This Year's Canadian Idol Top 100 "Best Ever"

The show’s judges and producers are lauding the talent of this year’s Canadian Idol “Top 100,” saying it should translate to one of the best seasons the show has ever seen.

The weeklong music boot camp, which drew to a close May 4, placed competitors from across the country in various musical trials to determine the 22 singers who will perform in the live broadcasted portion of the show, which airs on CTV this summer.

The group – a “Top 100″ in name only — included 198 singers who had earned gold tickets in regional auditions held in 10 cities across Canada. After arriving in Toronto on April 30, they spent four grueling days being whittled down to 22 in front of the show’s judges and the show’s TV cameras.

According to judge Jake Gold, it was clear from the start of the week that the judges were going to be faced with more contenders than they had spaces for in the final 22.

“Day 1 was possibly the best Day 1 we’ve ever had on the show,” he told Eye on Idol. “It became really, really difficult at some point to eliminate the competitors. It’s… a numbers game and we were just stuck cutting people who were good because there were people who were better.”

Allowing competitors to audition with instruments played a big role in the impressive showing this week, added supervising producer Mark Lysakowski.

Including instruments in the audition process opened the door to singer/songwriters, multi-instrumentalists and other musicians who may not have otherwise seen themselves as Idol material, he said.

“The group we’ve had in this year’s Top 100 was more creative with their performances,” said Lysakowski. “We’ve had some cool surprises this week and a real variety of different types of singers… With a group like this to choose from, the Top 22 is going to be fantastic.”

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