Why is Canadian Idol such a joke?

Cafe Society
#1

I went ahead and subjected myself to Canadian Idol this evening while playing WoW. Why do I do this? It’s embarrassing. Any one of the top 24 on American Idol could sing circles around these jokers.

Why do you think Canadian Idol is so much more laughable than American Idol? I mean, I know they’re both bubblegum shows with not much merit, but at least you can say most of the finalists on American Idol can sing like mofos. Why is it that most of the people I see on Canadian Idol can’t sing as well as most drunks at my local karaoke bar?

It’s not that Canadians can’t sing; we can. I know oodles of Canadians who can sing like crazy. And it’s not that the good ones aren’t auditioning, because I personally know 4 or 5 amazing singers who tried out last year. Is it the judging? Is it the piss-poor accompaniment that lacks the oomph to showcase the voices? What is it?!

#2

I can’t tell you, because I will not watch that program as long as Ben Mulroney is on it.

Ben Mulroney has no place on television. >>shudder of loathing<<

#3

Especially making $400,000 a year.

#4

Hear, hear!

#5

Isn’t it just because the US has ~10 times the applicant pool?

I used to watch Austrian Idol, and that was even worse.

#6

I suppose that might account for some of it. But even then it still doesn’t make any sense to me why we have schmucks on Canadian Idol who can’t sing. It’s honestly embarrassing.

Furthermore, I know for a fact that in the first year of Canadian Idol alone, around 10,000 people showed up to audition in Toronto alone. And the best we could come up with?

Ryan Malcolm.

Someone shoot me right in the Maple Leaf, will you?

#7

It can’t possibly be more of a joke than American Idol. That show is simply abysmal.

#8

Meh, I’d do Carrie Underwood.

#9

I’d do Kelly Clarkson also. Preferably both at the same time.

#10

Wait a minute! You’d do Carrie where???

#11

Remember the Chicken Little kid? Imagine if he won. Imagine if he was reasonably deserving. Now imagine that instead of a professional host, the show was hosted by Jenna Bush.

That’s the first season of Canadian Idol.

#12

Had I to guess, there’s an undercurrent of “This is all just a big joke, so we’ll play it all cool and ironic just to contrast to the goofy Americans who obviously take this crap way more seriously.”

#13

Carlyjay writes:

> I know oodles of Canadians who can sing like crazy.

And they mostly have the sense to move to New York, Nashville, or Los Angeles and get into the professional scene as soon as possible. The best thing for an aspiring singer to do is to hook up with people in the recording business as soon as possible. It’s not quite as bad for rock bands, where there’s a decent chance to get known locally before getting a recording contract. But the fact is that trying out for American Idol, Canadian Idol, Pop Idol (the original British version), or any of the other versions of the show is not the best way to make it as a singer. American Idol just happens to have the largest pool of pretty good singers who don’t realize that the show is a waste of time for their career. I suspect that Canadians more often see what a waste of time Canadian Idol is.

American Idol has produced exactly one singer who has a reasonably good chance at a long, successful professional career - Kelly Clarkson. Sure, some of the other winners and finalists will probably stick around for a while as professionals, putting out CD’s that do less and less well as the audience forgets who they are and doing concert tours that sell less and less well over the years. I suspect that ten years from now all the contestants so far, regardless of whether they won or not, will be the answers to trivia questions, except for maybe Kelly Clarkson. (And I’m not even sure about her.)

#14

There’s also the little detail that they don’t let contestants sing in French, so they’re eliminating a good percentage of candidates before they begin…Mind you, we’ve got Star Academie in Quebec, so that kind of balances out the equation.

#15

Part of it is that they seem to go for personality and tone rather than just pure singing ability. It’s probably a good move, since it gives you a better product at the end. The singers on American Idol may be technically better but they are so forgettable.

#16

This is perhaps the first post in SDMB history where a Canadian admits that something is better south of the border than north.

#17

SmackFu writes:

> Part of it is that they seem to go for personality and tone rather than just pure
> singing ability. It’s probably a good move, since it gives you a better product at
> the end. The singers on American Idol may be technically better but they are so
> forgettable.

I’ve read that the producers of American Idol were surprised to discover that singing ability turned out to be such a large part of the motivations for the audience’s votes. They only had Pop Idol (the equivalent British program that was the original for this type of show) to go on, and the votes on that program seemed to be going more for pretty, personable people, regardless of singing ability. After all, the show was called Pop Idol, not The Nation’s Best Singer. They expected to produce young pieces of fluff that they could promote for a couple of years and then drop when their popularity went away. I have watched very little of these shows though, so I can only go by what I’ve been told. Has anyone here watched lots of them in various countries who can compare what the different shows are like?

#18

Never seen Canadian Idol, but if this is true it must really, really suck.

#19

Heh, yeah but that’s because American’s are better at cheese. Nothing makes me feel quite as gross as when Canadians make a crap-ball version of some crappy American thing. It’s like the upper limit of cringing. If you cringed any harder your skull would cave in. I’ve only seen bus-shelter ads for Canadian Idol and had that reaction so I bet if I actually watched the show my whole skeleton would be dust by the first commercial.

The whole phenomenon made me prematurely aged when I was a kid and they came out with Much Music to be the Canadian MTV. It ruined me in my soul.

I don’t know how to say why it’s so crappy. I guess it’s because some of these things in US culture work because they’re tacky in a big, dazzling, over the top way. If you take away the big dazzling part all you have left is the tacky and the pathetic self-delusion of trying too hard. Canada is a small and modest country and that’s its charm, or would be if I had my way. As much as I don’t want to watch the Rita MacNeil variety hour, I’d rather watch that than some rip off because it truly doesn’t translate.

#20

What people don’t seem to realize is that the contestants on American Idol sign away their careers for a chance to be on the show. Once you sign, American Idol OWNS you. You might be famous for 15 minutes, but you won’t own your own recording, you have no say in your own career, you don’t own anything, you’re a hired hand.

Any performer who really deep down believed they could make it in the music business would never appear on American Idol.