IDOL picks

Having watched every episode of this series there is something whiffy about NZ Idol. This is a talent show, surely. But each week the producers delve into the lives of each contestant looking for pathos - the more tragedy they can find the better. If the warbler isn't singing for a recently dearly-beloved-departed then they are singing for a recently dearly-beloved-arrived. Hell, is nobody allowed to sing for themselves?

Of course, contestants have seen how surprise-selection Ashley cruised in on the public vote after revealing her endeavours were soully for her best-mate-recently-departed. Now they are all looking for some tear-jerker tale to get the soppys pressing buttons.

Oh well. I pressed buttons for two based on the fact that they had decent voices.

Matt, a brave Bee Gee be-alike sang To Love Somebody with passable earnestness and musicality (singing for his baby son).


And Aroha, singing I'll Be There described as a Mariah Carey song, whereas comparisons to the adolescent Michael Jackson would have been more apt. She's like a Maori version of Bambi (singing for her koro after two years of silence since his passing).

Got your hankies out yet?