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by The Trades Staff Published: January 4, 2004
On Christmas Day, Simon Cowell gifted the world with a follow-up to his popular "Idol" franchise -- "World Idol," in which the winners of 11 "Idol" competitions from 11 countries competed against one another. After days of worldwide voting, the results were released on New Year's Day. And, true to the franchise, no substantive info was released before half the show was taken up in puffery. The first puff-piece was a performance by Victoria Beckham, formerly known as "Posh Spice" of the Spice Girls. Her only connection to World Idol was from her participation in the Spice Girls, a band created by Simon Fuller, the other Simon responsible for the "Idol" phenomenon. That must have been connection enough, because otherwise she was an odd choice to perform. Clearly lipsynching, and primped and prodded to the point of being unrecognizable from her original Spice Girl incarnation, she seemed the antithesis of the grassroots talent show competition. Mercifully, we did not have to hear any judges comment on her song, "Let Your Head Go." A better choice to perform was Elton John, someone who has a long history as an international pop idol, who has had a varied career in the music industry and as a world citizen, and who has been an inspiration to the current generation of pop stars. There was no doubt that Sir Elton was singing, not lipsynching, his song, "Are You Ready for Love?" While Elton's voice has gotten rough over the years, the crowd was appreciative and participated by clapping along. But his appearance was far too short -- after singing his song, he was out of there. Considering that sweet little Jamai from the Netherlands had taken Elton John as his own personal idol, and had sung an Elton John song as his contest piece, the producers missed out on a golden opportunity to put the two of them together, or at least to have the Idols as a group sing with Elton (as, for example, the American Idols did with Burt Bacharach in Season 2). But finally we did start receiving the results. Each contestant was assumed to have won their home country, and thus received 12 points from their homeland. After that, the contestant who won the most votes in a country received 10 points, the contestant who received the second most votes in a country received 9 points, etc. Read below for how the voting played out, in the order that the votes were read: Votes from the United Kingdom Home Contestant: Will Young (12 points)
Votes from Belgium Home Contestant: Peter Evrard (12 points)
Votes from Australia Home Contestant: Guy Sebastian (12 points)
Votes from the United States of America Home Contestant: Kelly Clarkson (12 points)
Votes from the Pan-Arabic Nations Home Contestant: Diana Karazon (12 points)
Votes from Poland Home Contestant: Alex Janosz (12 points)
Votes from Netherlands Home Contestant: Jamai Loman (12 points)
Votes from Canada Home Contestant: Ryan Malcolm (12 points)
Votes from Germany Home Contestant: Alexander Klaws (12 points)
Votes from Norway Home Contestant: Kurt Nilsen (12 points)
Votes from South Africa Home Contestant: Kurt Nilsen (12 points)
Clearly, the winner was Kurt Nilsen, who came in first in 9 out of 11 countries -- or 9 out of 10 countries, if you consider that his home country of Norway was not allowed to vote for him. Here are the final voting tallies:
Final Thoughts Molly writes: The finale show was a disappointment. While I'd enjoyed the World Idol competition a great deal, the results show fell flat. I wanted to see more of the World Idols, not ex-Spice Girl Victoria Beckham! But in terms of results, I was very happy with the top four! I was delighted that Kurt won, and that he won so decisively. I was quite surprised, but also pleased, that Peter Evrard scored so well. And my pick as the most marketable, Heinz Winckler, came out very well. My biggest disappointment was having Guy Sebastian end up so far down on the list. I would have been happy to see him finishing anywhere from 2nd down to 5th, but 7th, behind Ryan Malcolm and Will Young, just seems wrong. I think that his song choice really hurt him. My biggest surprise was that Alexander Klaws from Germany did not end up in the basement of rankings. In fact, he came in first in the Pan-Arabic voting. Absolutely beyond belief. Thankfully, he did at least end up in the bottom three. Diana Karazon from the Pan-Arabic nations was the only contestant who did not sing in English, and there was a lot of speculation that her decision to sing an Arabic song would work against her. She did indeed have a lot of last-place finishes, but she also had a good number of mid-list finishes. Interestingly, her highest placement was in the United States, where she came in third! I wish that the finale for "World Idol" had lived up to its promise, because I did enjoy the chance to see "Idols" from around the world. I hope that next year, we'll have a chance to see more competitors, and to see more of the competitors! Congratulations, Kurt! Mary writes: I completely agree with Molly. This show was a complete disappointment. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I certainly was expecting more entertainment than Posh Spice. Elton John was fine, but it would have been great if the World Idols could have sung a medley of Elton John songs. I would have completely dug that. As far as the winner, I was pleased that Kurt won. He realy looked thrilled and surprised and that's a reaction I really love. Kelly looked quite upset that she did not win decisively. I wonder what was going through her head. I too am glad that Diana Karazon placed so high in the U.S., but Heinz (from South Africa) needed to place a bit lower in the rankings, IMO. He and Guy from Australia should have traded places in the rankings. A few questions I had at the end of all this is what the World Idol won? Did he win money? A recording contract? Or was this something they all had to do to fulfill their contracts? My final question: will this please be the last I see of Will Young? "World Idol" on the net: World Idol Official Site and SirLinksaLot.net. |
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