, and there are those that got to the top and slid down again into obscurity, yet they still carried on.

I know with a reality show like Idols or any competition there is only one winner, which in a way is sad as some of the hopefuls that have been picked have actually got some good voices but at the end of the day, it’s not just about a voice, a singer on a stage for this type of competition needs to be a performer as well and I’ve realised that some of the comments coming out the judges mouths and some of their decisions are genuinely justified, they know what they’re looking for, the next Pop-Idol, and their collective professional opinions are going to produce just that.

There is one thing I know for sure though, no matter how much I laugh at some of this lot, you’ll never catch me trying to enter something like Idols, as bad as they are, they’re a lot better than me!

Neil