Canadian Idol – The Calgary Auditions

I braved the cold this weekend and ventured out to the Canadian Idol auditions here in Calgary, Alberta (don’t I look enthusiastic in the picture, lol???).  I have to admit that I was expecting a larger crowd, but, then again, there were the Edmonton auditions and the unique “staging” in place (I’ll explain in a second). 

What also struck me was the lack of instruments.  Sure there were a few but most applications that I saw were relying on one thing – their voice.  People were practicing all over the place from the food court to Payless Shoes (it was kind of funny, actually).  Click on any images to enlarge.

First things first, here’s how the auditions were organized:  There was a small registration desk where you could obtain information and pick up the forms.  I saw a lot of people turned away at this point due to a lack of identification/parental consent which was really too bad.  Some of them sounded good from the little snippets I heard. 

See more after the jump!

Then, there was a larger registration desk where Canadian Idol hopefuls took their completed forms.  After that they had to get into the line and wait to be called into one of two holding areas.  This part of it seemed to take about 90 minutes but, fortunately, it wasn’t extremely complicated – stand in line and wait your turn.

From the holding area (people had their audition numbers pinned to their chests by this point), they were led in groups outside of the mall (yes, I said outside of the mall) where they were ushered into a makeshift audition area.  Literally, they piled into a single trailer and auditioned for some preliminary judges.  If they were successful, they were given a yellow ticket and were brought back to the holding area where they would have to audition yet again, this time in hopes of receiving a blue ticket.  I was told, to my surprise, that no one who auditioned this weekend would go before Canadian Idol judges Zach Werner, Sass Jordan, Farley Flex and Jake Gold.  Instead, those who were fortunate (and talented) enough to get a blue ticket would audition for the judges either today or tomorrow at a secret location.  Therefore, the audition process in Calgary is really taking four days instead of just two.  This is where I have to ask – has anyone had to go through that before?  No one I asked seemed to remember it being like this last year.

One of the first people I spotted was Brendon McQuaid who was quietly strumming his guitar in front of the registration area.  After approaching him, I learned that it was his sister Alyssa McQuaid who was auditioning and he and their super nice mom, Valerie, were there for moral support.

The family had travelled from Lethbridge for the auditions (Alyssa also auditioned in the past and received a yellow ticket last year).  I will be contacting them to find out what happened later in the audition process.  In the meantime, check out Brendon and Alyssa’s MySpace page for their band “Contrast.”

Next, I spotted a great group of friends – Idol hopefuls, Megan Madge, Jessica Bentley and Halee Kosar along with Samantha, Amanda and the hilarious and hapless Richard (he would have auditioned but he lost all forms of identification!). 

Amanda and Samantha (far right) were unable to obtain parental consent and therefore were not allowed to register for the auditions.  Interestingly enough, several of them described an affinity for Japanese music.  In fact, Megan (below right) chose to audition singing “God Knows” by Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (to hear the song, click here).

Here are Halee (left) who auditioned singing Mandy Moore‘s “Only Hope,” Jessica (center) whose audition song was “Moonchild” and Megan (right).  I know that Halee was unsuccessful in getting through to the next round but I will be following up with Jessica and Megan.

Here are some more pictures of the audition line:

Jessica Downs came out of the trailer area beaming, clutching a yellow ticket.  She also seemed like a woman with an objective and I soon discovered what it was – she needed to check on her younger sister and two young sons (ages 1 and 3) who had accompanied her to the auditions.  Jessica tried out last year and failed to get a yellow ticket.  After just giving birth and feeling sleep deprived, Jessica explains that she was simply “not ready.”  This year, from what I could see, she was confident and excited, waiting for the next opportunity to prove herself worthy of making it to Toronto.  Her 3-year-old son, Malcolm, entertained me with some beatboxing while Jessica explained that the audition process seemed to go faster this year.  I will be following up with Jessica to see if she was successful in her bid to get a golden ticket.

Radio stations were also out covering the auditions.  energy 101.5, one of Calgary’s newest radio stations had a large table (pic didn’t turn out) right near the registration area and Dan was especially helpful in trying to help me get some information about the audition process. 

I also had a great chat with the enthusiastic and uber friendly Jeff from Vibe 98.5 (I was, apparently, freezing in this photo).

I had fun but I will admit to being disappointed by the apparent changes in the audition process.  I’m interested to see how it gets depicted on television!