Category — Australian Idol Season 6

Another voting scandal has hit Australian Idol on the night when it was announced Wes Carr and Luke Dickens would be walking up those Opera House steps.

Apparently yesterday for 25 minutes the wrong voting numbers were up against the wrong singers names. That person has got to be so fired.

Apparently contestant Luke Dickens”˜ telephone number was published for both himself and Carr, while Carr’s allocated telephone number appeared against Spano. So does that mean for 25 minutes Mark had no phone number allocated to him on the website?

The network released a statement where they said “Viewers can be assured that the outcome of tonight’s verdict is unaffected by this incident.”

Maybe Brooke Adamo and Mark Spano need to take out a class action on Fremantle Media.

Source of story from Media Spy.

Thank you Idol for not making us sit through an hours TV before finding who the final two were.

Well the big surprise was Luke Dickens making it through to the Opera House. It is not undeserved he has barely put a foot wrong throughout the competition. Also it also confirms my theory that having a town vote for you gives you an advantage.

And the best thing about Wes getting through was seeing his ‘life story’. Wes performing as kid was very funny and cute. One of Wes’s attributes is his vulnerability.

The two both have different but interesting stories. Luke has the fairytale story of a hard working shearer who only sang for the first time in front of an audience last year and is now one week from becoming famous.

Whilst Wes’s story is the hard working, talented muso who has gigged for years but never got that break. He was just about to give it up but then decided to audition for Idol, and went from playing for ten people to over a 1 million via the tv set.

Or maybe it will just be a battle of the beards.

They sang their winner songs and now it is up to us to vote.

It will be interesting to see if Natalie Gauci will be singing at the Opera House or will she go in the forgotten Idol box along with Kate D’Arrugo, and Casey Donovan.

Livewire write that the odds are that Luke Dickens is set for the punt tonight. This won’t happen if the Young media have anything to do with it.

The Young newspaper has been promoting Luke each week. Obviously looking for a new angle they have an interview with Luke’s sister Emma. She says that Luke has only just started singing in front of people. I am sure he will inspire a few other amateurs to try out for next year’s show. Article is here.

Can someone contact June Dally-Watkins and ask if it is appropriate to chew gum on TV, yes Marcia Hines I am talking to you.

Tina Arena was the mentor tonight, and years of living in France has turned her into an Edith Piaf lookalike in a good way. However she has retained her Aussie lewd sense of humour when talking with the host’s James and Andrew G, about an all male top 3, she managed to throw a diction (get it dick-tion) joke in.

Andrew G has had his hair cut. I don’t care, but if you read the papers apparently a lot of people do. I am surprised there is not a blog dedicated to Andrew’s hair and its various incarnations.

Ever the entrepreneurs Idol is releasing a Top 10 singers CD, this must be to make some money as there won’t be a Winner’s Song Album released prior to Christmas. See previous post on that here.

Anyway onto the performances.

Luke Dickens – Stuck In The Middle Of You.

The last two weeks have seen Luke pick MOR (middle of the road songs). It is like he is doing karaoke night at his local pub in Young. The judges however were very positive about it.

Mark Spano – Bad Day – Fuel

Mark definitely sees himself singing rock, and he did a polished performance. But to tell you the truth I tuned out half way through. It appears the judges are having a love in tonight so were gushing at all three singers. And Kyle Mark’s pole action was NOT doing it for me.

Wes Carr – Easy – Faith No More

Tina and Wes bonded over the Johnny Young Talent School connection and she called him a superstar. She was pleased that he embraced his past. Wes brought back the hat and harmonica for a repeat performance in this song. Neither really enhanced the performance. Wes is clearly the star of this year’s Idol, but again I found this performance middle of the road.

It was sung and perform well, but would I go and buy his album on that performance? No.

Luke Dickens – I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues – Elton John

I think this is Luke’s last night on Idol. This song was boring. I was surprised he did not pick a classic rock song to finish up on. I will be surprised if he makes it to the Opera House -though there is a huge under dog vote in this show.

Mark Spano – This Life – Santana

He loves the Michael Hutchene moves this boy and they were very prevalent in this song. Especially that one at the beginning when he slightly pulled back his shirt to reveal his waxed chest. You lost me there Mark. However it will probably have thousands of hormonal girls giddily texting in his name.

Wes Carr – Get Back – The Beatles.

Finally a show stopping performance from one of the final three. He made a good Beatle song great. The electric guitar, the movement around the stage it was fantastic. He just showcased his star quality. I hope at the Opera House he repeats his Michael Jackson song.

Predicted top two Wes Carr and Mark Spano.

Australian Idol Top Four Boys To Be The New Young Divas??? NOOOOOO.
WA Today has Teale Jakubenko saying the top 4 boys would like to make music together after the end of Australian Idol. Could this be the new Young Divas? Let’s hope not. I cannot imagine Wes Carr wanting to sing bad cover songs.

Teale you are dreaming, this was just chat after a few beers with the boys.

Yes You Can Be An International Reality TV Star
There are a few international reality TV stars Simon Cowell, and Nigel Lythgoe to name two. But Australia’s Kym Johnson who to dance on US Dancing With The Stars continues to gain popularity. She is hanging out with celebs in Hollywood like Kim Kardishan, and also continues to be popular on the TV forums throughout the internet. Don’t expect to see her home anytime soon. Daily Tele has the full yarn.

Dean Geyer To Rub His Body With Baby Oil
I am finding it very hard to get excited about this. Apparently his neighbours character Ty Harper who is an aspiring singer will strip (no not the full monty) and will slather his chest with baby oil. Does anyone watch neighbours anymore? With plot lines like this why would you bother. Full story here on the Daily Tele Website.

Does Ryan Seacrest Only Date Blondes?
American Idol host who is persistently dodging gay rumours is apparently now dating US Dancing With the Stars Julianne Hough. He has previously dated Sophie Monk. It appears he has a penchance for blondes and reality TV stars. It is interesting how all his ‘relationships’ last about a minute. National Ledger has more details of this union.

Ice Road Truckers To Be Made Into A Movie.
Ice Road Truckers has been on Fox 8 for awhile, and is now on Channel Ten on Friday nights at 7.30pm. This show is about truck drivers hauling cargo up ice roads in the middle of the Canadian winter. Sounds boring. It’s not, and obviously Hollywood doesn’t think so either. A movie is going to be made. I can see George Clooney in a lead role in this one!

Chris Isaak when on the couch with the Australian Idol was castigating them for using the phrase ball’s up on national TV, clearly he had missed Mark Spano mouthing the F Bomb earlier when he realised Wes Carr was in the bottom two.

Luke Dickens and Mark Spano must have thought it was their lucky day when Wes landed into the bottom two for the first time. Was this going to be the biggest shock of this season?

Unfortunately for Mark and Luke, no, it was Teale Jakubenko who was gone.

Worst moment of the show when Kyle Sandilands while promoting a MacDonald’s fundraising day, said if Chrislynn was still there they could have had a Big Mac eating competition together. It was tasteless and James Mathison looked absolutely disgusted.

Highlight of the show Chris Isaak – best mentor in all season’s of Idol.

Can Chris Isaak be a judge on Australian Idol every week? It was like he made the other judges and hosts lift their game, when they realised he was getting all the laughs. Ok I had had my first alcoholic beverage in a fortnight so I did find Kyle Sandilands getting up on stage mildly amusing.

Has anyone else noticed that Marcia when she is giving her opinion has to wiggle her head alot, as there is barely any movement on her face anymore. I did not think it was possible to get botox on top of botox, but I think she has managed it.

Chris Isaak was his gorgeous, witty and enigmatic self. In an interview I once read that he had never been in a long term relationship. I am starting to think his love for Sydney combined with him talking about getting into rings, that the lady killer crooner may not be that interested in the ladies.

Anyway tonight the top four Idol’s had to sing songs that had been number one in the USA. This was an obviously timed for last week’s Presidential election, and Andrew G let it be clear that he was very happy with Obama winning.

Wes Carr – When You Were Young – The Killers
It was always going to be a let down the next song Wes sung after last week’s Michael Jackson masterpiece. But the frenetic pace of the song just irritated me, as did his hair flying everywhere. The highlight his safari suit style top.

Wes Carr “What A Wonderful World” – Louis Armstrong
Wes’s strength is his ability to connect or sell a song. He told us that the reason he liked this song was it soothed him after his numerous nightmares as a child. This was a stronger performance, and for the first half of the song it was just Wes and his guitar, but it is not going to get Cadbury’s most memorable moment.

Kyle’s comment on it looked like a muppet song cracked me up.

Teale Jakubenko – John Mayer – No Such Thing
This week Teale confirmed for me what a tool he is by picking two songs by overrated singers. On that basis alone he deserves to go. Performance non-memorable.

“What Goes Around” – Justin Timberlake.
This song and performance was the equivalent on nails on a chalkboard. It irritated me. This guy is this year’s Marty Simpson – it bewilders me how both of these two singers made it to the final four.It is time to go

Mark Spano – Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing – Chris Issak
I was worried about Mark doing this, but it was in fact one of my favourite performances of his. Maybe because I was all Chris Isaak loved up.

“Everybody Hurts” REM
This may win the Cadbury’s moment and it was a lovely performance with him just playing guitar onstage and not pacing around.

Luke Dickens – Arms Wide Open – Creed
Firstly Luke looks ten times better with that chin fluff cut off or as Dicko said his merkin. One of Luke’s strengths has been song choices over the past few weeks, and tonight I think he blew it with this song. It was so repetative.

“One Of These Crazy Nights” Eagles
Does Luke think his fans are 2WS listeners as that was smack bang in the middle of the road. I hope for his sake that he has enough fans to keep him in as it will either him or Teale going home.