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Date Posted: 01:17:31 08/20/04 Fri
Author Host/IP: NoHost/202.138.169.145
21,000 'Idol' lobbyists aim for stardom
Thu Aug 19
By Bill Keveney and Julia Neyman, USA TODAY
The hottest campaign in town this week? It's not for president. It's for Idol.
Producers for Fox's top-rated talent series estimate that 21,000 candidates and their supporters jammed the Washington Convention Center for the first American Idol auditions in the nation's capital, eclipsing last season's top draw: 20,000 in New York City. (Related video: Experience the Idol auditions without rubbing up against the unwashed masses)
Earlier this month, more than 8,000 singers tried out in Cleveland and 6,000 auditioned in St. Louis for the next competition in January, according to Idol and Fox.
The total has gone up so far this year, executive producer Nigel Lythgoe says. He attributes the increase in part to the widening of the eligible age group; the top age is now 28, up from 24.
Older singers add drama and bring life experiences to emotional songs, he says. "When you get to that age and you haven't really made it into the business, you have quite a bit more to lose."
The first person in line Wednesday morning was Alicia Bailey, 27, a teacher. "It was really great when they raised the age limit, and I could participate," she said. Bailey and her husband traveled more than 300 miles from Winston-Salem, N.C., and camped out for days.
"We slept on the lawn Sunday night, and I've been in the building since Monday at noon, playing cards and rehearsing."
Outside, in the middle of the line, a young man stood before a small group tapping a black-booted foot rhythmically as he belted out Prince's When Doves Cry.
"It's been arduous, waiting day upon day upon day, on the concrete," said Jarvis Comley, 23, of Marion, N.C. "But I'm really too tired to be nervous."
Laura Sullivan, 22, a country singer from Linden, Va., had placed 13th on the country music talent contest show Nashville Star. She said she knows the reality TV drill and was surprised so many people were spending their energy singing before the auditions. "It's non-stop, 24 hours a day. I'm just like, 'Stop the singing - I need sleep.' "
Nearby, an Asian man in a funky checkered hat crooned I Want You Back and did his best impersonation of Michael Jackson (news). Mikey Daguiso, 22, from Jeffersonton, Va., hoped his appearance would attract attention. "Maybe a producer will see my hat and say, 'Hey, he can sing!' " the recent University of Virginia graduate said. "Some people think I look like William Hung, so I can prove to them that I don't sound like him."
Although singers still range from excellent to awful, Lythgoe says there might be an increase in the latter, thanks to Hung. Last year's Idol reject became a cult figure.
"They may think that even if we don't take them, someone else might," Lythgoe says.
At each audition site, roughly 350 singers survive the first audition, in which they sing in small groups. Idol producers then listen to those, passing on less than half - including the very good and the very bad - to show judges Paula Abdul (news), Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson. They come to D.C. Friday and Saturday to pick about 30 to "go to Hollywood."
Overall, the talent "keeps getting better every year," Jackson says. Something different this year, he adds: "The boys are better than the girls so far."
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21,000 'Idol' lobbyists aim for Stardom