Australian Idol Season Two

I like Hayley, but "Angel" is such a mawkish piece of drivel. Then again the only Sarah McL song I like is "Building A Mystery" and that's not going to wow anyone.

Question: Why was "Glory Box" obscure and Courtney's choice - not out as a single yet, right? - not? That said, until this week, I'd never believed that contestants got to choose their own song. I'd always assumed there was some kind of long list they could pick off, which explains why there wasn't that much variety in selection.

"Confide In Me is 6 minutes long! How would she do THAT?"

Easy - there's heaps of bits in "Confide In Me" that can be cut out without destablising the structure of the song as much as she had to with "Glory Box" (in that case the whole "so don't you stop being a man" arrived far too soon for it to have the pay-off it has in the original). Ha ha I think "Saturday Night" is seven minutes! Song length is the only flaw in my pop svengali plans!

"Angel" is mawkish but that's not necessarily a problem for Idol. It's got lots of bits where you can show off well-thought out phrasing and improvisation, and its reverent tone suggests "deepness". Edward get Fumbling Towards Ecstasy! It's very good!

My boyfriend reckons Ngaiire should sing Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car", which I agree would work really well.

"Disagree about Confide In Me still - the long build up with the THREE intros - you can't get rid of them! It just doesn't have the same effect without..."

Yeah maybe, I'll have to listen to the original again.

"Slamming Chanel for being a summation of every uni boy's fantasies/guilts about crass commercialism misses the fact that the subversive process works both ways - I'm almost less interested in what Chanel does to Australian Idol than I am in what Australian Idol will do to her. The friction between her fear of compromising herself musically and the necessity of speaking to a wide audience is exciting precisely because, if she is to stay in the competition, both categories will have to stretch. I imagine she's currently thinking very carefully about what *sort* of songs synthesise the competing categories in a compelling manner. The need to work this out requires a much more sophisticated understanding of what it means to be pop or not pop than that displayed in the excruciating performance of Daniel on Sunday night, for whom there is evidently no awareness of a distinction or complex relationship between the performer and the material they sing.

I think at the moment Chanel's attraction is that she is an unknown quantity - there's a real sense of expectation in terms of "what will she sing next?" which there's not for, say, Hayley or Ngaiire or Courtney (all of whom I think are excellent) because, bar some sideways nods to jazz, she is so far a performer who has no performative "center". This is how her anti-popness is distinct from the generally-boring Kelly of last year, for whom being anti-pop was synonymous with being safe pop-rock. It's also how she's distinct from Billie (up next week) who seems to have largely nailed her colours to the jazz mast. There *is* something fake, almost adolescent about Chanel singing "Glory Box" - but it's a fakeness that can potentially provide an interesting alternative "authenticity" that Idol traditionally promotes.

I don't know if this enigmatic quality can continue indefinitely, although it might if she makes clever (as opposed to "tasteful" or "obscure-to-Marcia") song choices. The best case scenario is that she becomes a slightly hipper equivalent of Guy Sebastian, never settling into a certain formula but reformulating herself each time. And there's a lot that could be thought and written about what that sort of formulation actually entails, or how it works - last year Paulini had a wide range of song choices and the only perfect performance track record but never broke out of the "soul/r&b" persona as dramatically or successfully as Guy did."

It's a shame that the girl groups sung "Anyone Who Had A Heart" during the elimination sessions - I'd love to see Chanel tackle it.

BTW that should have been "an interesting alternative *to the* "authenticity" that etc. etc." up there

Please, please, let the aberration that let that pillock Daniel through be corrected QUICKLY in the finals. It's a shame group 2 was so weak. Ngaiire would have qualified if she'd been in there rather than in 1.

This is the lack of critical distance I refer to upthread: Daniel assumes that "pop" is a quality that inheres within a song itself, rather than in its performance (or a mixture of both if you prefer). In order to "go pop" or to "live it up", it's not enough for a classical performer to simply make a hamfisted cover of the least-serious song they can think of, as if the song's inherent pop qualities will magically neutralise the stiffness of the performer. There's always a relational link between the performer and the song, which, if stretched too far, will snap with a hideous twang.

I disliked his previous performance of "Pony" too, which introduced a distasteful element of boorish sexual coercion into a great song - all I could think of was football player gangbangs when he sung it. The man has no subtlety whatsoever.

When someone like Daniel sings it, there's no pride, no LOOK AT WHAT I AM DOING AREN'T I ARCH AND CLEVER in it, it's like "Look at me! I'm slumming in popland!" and as such it comes horribly unstuck.

There was a Chanel Cole fansite, but it seems to have exceeded its bandwidth. Perhaps as an extension of my not-really-a-campaign-campaign I should expand.

"My style is pop. POP!". Brilliant! Shame the performance was crap. Crap! though. Thank goodness he won't be back or the embarassing identification would be far too much to bear.

Ben should have sung Daniel Bedingfield's "James Dean". THAT would have been magnificent!

Any consensus on whether Ben and Chanel were/are an item? They certainly appeared so.

So is Daniel the operatically-trained one?

Ben/Chanel, I doubt. Ben would (again, like me) be quite accustomed to hearing "Oh, I really love you as a friend" from the ladies.

God. Sorry. I can shut up if it makes your lives any easier.

He did Freedom? I need to get out more.

I don't know, I think metrosexuality carries a lot of currency in certain circles these days - although yeah it's not the universal pull-magnet some would have us believe. At first I thought Ben might actually be gay but it now seems highly unlikely, which might be unfortunate for him!

Really there's nothing that Daniel could do that wouldn't be mildly offensive. He's like a bull in a china shop. I also hate the way his mouth vibrates when he sings. AND his new look is much worse than his original appearance.

I can't believe we haven't mentioned ADRIAN'S USHER IMPERSONATION yet!

"Repression, Tim. That's why I haven't mentioned it."

Yes but but but I am mystified by the judge's love for it! I mean, sure, exceedingly brave choice, but did they hear the bit where he literally forgot his lines and wandered off into mumbling?

I don't think it was a brave choice, really. I'm utterly convinced that a lot of tight contests are decided by the song and picking a popular one can really work. I think probably the reason that Levi got dropped out last year is that the song he picked in the week he went out would be a dim memory for a lot of his potential voters that weren't decided, compare Cosima who did a lot of base-covering.

Paula was always better than Marcia but I got sick of watching her sit there all plastered up and emoting, "I was honoured and touched by your performance etc. etc." On the other hand at least she doesn't try to actively sabotage the singers' performances with contradictory me-power mumbo jumbo like Marcia. Her compliments to Laurence last week being the most breathtaking example of her stupidity perhaps.

(are you still in brisbane edward?)

(I'm not, but I'm flying up there tomorrow for a bit)

She did "Walk On By"! And it was amazing! And DICKO SLAGGED HER?! grrr.

I thought Chanel was not very good, actually, and I love her.

I preferred Train Wreck Casey to Dull Boring Understated Casey. Also, memo to Rolling Stone woman, the word "mischievous" is said "mis-che-vus" not "mischeeveeous" - grr, a pet peev of mine, that.

Who are the morons going to throw their votes behind NOW?

It's all been going wrong since the Beatles show, goddamnit!!

actually i haven't watched this in weeks. i might try and catch up with the elimination show tonight...

From where do you draw these assumptions?

Exactly the kind of person who should be winning this show. Come on, think about it guys, who is this show AIMED AT?

I'm glad she won. Shes female, shes koori and shes a big lass, and she won! This is brill.

I'm hoping that Anthony not winning will be the impetus for him to fly to the US and record with Mutt Lange. I'm not confident, sadly.

Forgive me, I'm shitstirring, kinda. I'm sick and I only had two hours of sleep last night.

Apparently some pollie said the final was of "national interest" (or importance?)... my god. They should make the entire world go without TV and media for a week, people need a kick in the pants, I mean honestly.

He made a vaguely similar argument for Guy last year.

GOD THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE/THINGS/OBJECTS THAT NEED A SOLID BOOT UP THE JACKSIE AT THE MOMENT!

A definition of pop that can encompass Evanascence can encompass Casey surely.