I love glamorous things and I believe everyone should be living their lives as fabulously as possible. I've seen too many fantastic people go down the wrong road - Britney and her drinking problem, poor Donatella and her bright orange tan and Paris's shaving rash. Our own Amor and Patricia caused such an uproar last year with regards to SA's best and worst dressed list, that it was never even released! How naughty. If they bothered to come and get some tips from yours truly, this mishap never would have happened! I however have my sights set on a slightly more easily swayed target this year... the unnassuming youths of Idols! I'm sure they could use a helping hand to become the most stylish and well-groomed young people around!
Will Graeme's performance this week be another debate, because of his song choice? I even overheard his girlfriend say that she told him NOT to sing "Beat It" and that it was a bad idea (after last Sunday's show recording in the m-net smoking room).
This week he's singing “Stop and Stare” (check above video for song choice reveals) by One Republic and he said he thought that it's the type of song that everyone likes... I'm not so sure about that. In my mind it comes off as a tad whiny. What interesting facial expressions can we expect from him this week?
One of my (few) fans mentioned that I should elaborate on the contestants' style.
Here's what Jozi had to say: Hi Mamarazzi, Ya so glad to see an article on Lize! I think she is super talented. So I was just wondering what you thought about her style? Any Hints and tips? Also who do you think is the best dressed idol? and who will have the biggest style transformation? Maybe you could put it to a vote? Love your blog.
Now Lize does dress quite nicely and she doesn't really need fashion advice (all the contestants are styled by professionals now anyway)... I really liked the lacey number she wore (pictured in video above) during her performance of "Fever". One outfit of her that I did have my reservations about was the brown dress she wore (pictured in video below) during the Theatre Stage. She wore it when she did her duet with Daniel - I'm not a fan of earthy tones and even though the fit was quite sexy, it felt like it could've reeked of granny smells.
Her singing isn't bad either... However, when I heard that she was going to perform "Fever" at the Top 14 show - some alarm bells did go off. I've never seen anyone do well with that song on any Idols show - locally and internationally. It's almost like it's cursed.
BUT - after 10 seconds of her singing "Fever" at the Top 14 performances, I thought to myself "Oh my god, she's actually going to pull it off." It was probably the best performance I've seen of Fever on Idols, but it turned out my suspicions were pretty accurate when hearing out the judges' responses.
However, at the Top 14 show, I thought Suzzi was the best dressed - I know I'm going to get flamed for this. I loved the 80's pop flavour she had going there and I'm an avid fan of animal prints. So that was a good combo for moi. Quite a few peeps think she's loud and irritating, though i think she has way more personality there than most. Check this video, below. Just add some diamonds and a big Fourth of July hat to this girl and you've a blonde version of Krystle from Dynasty on your hands. I approve.
Suzzi's possibly also gone through the biggest transformation this far, except maybe for a few new hairdo's sported by the boys that could be donned by "40 something women with a bit too much testosterone."
Almost all the boys think that Cameron is their biggest competition... clipped sentences and all... Or could it just be because of the possibly unfair media hype that the boy's been getting?
Lize prays when she feels any form of stress. She also believes in keeping it positive and brings up the Destiny’s Child song “Survivor” – “If you’re gonna do this, you better make the best of it”.
Lize expresses some sour feelings towards some of the other contestants when discussing the theatre stage, because someone practiced their singing/playing outside her window “’til, like, three in the morning”. “So that was a little bit frustrating.” Her and her room mates just resorted to chatting instead of sleeping, but no one in particular is “ticking Lize off right now.”
Mathew’s coping mechanisms include eating, humming and closing his eyes.
When I asked Mathew whether there was anything or anyone that’s ticking him off during the theatre stage he said: “Yes, there is a guy from Jo’burg, that has not stopped talking. Since day one, on the plane, off the plane, he’s been talking. If he wants to sing, he feels like singing. If he’s not supposed to talk, that’s when he talks. I hope he falls out this round… But I’m a nice guy, I’m a nice guy.”
Cameron tries to cope with stress by focusing on what he has to do and “sort of just picture myself there and everyone else naked, you know? It works the best.”
He also said that the Theatre Stage was hard, because you had to perform in front of the people that you’re competing against and that’s tough.
Cameron is a young man of few words and has said that he does very little reading. However, Men’s Health was featured there somewhere.
I once asked him to describe himself in three words for the fans out there. “Three words? I don’t know if there’s any fans out there. I dunno, what have other people said?” Eventually he managed to muster “fun, creative, outgoing.”
His thoughts on the judges slashing the Top 24 to a Top 14 were a simple “It makes for good TV.”
Pixie’s coping mechanisms include “hard booze and… haha I’m joking” she says. “No um, I guess it’s sleep. Sleep is good, some intense sleep when I’m stressed, breathing…” Right before a performance, Pixie tries really hard not to think about it and she doesn’t play what’s going to happen through her head, “’cause that makes you a bit nervous, you know? I just try breathe and just…ja.”
According to Pixie, no one at this stage is ticking her off and that she thought her room mate during theatre stage was really “sweet and she’s young.” “It took us all night to find each other, actually. And then we found each other and it was like love at first sight. The beds were really closely pushed together, so I’m glad that we’re friends. In the hotel it comes like that, I promise.”
Thuba sings when he’s stressed. “That’s the only thing that I actually do when I’m stressed.” And before Thuba goes on stage, he prays and does lots of panting. (View picture above) Thuba said “I sit in front of my dog a lot, just practicing (panting)… I do that a lot.” After all of that, Thuba reveals that “actually, talking is the best way (of dealing with stress) for me, ‘cause when I’m nervous and I’m quiet my head starts going crazy. So at least when I’m talking I use up that energy.”
Thuba also says “I’m the easiest person to be with… I think. I understand different personalities, so I would understand why someone would act in a different way. So I don’t really pay attention to anyone but myself, except if I’m having a good time.”
I came across this video on YouTube... let it speak for itself. Shot in front of a real classy brick wall, I wonder how many couches they moved for this shot...
“I don’t want to sound too confident, but I’d like to think that I’ve got such a lovely personality; I’m quite friendly and I will definitely carry it through to the competition.”
Ntsepa, would you go for a makeover to get the perfect look of an Idol? “Yeah that won’t be a bad idea actually, girl. You just gave me an idea – I would definitely have to lose just a little bit of weight firstly and just workout. Workout and stay healthy. I think I’m gonna go for those braids look.”
What genre influences you? “Gospel, but I’m really into rock these days. I’m loving rock a lot. I asked Ntsepa what would be her ultimate look. “Skinny jeans and let’s not forget the diamante!”
I point at the scar on Suzzi’s nose – she makes a clawing gesture and says “Rrrrrr, it’s coming to get you”. She says about the scar “I was in a car accident in Cape Town, but it doesn’t define me, I think I learnt a lot from it.”
What can you expect from Suzzi: “Lots of funny moments, lots of focused moments I suppose, um yah, I’m a very vibrant person. I like socializing, I like singing, that’s what I do, you know?”
Who are Suzzi’s Idols? ‘I listen to a very eclectic mix of people. From Radiohead to Dodi… what’s that person’s name?” Dido? “Dido – that’s it!”
“I love Britney Spears – I think trailer trash is so the new pink.” Will you be wearing underwear? “Yes! Most of the time…”
So, Christiaan, what will you offer us in the next round? “Cookies and milk? I dunno – what do you want to expect from me?”
On top of the fact that Christiaan is a constant joker, he also suffers from stress-induced insomnia, ADD and is “crowned off with hyperactivity”. Again, I tried to pry out of him what we could expect from him in the coming rounds and when he rambled down his list of disorders; he asked “what do you think I’m going to do?” Dance a lot? Christiaan said “Hulle het ‘n vuur onder my gat… onder my dinges warmgemaak toe ek gebore was” as some sort of explanation as to why he’s so disorder-ridden. Christiaan made some “Poena” and “leeuloop” reference which I didn’t get – he said that’s just sad. He then asked what I was doing Saturday night… I tried to avoid the subject (he was kind of weird looking). However, he was being persistent and said “See now you’re making me sweat.” (He does seem like a sweaty guy in general though...)
I asked whether he’s going to try and groom himself to look like an Idol. He then asked “do you have a problem with my beard? I condition it, would you like to touch it?”
Are you an undercover pretty boy? "No I'm not! I drink whiskey and growl!"
Young Cameron is a shy guy. I asked him to do a bit of serenading and his youthful and wholesome cheeks blushed unstoppably. As a bit of a joke I got him to hold my hand and sing a song to me – it took quite some convincing. He said that I should at least pretend that I’m not into his serenading. He also went with the most asexual song out there, can’t remember what it was, but it had nothing to do with girls.
Mara swooned during his audition and all the judges loved him. I asked whether he’d go for older women and with a shy smile he said “not as old as Mara”. Many are collapsing because of his “cute factor” yet I somehow still feel untouched by it. I think he’s almost too wholesome for my liking, which is not a bad thing… it might even be a good thing.
Thabs has been on and off TV her entire life. She was on the first ever “House of Fun” Sparletta ad and her sister is also no stranger to fame either. If any of you watched the SA High School Musical program… you’d realize that Thabs looks a lot like Tshepi who made it to the final of HSM.
Thabs loves red high heels, talking and and being on the camera.
Matthew Lewis added a touch of holiness to Idols when he made it into the Top 100, because he’s a youth pastor. He entered Idols because he loves singing and because it would be a good platform to spread the word of God. We asked him if it feels like he’s entering a den of sin at Idols, he said he was quite unhappy about the fact that some of the production guys walked around “selling” golden tickets to any girls who were willing to “kiss other girls and like it” (the girls were just moved to the front of the queue instead).
When I asked him what look he was going to go for to stand out of the crowd, he said something along the lines of “God making that decision” – or a stylist, I added.
He’s one of those guys, who just want to reassure everyone that it’s “cool to love God and that when you talk to him, it should be like talking to one of your friends.”
The youths in Johannesburg were very different from the other cities. There were way more “rockers” and “emos” than in Durbs and Cape Town. First up, Bolezlo – who loves Slayer and used to play in some metal cover band in London. When I confronted him about the fact that this is Idols and questioned what he wass doing here. He said “Now listen to me, this is Idols… not “Pop Idols”. Clearly the young 17 year old doesn’t realize it’s the same brand… Actually, the boy is a bit of a hippie. I can easily envision him smoking a few joints a day to go with the constant “awehs” and “dudes” in his sentences. He’s probably not the type whose eligibility will be discussed in Heat magazine.
His mother was holding his hand for most of the time and he'd make demands the whole time to which she gladly obliged. Bolezlow: "Jissie ma, ek het 'n sigaret nodig." Mom: "Ok, kom ons gaan rook gou-gou"
Bandile (the coconut) briefly entered my realm and we had a lovely chat. He was so proud that he made Mara cry. At first Bandile thought that it was a bad sign when he saw the tears running down her face and soon realized that it was a good sign when he managed to get four “yeses” from the judges.
When I asked him when last he went to Jo’burg he replied “I’ve never been to Jo’burg… I’ve never been on a plane! This is, like, awesome for me.” I also heard other golden ticket winner, Krystle Temmerman, call him “Mr King Kong.”
Badelisile Mthembu showed up wearing a lot of beadwork at her audition. When I asked her what we could expect from her appearance-wise in the next round she said “Well I don’t like looking like a xmas tree and I like toning it down.” So wearing bright red and having as many beads as skin flakes on your body, is not a xmas tree? And again - “On a normal day to day basis I like dressing casually – I don’t like to draw a lot of attention. I don’t like too many accessories, I like the bling, but I try to keep it calm.”
One rather strange encounter that I had was meeting Londeka. This is one raw zulu chick. She left me with lines such as "If you want the judges to get into you, you must perform
When I asked her how she’ll be adjusting her wardrobe now that she’s in the Top 100, she said “I am big into fishing, we are a fishing family”. Que? Oh… she meant FASHION. Ok… So then I asked who inspires her dress sense. “My mom and my dad”. So, Londeka, will you dress up like your dad? “Yes”.
Lendel’s a big Indian guy with an even bigger heart. He entertains non-stop; he’s constantly joking around with fellow contestants and the crew and seems like a pretty humble guy. When I asked him about the very prominent scar on his face, he said that he wants to tell me the real story and a made-up story and then I have to tell him which one’s the real one. Generally the wussy story is the real version (duh), which ended up as “I was nine months old and I cut myself with my grandfather’s shaving blade.” The made-up story was “I was in standard 7 and these dudes were picking on my sister, so I picked up a pencil and I tried to stab the one guy and he cut me with his knife.” He congratulated me on guessing the right answer and said “You’re good.”
Here's a home video of Lendel that he left on YouTube:
Unfortunately, Graeme Watkins has a girlfriend of six years and it was actually her bright idea that he entered Idols. This suave character definitely stands out of the crowd, not only height-wise, but also James-Dean-lookalike-very-handsome-wise. He did however mention that his brother looks exactly like James Dean and that he was single – let’s hope that his brother attends the Idols final where this boy might just end up. Graeme used to work at Stardust in CT as a waiter and he pretended to serve his golden ticket to me as if it were a pizza.
Six of the people in Graeme’s group made it through and they claim that it was because they prayed before their group’s auditions started. Graeme said “I think the one girl didn’t get in… she didn’t. Thanks for that. I felt a lot easier after that.” To confirm, I asked him if he felt easier that she didn’t make it through. To which he replied “No, not the fact that she didn’t make it through. You know, it helped us if you want to call it a sacrifice. Thank you very much, it was very appreciated.”
Graeme’s also the type that feels the lyrics of his songs and said that the song he auditioned with, “Holiday In Spain” means a lot to him and that the lyrics in the song speak to him. I called him a label whore because he showed up at the auditions sporting an Emporio Armani jacket. His reply to that was “It’s a real Giorgio Armani jacket. Um, I can’t tell you how I got it. It’s kind of like, scandalous. I got it from someone who deals with them.” He also mentioned that he’d give me a number, which he still hasn’t done.
Walking up and down the audition line and talking to randoms was an utter joy. This is where I met other golden ticket winner, Graeme Wicks, for the first time (he calls himself Wicki G). What a great little entertainer this guy was. He was dancing and shouting and doing twists and turns all over - this one's definitely a performer. When he noticed that I was sporting my ginormous rubber snake around my neck, he told me that he was absolutely terrified of snakes and said “I get a fright every time I get into the shower”.
He chose to audition with “Let Me Entertain You” and as he did a twirl during his audition, he ripped up the Idols sign that he was standing on. He also reached out to touch my leg as I gave him a post audition massage…
Graeme does theatre for a living and was told by the judges to take away the bravado and try doing his audition again. As we said our farewells he asked if he would see myself and the rubber snake in Jo’burg, which I affirmed. He then said “Well you can leave the snake at home. You can leave the snake and leave the clothes” as he tugged on my shirt.
Lize Heerman (pronounced Lizay and said in a Sandton kugel accent) was there with her mother. She has cutesy little sibilant “esses” and a nasal twang straight out of Durban's Sandton equivalent. When the publicity people asked her what made her interesting, she couldn’t muster up anything and immediately looked for her mother… “Mum, mum, mum! What makes me interesting?”
Lize has a pretty decent singing voice, but when talking it sounds like she tries to be more feminine than a ceramic swan stuffed with potpourri. Her real name is not Lize, it’s actually Sarita – you can add her mother as a friend on the Idols forums, who's name is also Sarita. The mother's username is Saritah. Here she commented on Lize's photo. Visit http://www.mnet.co.za/Idols/Gallery/ and then click on the “Dope Durban Auditions” category and then you can view the following images there:
Here is my (badly) photoshopped version, so you can see what she had to say about her photo:
(PS. No, Randall, it’s not gardenia in her hair… it’s called a frangipani)
Which reminds me - another familiar face I spotted at the CT auditions was Steven’s. He made it to the Top 10 or something in that yucky High School Musical program…The poor dude didn’t even make it into the Top 100 in Idols - his fans still caused so much uproar when he “left the competition way too early” in his HSM experience…
His performance was quite lame though - he sang a xmas carol and to keep time he did a really annoying “musical type” finger click through-out his performance… Sure he’s got nice dimples, but other than that I really don’t see the attraction.
After watching the Cape Town show the other day and seeing Stacey Lee get ripped to shreds about how she previously had some argument with Jody… gripping stuff. Her singing wasn’t bad at all and I absolutely loved her hair, yet the judges were being rather blunt to the lass. She was NOT happy about their responses.
Someone who I really enjoyed talking to was Natalie van Wyk; now that was one classy bird. She was pretty well-spoken for a pretty girl and considering she’s pretty well-traveled just adds bonus points for me personally. I hope this chica goes far.
She seems “real” enough and is quite sexy in a sophisticated kind of way. She’s the one who worked on the Diana Ross and The Supremes tribute show in the Canary Islands for no less than two and a half years. When I asked if she’s the living embodiment of Diana Ross since she’s lived for the show for so long, she laughed and said “I am a Supreme”.
When we asked her if someone ever requested her to be their private dancer, she again laughed but this time round she said “Geen kommentaar. No Comment.”
After spending some time sitting on Cristoph Kotze’s lap, he confided in me that he does his best song-writing on the toilet… eww. Just eww… Not to mention that I quickly moved off his lap after that comment.
Christoph was the first person to make it into Idols with an original composition. His songs are about opinions on life and he believes that his guitar is an extension of himself, “a comfort zone” he says. He’s also slept with his guitar and sometimes plays himself to sleep. He’s still adamant that the best place to play is on the toilet because of the great acoustics.
Here are some of Cristoph’s lyrics:
One day you’re gonna die For now you have to fly Keep living it the way that God has planned it
The little blonde thing from Kimberly – I keep on forgetting her name – has an obsession with Patricia Lewis and wants hair exactly like hers (how difficult is it to get hold of flashpoints nowadays?). She sports some glitter in her hair like a fairy princess and I of course retorted that if she was a true Patricia fan she needed to apply some glitter to her chest area – whoops, she already did. She also did a very sassy hair flip and a twirl for us to show off her Patricia hair.
After the audition she had a bit of a cry and was slightly overwhelmed by making it into the Top 100. She very much believes in making her dreams become a reality and is quite the little realist. She knows that she sounds corny when she says that becoming the next Idols winner is her dream, but it’s still her dream.
Marthinus Oosthuizen, showed up at the Cape Town auditions wearing cut off denim jeans and some khaki blur – the judges asked him to change his outfit three times and eventually gave him a golden ticket. Marthinus plays the most horrific harmonica I’ve heard in my entire life. It’s almost as if he’s lost the ability to use his arms and as a practical joke someone taped a harmonica to his face whilst he’s having some sort of epileptic fit. He might be able prove me wrong one day, but when I requested a song, the aforementioned happened.
He is a tad weird looking; tall, lanky, massive dark rings around his eyes. Now that he’s made it into the Top 100, he said he’d go for a Jim Morrison look, even though Jim’s “a bit commercial” according to Marthinus.
Here's your guide to season V's Idols Contestants. Expect breakdowns, build-ups, stress, tension, revenge, euphoria, jealousy and the worst and the best to come from your favourite contestants. Also be on the lookout for comments from the judges and the people who actually make Idols happen.
You won't get more behind-the-scenes than what's happening here...
I have been lucky enough to stalk the Idols contestants from day one at the Cape Town auditions. I'll be the one to bring you all the behind-the-scenes dirt and grime - these contestants can be quite filthy you know (I wish - some of them can be such a bore).
Since this is supposedly one of SA's biggest shows, I decided to take over and make it a tad more interesting. Bring glamour back! Get rid of all your boringly wholesome cardigans and chinos. Keep your Boksburg shades and crocs away from me... The thought of those repulsive items make me want to hurl (unlady-like, I know).
You could see me as the contestants' big sister; very caring, astoundingly beautiful, classy, and oh-so wise. If these babies want to be in the limelight, they'll need some grooming and very sound advice to stay away from the fashion horrors that some of you commit everyday. Oh well,
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