Hundreds audition in PE for shot at ‘Idols’
POP-UP auditions for the 14th season of reality show Idols SA were held at the Boardwalk on Saturday, attracting hundreds of youngsters hoping for a shot at stardom.
Mzansi Magic’s publicity manager Bongiwe Potelwa did not respond to questions about how many hopefuls had made it through to video judging.
At least 350 contestants auditioned and, for 17-year-old Aviwe Kondile, getting a chance to go further brought tears to her eyes.
Auditions were held in an open field with the public watching, and successful singers went on to a second round where video clips were recorded to be adjudicated by this year’s official Idols SA judges.
“We’ll send the recorded video clips to our Idols judges and they will choose from them who goes through to Johannesburg,” Potelwa said.
“By Wednesday, we will have contacted everyone who has earned a golden ticket to go to Joburg.”
The panel of three judges for the pop-up auditions were Idols SA backup vocalists Kurt Heram, Tima Reece and Llewellyn George.
Potelwa said due to financial limitations, they could not hold studio auditions in all cities, hence Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein and Polokwane were selected for pop-ups.
“We were not going to hold auditions in PE, Bloem and Polokwane but our headline sponsor [Telkom] extended our budget to hold pop-up auditions,” she said
Studio auditions were held in Durban on January 20, Cape Town on January 27 and Pretoria on February 10, and are due to be held in Johannesburg this coming Saturday.
Aviwe, a pupil at Kabega Christian Independent School, was excited when she got the nod.
“I went to the Cape Town auditions and didn’t make it through, so I decided to give it another try. I’m very excited to have made it,” Aviwe said.