Premiering on SABC2 this evening (Friday, 25 August) at 19h30 is the start of the new
Patricia Lewis musical reality TV show
Supersterre.
To get the news on what exactly the show's all about - and of course to scoop out whether Patricia Lewis is still as blond, ambitious and decked out in glitzy as she always is - I caught up with her for a chat:
Tashi: How did the Supersterre concept come to be?
Patricia: With the first one on my TV show Blonde Ambisie (Blond Ambition) we just had a normal singing competition and thousands of people entered so we thought that it needed to have a pedestal and show of its own.
The SABC said we should give them a pitch and that we needed to come up with something different – they didn’t want it to be a blueprint of Idols - so we decided to bring in some established celebrity superstar singing people. People like Dozi, Nianell, Danny K, Bianca, Peter Coen, Nadine and they’re also competing against each other.
They each get two finalists allocated to them through a fair random draw then they’ve got through the twelve/thirteen week process with their two finalists and help them and teach them what they have learnt.
Every week we eliminate one or two contestants and then whoever wins the show – their celebrity will win a million rand property at a game farm that Steve Hofmeyr is sponsoring, so they’re all taking this incredibly seriously. They’re competing head on with each other.
It’s a very emotional programme – in every episode people are crying and killing themselves laughing. It’s not this hard, cold steel emotion. We’re building them up instead of breaking them down.
Tashi: Where are their performances happening?
Patricia: We record at the Carnival City at the Mardis Theatre on Sundays. It’s a pre-recorded show so we’ve already recorded several Sundays but our final show is only happening at the very end of the entire series.
Two days prior to us going on air is when our final will happen with our top three. Besides finding out who our winner’s gonna be – they’ll also be winning a million rands worth of prizes – it’s gonna be a Superster extravaganza where all the celebs will perform too.
Tashi: The concept of the show actually starts from you going on the road and auditioning 3000 people from various towns across South Africa – are we gonna see this?
Patricia: Little inserts of it and how we chose our Top12. SABC wanted us to start with our Top 12 straight away so that audiences can get to know them immediately and not go through the entire audition process.
People want to get to know the people – we do behind the scenes with their family and at school because Supersterre hasn’t got an age restriction. Our youngest finalist is 14 and our oldest one is 30 and they’re giving each other a very good go.
Our youngest entrant overall was four year old and our oldest was 69. We had all of these people coming on stage thinking they’d never get the chance ever again just to sing a song in front of their friends and family in their own home town. For them that was the big thing – not to get into the semi-finals but for us to film them and possibly get onto television.
Tashi: So there were some shockers amongst them?
Patricia: A lot. But we’re not gonna be calling them shockers. We’re calling them “Supersterre Goue Oomblikke” (Golden Moments). More sort of special moments of these funny people.
Tashi: Yes you don’t one of them having a heart attack seeing it. What types of songs will the contestants sing?
Patricia: It’s a complete 50/50 mix of Afrikaans and English because a lot of very successful singers sing both – there’s a huge market for that. The way people could audition was, there are two Supersterre CD’s out with about 40 well-known English and Afrikaans songs with their backtracks.
They got one of the CD’s, chose one of the songs and then entered with that. For the performances our finalists – along with their coaches – chose other songs as well as these -o they’re singing songs by Josh Groban one week and the next week they’re doing David Kramer so it’s completely across the board.
Tashi: One of the prizes is a recording contract – what are you looking for in the winner?
Patricia: Somebody who shines on the stage, has personality, is reasonably presentable and they have to be able to sing really well. Somebody who has everything. I’m not just looking for somebody with a voice who really looks terrible or who is not presentable but somebody who is the entire package because that’s how you sell a Superstar. Out of our Top 12 it’s a very difficult choice.
Tashi: So there’s no viewer phone-ins and SMS’s like in Idols?
Patricia: There is – that’s why we’ve kept our final competition right until the end. Throughout the series, even if somebody gets eliminated, SMS’s can bring someone back.
If someone gets eliminated half way through the series and the audience loved them they can SMS continually for this person and whoever has the most SMS voting gets invited back for the final. If it turns out they’re already in the final we’ll go to the second SMS choice or the third and they will then come back to join the final two. This comeback kid is called a Supernova.
Tashi: How much does your opinion count in choosing the finalists and winner?
Patricia: I’m actually trying to stay as neutral as possible because I’m dealing with the celebs, the finalists, their families and the SABC so I’m staying as neutral as possible.
I don’t have a vote – it’s my own choice. What we’re also saying is that whoever wins the SMS vote - that will count 51% towards the final decision so at the end of the day the public still has the majority vote.
Tashi: With Idols the winners always have huge amounts of support during the show and then immediately after interest in them wanes and they disappear. How is Supersterre gonna be different?
Patricia: SABC2 has agreed to continue helping with the winners career. Unlike M-Net who do the show and then lose interest or don’t have any further obligation to help with the person’s career – you never get to see Heinz’s album advertised for free or that sort of thing – but SABC’s going to continue supporting this artists CD by advertising it on SABC2.
Obviously it’s a trade exchange deal so it does cost a little bit but Sony BMG are paying for it because they’re sponsoring the prize and SABC2’s going to carry on with a support system throughout the year until Supersterre 3.
Besides that M-Net’s Idols had about a million viewers whereas SABC is a free channel round the entire country and the time slot we’re taking over is the Noot Vir Noot timeslot so we’re inheriting between 3 and 4 million viewers which means this person is going to be much more widely exposed and marketed right from the word go.
We’ll definitely trying to give them a big career – sometime it’s a hit and sometime it’s a miss. I don’t want to mention names but M-Net’s first Idol has a career but the second Idols winner, you know -
Tashi: Yes Anke - she disappeared off the face of the planet.
Patricia: And the third Idols winner – oh my God I feel sorry for her, she’s going through hell at the moment, but that’s that.
Tashi: In terms of Caelee and Darren – the winner and runner-up of Supersterre 1 – what’s happening with them?
Patricia: Unfortunately Caelee who won didn’t have this amazing television time slot and platform to launch her career. She basically had one episode where people saw her because Supersterre was a four minute insert on Blonde Ambisie. She has released a CD which is almost at gold already.
Tashi: What does it mean if somebody’s on gold?
Patricia: It’s 10 000 units sold and she’s on about 8500/9000 so we’re bringing her back as a special guest. She’ll be performing in Episode 10 and at the final, which will give her more exposure.
Tashi: Who’s writing the music for the winning CD? Will it be cover songs or original music?
Patricia: It’ll be a combination. Sony BMG have a publishing company that’s got lots of original songs that get sent to them – you can go into their archives and listen to them, which is what we’ll do.
Tashi: What are your thoughts on South African music in general?
Patricia: As far as I’m concerned there are a couple of huge different markets – we are the rainbow nation and everybody wants to listen to their own language so there are lots of different artists. I think we are the only people in the world to have this scenario which is fantastic, it makes us so unique.
The Afrikaans music market is incredibly well supported – they listen to their music, they buy their albums, they go to shows, they organize shows whereas the English music market – I don’t want to say the word but it’s almost non-existent as far as success rates are concerned.
Yes, you get your Arno Carstens who’ll sell a gold - which is literally unheard of these days for an English artist - but in the Afrikaans market you get lots of artists who sell gold within the first week of releasing.
An Afrikaans artist will always have a couple of English songs on it as well. Steve Hofmeyr is the most successful artist selling-wise in the country – he’s sold millions of albums and every single one has featured Afrikaans and English songs. Me too – I’ve sold more than half a million and I’ve always sung English and Afrikaans.
Tashi: Do you think the English market needs someone to step forward and become an icon?
Patricia: Definitely – there is a gap for that but the only thing is that with the English market you’re competing against your international acts like Christina Aquilera and West Life and all of those.
You go into a music shop and there’s such a huge variety of English music to buy and unfortunately in South Africa an English speaking person will buy a Celine Dion before they buy a local artist which is very sad but in the Afrikaans market it’s completely the opposite.
Tashi: Why do you think English speakers do that?
Patricia: Because they’re spolit for choice the buggers.
Tashi: Do you think there’s no-one who’s good enough?
Patricia: I think there are people who are good enough but I don’t think they’ve had a fair chance to compete against the international acts with their huge budgets and TV commercials and so on.
Tashi: Many people have dreams of being a musician but to be a long-term success and make an actual living out of it is exceptionally difficult, especially if you don’t do it through TV show. How did you manage it?
Patricia: I’ve been singing for over fifteen years. I released my first album in 1992 and I’ve had success in the last ten years. I still pinch myself every day - I’m blessed that’s it’s happened to me and I can’t say why.
Tashi: So there wasn’t anything you actually did by way of managing yourself etc? You did quite a lot of touring didn’t you?
Patricia: Ja, I’ve averaged about 200 shows a year for the last ten years so that helps a lot because you’re getting into the smaller towns and explaining your music to them and they come to you afterwards and you sell CD’s and DVD’s and you have photographs with them and that sort of thing.
If you’re doing so many concerts a year and people like a specific song that album’s just gonna spin whereas I don’t think the English bands get that opportunity to tour and do so many shows.
The reason we can is that there are lots of Afrikaans schools that need fundraisers, there are lots of towns that do charity functions and they hire out the town hall and you come and set up and do the show and I don’t think that infrastructure is there in the English market - it’s there in the Afrikaans one though and it’s growing and growing.
Tashi: What are your plans for the future? You mentioned Supersterre 3 so that’s one of the things.
Patricia: If I survive Supersterre now! If I’m still sane then I’ll consider 3 – if this one is a success of course. I’m also releasing my greatest hits album for the last ten years at the end of September.
EndsTo see who the 12 finalists are please click
here.