Canadian Idol 5: The Toronto Auditions

On Saturday morning, a trip to downtown Toronto to check out the thousands of folks hoping to become the next Canadian Idol seemed warranted. With temperatures no more than a couple of degrees above freezing, somehow we found ourselves outdoors in a public park. Meanwhile, one of Canada’s most famous malls was right across the street, where the upper levels are never that busy…

The event was advertised as running from 8AM to 5PM, though I’m told plenty of ambitious applicants showed up even earlier. Oh come on now, rock stars don’t DO mornings! At any rate, before the preliminary judges heard a note, the first order of the day was… a free concert!

The concert was emceed by the host of Canadian Idol, Ben Mulroney. Opening the show was Faber Drive, a new and energetic young band from Vancouver. Personally I think they show a lot of promise. Their first CD comes out on the first of next month.

Act II was none other than the reigning Canadian Idol herself – Eva Avila! Eva performed a couple of songs from her CD and shared some words of encouragement with the crowd. She was then spirited away for media interviews to the warm confines of The Hard Rock Café next door.

Although I did not interview Eva I took advantage of my credentials and tagged along to do a little surreptitious eavesdropping… and to try and warm up. The view was much better from the third floor anyway! While defrosting, I heard Eva tell a story I hadn’t heard before. She related that when she tried out last year, there were so many people who came the first day that she didn’t wait around to try out! Luckily for all concerned, when she returned the next day the crowd was much smaller. The rest is history!

But back to the concert – there’s one more performer to talk about - American Idol 5’s runner-up, Katharine McPhee! Kat (pictured at the top of the article) performed several of her songs and also addressed the crowd in between numbers. She sounded as strong and sweet as ever!

It was only now (around 11AM) that the Tier One judges finally started seeing prospective idols. I talked to several who were waiting in line, and you know what the most frequent comment was? Not, “I am the next Canadian Idol!” No, it was, “I can’t feel my FEET!”

I was surprised that such a small percentage of contestants took advantage of the new rule allowing contestants to accompany themselves instrumentally. I’d guess less than one in twenty had their guitars in hand.

This Just In: Well, not “just,” but since I wrote my first article about the auditions a few weeks ago, an additional city has been added to the tour – and it’s nearby Oshawa. The dates are April 17th and 18th, from 8AM to 5PM at the Oshawa Centre. So if you’re in the area, why not give it a try? Odds are the lines will be shorter than in Toronto!

There’s one other bit of news, and this comes out of my Press Kit. There will be a new face on Idol this season – that of roving reporter Dave Kerr. Dave’s a comedian from Montréal who’s credits include MuchMusic’s Video On Trial.

Well, that’s all of my Canadian Idol news for now. I’ll be back when the show airs to recap all the episodes!

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