Hip-hoppers Re-quested for American Idol finale

SOUTH Auckland hip-hop crew Request are in a race for the gig of their lifetime.

The all-girl dancing troupe has been offered a slot performing during the finale of next week’s 2012 American Idol competition – to be hosted in Los Angeles’ 7000-capacity Nokia Theatre.

The show will have a TV audience in America of 40 million and will also be broadcast into 100 other countries.

Request are understood to have been offered the spot by Idol judge Jennifer Lopez, who recently hired the crew’s founder Parris Goebel to choreograph dance moves for an upcoming tour.

The group is currently in Los Angeles, but hopes of them strutting their stuff to the world rest on fasttracking American immigration red- tape for performers’ visas.

Parris Goebel’s father and manager, Brett Goebel, told Sunday News from Los Angeles he was reluctant to comment until the issue was sorted.

‘‘We can’t do anything until then,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s a waiting game . . . we are trying to do a 22-day process in four.’’

Parris could not be reached for comment but she wrote on her Facebook page earlier in the week: ‘‘My RQ girls arrive today!!’’

Among those celebrating Request’s hoped-for shot at stardom was longtime supporter Richard Jeffrey, chief executive of Manukau’s Telstraclear Pacific Events Centre.

‘‘The girls have done brilliantly,’’ Jeffrey told Sunday News.

‘‘The viewership just in the States for Idol is 40 million. Jennifer Lopez has them staying on to star in the music video she is producing after American Idol.

‘‘It is breath-taking that one of the