Idol 2007
I have finally caught up to date with the Swedish Idol programme, and am enjoying the show very much. My Swedish is improving but I still can’t understand very much of what is said (they speak fast!), so it’s interesting to watch a show and simply judge the singers for myself rather than being influenced by the judges’ opinions, although of course I can tell if it’s negative or positive from the contestants and crowd’s reactions. Up until this week only girls had left in the finals, which shows how the programme is really aimed at young girls and older ladies, so the sweet boys are the favourites, just like in the UK’s Pop Idol shows. It’s no problem for me, though – I’m totally in love with adorable Christoffer, although my favourite singer is Daniel, and Matthias is also cute. There’s a really cool girl called Amanda, another called Marie who is OK, and a guy called Andreas who I find rather annoying for no distinct reason. This week they dedicated songs to people they love, which included Matthias calling his best mate “babe” and Christoffer telling us his mother “attracts him like no other lover”. Hmm…
The X Factor
I was rather sad to see Futureproof leave last week since they were my second favourites, but as long as Same Difference stay in the show and sing ace pop songs then I’m happy. I have been enjoying the series very much this year, and get very excited about downloading it each Sunday, but I’m less attached to the contestants than ever, with the exception of SD of course. I used to get so attached, in the days of Pop Idol and Fame Academy, and now I’m not affected at all. My attitude is much more ‘what will be will be’ after having seen so many of these shows and knowing it always happens that someone good goes too early, and the likelihood of the one you like ever becoming a real popstar is never very high. I look forward to seeing Same Difference on next year’s Making Your Mind Up, though.
The Next Great American Band
This is a new talent show created by Simon Fuller, which is basically like the band section of X Factor, except the bands here have to play instruments. This means that although the bands on the show are very varied, there is a large sector of society almost entirely missed out i.e. females and non-whites. There is one girl group and one black male group, that’s all. I know it’s typical of bands of this sort to be white males but when you are shown about 25 of these with only 3 girl groups, it’s a bit boring. There is, however, a group of 12 year olds who are like the metal Hanson, so I guess the show wasn’t entirely without amusement. Considering there were so many boys on the show, there was a distinct lack of attractiveness. Is it any surprise that this show has done pretty rubbishly in the ratings?