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| Who's It Gonna Be? |
Ses'fikile |
Pump It Up |
Past winning singles
On Saturday night Popstars recapped the good, the bad and the rubbish from all of the season's auditions and revealed the Top 46 contestants who've made it through to Workshop Week - which will be on the show next week.
To catch-up with the season so far, here's a link to recaps of each episode:
Popstars Recaps 2010.With the competition moving to the next phase you may have wondered the same thing as me: how do they choose the hit that the group's going to sing? I've been quizzy about this from the start, when they showed the signature songs of previous winners.
While I was on location
perving Kev' I investigated and discovered that he has a collection of over 100 original songs tucked in his iPod rucksack. He carries them with him everywhere and listens to them constantly - sifting through, choosing the best, removing some from the equation, getting to know them thoroughly.
Ultimately one of the songs that he's carrying will become the winning song for the new group.
All of the songs up for consideration have been submitted to EMI by songwriters from round the world - including South African songwriters - and they're all in different genres, ranging from pop to hip-hop to rock.
The final choice is going to be strongly infuenced by who the winning group is so that it suits their combo-style and genre. For the first time in the series the group themselves will be involved in choosing both their first single and also, the songs for their album. In previous seasons the winners were simply given the tracks.
They'll be working with Kev' in studio, he'll present all his findings to them and together they're going to decide on their hit as well as the full album playlist.
When they get to this stage the songs could be changed quite radically from their original vibe to suit the group more. Because all of the tracks are in different genres they'll be changed to ensure that they suit the genre of the winning group 100%.
For instance if they choose a song with a strongly electronic pop feel and the group has an afro-pop feel to it, then the song will be reworked to include African rhythms, riffs and choruses.
As for the effects that are going to be used in the final mix of the single and album - of course I had to ask if they're going to be smothered in lies a.k.a AUTOTUNE. Kev's reply to the question: "
No."