Hopeful music stars gathered at Yonge-Dundas Square for the first day of Canadian Idol auditions in Toronto, an event that took a new approach compared to previous years.
Canadian Idol auditions usually attract thousands of people with dreams of making it big in the music business. For the 2007 auditions, the show's producers decided to make it a concert event.
"You want to keep it fresh, you want to keep it exciting, you want to give people a new reason to keep watching, you want to keep it unpredictable," Executive Producer John Brunton told CTV.ca Saturday.
Performing in an outdoor concert were American Idol runner-up Katharine McPhee and the current Canadian Idol Eva Avila. To warm up the crowd, Vancouver's pop-punk band Faber Drive hit the stage first.
"Eva Avila (and) Katharine McPhee (are) living proof that dreams do come true," Susanne Boyce, President of Programming for CTV said recently.
Boyce added that "Idol makes superstars" out of people who were unknown before their appearance on the show.
"That next superstar might just show up in Toronto on April 14."
Auditions for this year's Idol program were held at a nearby location. Rule changes this year allowed potential contestants to audition while playing an instrument.
The shows producers said it has proven to be very successful during auditions across the country, with fully half of the competitors picked so far playing instruments for the judges.
"It's the first time that we've attempted that and my guess is that they'll probably copy us in America next year because the turnout has been spectacular," Brunton told CTV.ca Saturday.
"The kind of musicians that we're attracting this year are of a much higher quality than we've ever seen in previous years."
Auditions started at 8 a.m and continued throughout the day. But people started lining up a couple of days in advance, even camping out on Yonge-Dundas Square.
"We've been here for two days," Tammy Petrie said, who kept her young nephew and "two adopted nieces" company on the square.
"We thought they would have been sleeping out as of Tuesday, so we came early."
Petrie and her nephew came from Brampton, Ont., while the two teenage girls came from Bolton.
One of the young girls, Vanessa Calabro, was feeling excited and ready to impress the Idol judges.
"I love singing and I want to show the judges something that they haven't heard yet."
Calabro told CTV.ca she would show the judges that she is "the next Christina Aguilera."
Her determination extends beyond just camping out in the city's centre. Calabro has been through the audition process before.
"The first year I forgot my lyrics ... and the second year I lost my voice. This year I came prepared. I didn't scream, I've been resting my voice."
A crowd of over 2,000 people showed up for the concerts. Then friends and supporters were separated from contestants for registration and the start of auditions.
A second day of auditions is slated for Sunday. After this weekend, Canadian Idol moves to Oshawa on April 17 for another two full days of auditions.
Once auditions have been completed, production of the next season of Canadian Idol will begin. Brunton told CTV.ca that viewers can expect surprises.
"We've got some brilliant guest stars that we're in discussions with right now that I think are going to really spice up our season (and) we've got a couple of surprises up our sleeve."
With files from Eye on Idol
