Worst fashion crime in Duh!ban.
They say you should never expect anything because then you're always surprised. The best thing to do is to wake up and say: "What surprising thing's going to happen today?"
We don't actually know if "they" say it but it sounds fab and definitely did the trick for Durban Popstar hopeful Davyn Fourie, who went to the auditions to musically accompany a friend and ended up making it into the Top 20 from the region. He wasn't even a wannabe and suddenly turned Maybe.
He was one of the first semi-finalists introduced in Saturday's episode of the Durbs callbacks, in an insert that went on and on and
on about him. The camera-crew obviously got stoned on whatever it is the dude likes to smoke and lost track of time. There's no doubt in our minds that he's discovered some serious Durban poison while plucking the strings of his guit'jah.
Which do you prefer .. with hair, or without?
In contrast, Miss Durban Lwandle Ngwenya, seemed as perky and awake as a box of regmakers. Her looks and attitude suggested she has the pipes to pop but unfortunately she doesn't. The judges thought otherwise though and gave her a callback.
She joined 99 other auditionees for the callbacks, which involved everyone returning the next day to perform in groups. While no-one looks like a popstar yet, they were surprisingly impressive in combo. There didn't seem to be the usual disagreements and conflicts between everyone as they strangered together to come up with a group name and song.
The names they decided on weren't shown unfortunately but their auditions were and there was only one group who stood out as completely ridiculous. There were also those whose voices surprised and rose out from their group, rapper Marsha being one of them ...
The sort of chick you
don't want to piss off. Still, there's something to be said for a pop'per with edge, which the judges appreciated. Choosing her to be in the Top 20.
Once the 20 in Durban heard that they'd be heading off to Jozi for the next battle in their quest, the auditions moved to Cape Town and starred Whitney Houston:
a.k.a a guy by the name of Coby or Cobus, Jacoby or something, who managed to monster through the high notes of I Believe I Can Fly. He got a callback and his group delivered the first-ever proper sounding version of a Whitney song.
Other favourites at the Cape Town auditions included a rapper who beat rhymes about the judges on the fly - he couldn't sing though and got ditched. Also, Natasha, who's lived in Canada until a year ago.
Zwai's comment to her after her solo at the callbacks: "I think if there's anyone who was born for this, it's you. We've also had a lot of guitarists ... but
this, the playing, I mean it matches the singing - it's outstanding."
In the mix this week too, new to the scene was "Kevin from EMI," who's going to be involved with the group once they've been chosen. Word from the show is that he'll be working with the song-writer who'll be composing the winning song, conceptualising the group and so on.
While he joined the judges in naming the Top 20 at the Durbs callbacks, we were struck by how much he's like
Lafayette on the vampire thriller
True Blood. Reason ...
Call us berserko but black nail polish on dudes = hott.
Next week: the choosing of the semi-finalists in Cape Town, and then it's on to the Jozi and Pretoria auidtions.