On Saturday night
Popstars delivered the second episode in the nationwide pop search - and ended too soon and suddenly. One moment we were waiting to see what happened next at the Durban callbacks; and the next it was over. Done. Finito.
The anticipation of the callbacks was increased by the fact that the Durbs crowd featured a healthy dose of wannabe's who could actually sing. It's bizarre how many of them sounded as if they could have promise - where were all these people when the Idols auditions were on?
Also, how can there be so many people that we've never seen before? You'd think that with all the auditions we've seen in the past you'd see the same people over and over yet there are only a handful who've made us serially suffer their pipes.
The episode started by profiling winning Popstars groups from international versions of the show, many of whom were/are various versions of Abba. Noticably absent in most them: guys. To be fair, most of the guys (particularly the Swedish/Norway types) look like girls, but even so, winning groups worldwide have been girl top-heavy over the years.
Obvious reason: the tops that make them babe-heavy.
While the international winning groups sang and posed their videos, the show caught up with past South African winners and runners-up, who spoke about the impact the show has had on their lives, starting with Kurt Herman:
101's MJ Herman: "Popstars has changed my life in such a tremendous way, I'm now able, many years later, be a part of the music industry."
Pam Andrews: "Wow, Popstars changed my life dramatcally, it opened so many doors for me, so many opportunities. I'm an actress now as well and really it's just been a beautiful journey. Really I'd like to say thank you to Popstars for opening that massive door for me."
Ghetto Lingo's S'bu Ntshangase: "Yoh! Popstars changed my life bigtime, it gave me lot of opportunities, it opened doors for me. Now I'm being recognised, I've done movies - I've done like three movies - and I'm working on my album. I had to wait you know, I couldn't do my album then - there are people who still want to see S'bu from Ghetto Lingo so my album is ready. Look out."
At the auditions, the judges started their first deliberations as a newbie team: Zwai was relaxed - as he would be having done so many seasons previously. Azania had her hair specially done (with lots of strategically placed curls) and PJ (is Powers her first name too?) committed horrific fashion crimes in a Charlie Chaplin suit, with a retro tie.
In the thick of things as the auditions began: the
Michael Jackson impersonator who proved what we all knew: a good MJ impersonator
doesn't exist. In contrast, a duo called Fresh Money were quite impressive, but a problem ...
They introduced themselves: Devon (right) and August Rush (left) and explained how they've recently formed their duo. Each of them performed well at the auditions but the big no-no with them is their group.
On one hand it could be seen as a good thing because they have the skills, the look and attitude but on the other, they have to be prepared to give up their own vision in favour of the Popstars group, which isn't likely.
They were asked what would happen if one of them made it and the other didn't - and they answered that they'd keep their group going. The problem right there. We all know what a challenge it's been for winning groups to stay together so having a group within a group wouldn't be a good idea.
Not problematic though was Immaculate, a second year music student who'd just gone through a life-changing tragedy. Her mom caught a bus home, got a chill from the air-conditioner, which turned to flu, which sadly turned lethal.
She bravely told her story, sang her heart out and made it through to the callbacks.
Which is how things ended. All in all the episode revealed why there's been so much Abba worldwide because judging from the hopefuls we saw, chicks kicked the guys butts.