In an amazing turn of events, Lavina Williams was voted out of Australian Idol 2006 tonight. Lavina Williams is the older sister of Emily Williams, who was the runner up in the 2005 series of Australian Idol. Lavina showcases, what is now a recognised high power singing style which took her older sister to the final two last year. Throughout the 2006 series of Australian Idol, Lavina has been a bright and shining star; delivering consistently high quality performances.
Lavina being voted out of Australian Idol tonight drives home, what I would consider an irrefutable fact; the voting strategy which the Australian Idol show implements is fatally flawed. If you look back through the years, there have been mistakes year after year:
- 2005: Anne Robertson was voted out in the final six, when it should have been her and Emily Williams in the final.
- 2004: Ricki-Lee Coulter was dropped in the final seven.
To prove the point a little more, in the 2004 series of Australian Idol the winner Casey Donovan struggled to sell a record. How is it that the ‘Australian Idol’ — someone who received millions of votes struggles to sell a single? Hang on, what if the voting system was broken. What if all the people voting aren’t the people that are going to actually buy the records and they are voting for other reasons? Stay with me here, what if a significant number of the votes for the Australian Idols are made up of 16 and under teenagers? Sure, they’ll spend $0.50c to send an SMS – I seriously doubt that they’d spend the $25 on the actual album though.
I’m disappointed to see Lavina Williams go out of the competition tonight, I think there were far more deserving contestants who should have had that fate.