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.
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