Alistair Lattimore » Search Results » emily+williams

Australian Idol 2006 Contestants: The Real Contenders

Al — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 13:19:20 +0000

Check out my early predictions for 2008 Australian Idol.

Following on from a suggestion by Andrew, below is my priority ranked view of the current crop of Australian Idol 2006 contestants.

Bobby Flynn

Bobby Flynn, there is so much to say about him; but he has to be one of the single most unique artists I’ve heard in a long time. I absolutely love his weird, eclectic singing style – its unpredictable and possibly raw. Whatever it is, I hope like hell he doesn’t change and one of the major labels picks him up and just encourages him to do his thing because its fresh, different, unique and awesome.

Lavina Williams

Lavina, what an incredible voice. I’d go as far to say that Lavina’s voice is of a higher quality than her older sisters. I think throughout the show, Lavina has delivered some amazing performances which show cases her amazing power and it is a damn shame she was voted out of Australian Idol so early.

Jessica Mauboy

Jessica has a fabulous voice with a great range, it seems effortless for her to deliver great vocals. I personally think she also have excellent enunciation when she sings as well; which isn’t always the case. After getting hit pretty hard by Kyle, she really bounced back and stepped up to the plate. I always seem to be reminding myself that she is so young, she’ll be an impressive force in the coming years.

Damien Leith

Damien has a smooth strong voice with an incredible falsetto. Damien’s falsetto is up there with the best of them; it certainly isn’t out of place in my eyes to list him beside someone like Darren Hayes and that in itself is an accomplishment. The great thing about Damien is that he doesn’t have to always sing high, he has a great mid-range voice as well, which since his high is so high, a superb range.

Chris Murphy

Chris has a great rock voice, its rough and definitely not pretty but the course tones match well when he digs in. I think he needs the support of Australia simply because we aren’t producing anywhere near enough rock artists anymore. Thankfully with the recent resurgence of Australian Rock via bands such as Jet; Chris won’t be alone if Australia lends him a little support.

Lisa Mitchell

Lisa is quite young but is already establishing her own unique singing style, I’d put it somewhere between a Missy Higgins and an Avril Lavigne. I like the fact that she is at home with her guitar and that really does suit her style of singing; which was evident by the constant criticism from Mark about her walking or strolling without purpose on the stage. I think in the years to come, it’d be nice to see Lisa Mitchell find her place in the Australian or great music scene.

Guy Mutton

Guy “Mutto” Mutton, quite a unique character. I thought he had something, I just don’t know what that something was. He delivered quite a few solid performances while he was on the show but I’m not confident that his singing style would be enough to sell records; which is the name of the game.

Klancie Keough

Klancie Keough had a great voice singing within her comfort zone, unfortunately for her Australian Idol demands that contestants sing various genre. Klancie by no means did a horrible job of singing outside of her preferred country style but her other performances weren’t quite as strong and in the end I think it caught up with her.

Dean Geyer

Dean has a pretty solid voice and has been fantastic throughout Australian Idol at actioning the judges criticism and comments each week. Unfortunately Dean doesn’t seem to have what it takes to make me pay attention when he is singing, he isn’t delivering anything to really catch my attention. At the moment, I would say he is being voted through by the teenybopper factor though in the future his delivery might change and I’d connect with his performances more.

Joseph Gatehau

Just didn’t do a thing for me at all, unfortunately I found it plain old boring.

Reigan Derry

Reigan didn’t really do a lot for me. I put Reigan into a similar category to Ricky Muscat, nice voice but I found her kind of boring to watch and listen to. In her case, I don’t think she brings anything to the table that hasn’t been done before; especially since she doesn’t have the versatility of some of the other performers.

Ricky Muscat

I personally find Ricky Muscat very boring to listen to; what frustrates me is that I don’t quite know why. He has a reasonable voice but I just find it uninteresting, I never seem to find any sort of connection with either what he is singing or his singing style. I’m surprised he has managed to get through this far in Australian Idol, though I think that can be attributed to the teenybopper factor.

Lavina Williams Out Of Australian Idol 2006

Al — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 11:39:59 +0000

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.

Emily Williams Recording Contract

Al — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 12:09:40 +0000

Sony BMG announced today that Emily Williams has signed a recording contract with them. From what I understand, immediately after Australian Idol finished Sony had all but said they were not interested in a contract with the runner up. Maybe after the lack-lustre record sales of Kate DeAraugo, they’ve realised that maybe the wrong person won the competition again and are now hot on the heals of the rightful winner.

Australian Idol Winner: Kate DeAraugo Vs Emily Williams

Al — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 13:43:14 +0000

A new article about Australian Idol 2006 finalists Damien Leith & Jessica Mauboy is now available.

Tonight saw the culmination of the third Australian Idol. For the last three months, contestants have been battling and belting out their biggest and brightest notes, in an attempt progress through the aggressive selection progress to make it to the grand final at the Sydney Opera House. What happened tonight, is sure to have gob smacked a vast portion of the Australian public. In some strange twist, Kate DeAraugo managed to out vote Emily Williams to win the grand final.

Kate’s performance throughout Australian Idol has been quite good, however compared to other singers – her overall package and skills were lacking. She has progressed through the weeks, by giving good performances and relying on other singers delivering an ok performance. As the competition crept towards the business end, her weaknesses were starting to show. Week after week, Mark would criticise her for not letting go of her voice, not connecting with the music, not transcending. Yet through all the criticism, the public continued to vote for her.

In stark contrast, Emily Williams has been delivering high grade performances week after week. She has received the ultimate ‘good job’ stamp (read: Touchdown!) from Mark no less than three times in the last few weeks. They suggest that she do something, next week she comes out and delivers it bigger and better than they could have imagined. Kyle went as far to say, that he hasn’t heard someone sing Whitney Huston, that isn’t Whitney Huston and make it worth listening too – yet he gives complements like that to Emily.

I have to believe that Kate DeAraugo has won Australian Idol, not through her ability to sing, nor her ability to perform – but in her Barbie Doll like appearance. No sane person could honestly believe that Kate was a superior singer to Emily, yet Kate stands in utter disbelief that she has won. The organisers of Australian Idol, need to some how factor in who is voting – not just the raw number of votes. Assigning the same importance to a 12 year olds vote as to an adults isn’t fair to the performers, they are just being cheated.

One can only hope that Emily Williams soars to the top, just like her amazing voice.