Guy, Derek: New boys on tap

It is also happening in Australia! I mean the Pop Idol phenomenon. I came across this new CD by somebody named Guy Sebastian, who it turns out is the winner of the Australian Idol talent show. Australian Idol is of course the OZ version of the popular UK-born Pop Idol, which spawned American Idol in the US. And I do not have the numbers but I am sure there are lots of other Idol competitions in other countries from which the public is picking out the next big stars. Don’t they remind you of the spectators during the gladiator games in ancient Rome putting their thumbs up or down for those players in the arena?

Anyway, back to Sebastian, who hurdled all the trials, acquired the nickname Fro because of his abundant hair and in the process won the contest. He is now the hottest new star in the land Down Under. Guy was born in Malaysia but has lived in Melbourne since he was 10. He was a singing teacher and recording engineer before he decided to join Australian Idol.

In keeping with the usual demand of talent shows for versatility and for difficult songs, Guy’s first album shows off his remarkable vocal range to the utmost. It has a largely pop repertoire with sentimental ballads and upbeat numbers and includes a few of his own compositions. But just to show how he won the contest, Guy also sings varied oldies like What a Wonderful World, When Doves Cry and closes the set with his own version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic Climb Every Mountain.

Other songs in the album are Angels Brought Me Here, Can You Stand the Rain, No One Can Compare (To You), All I Need is You, My Beautiful Friend, Something Don’t Feel Right, Just As I Am, Words and I 4 U.

Derek McDonald, who comes from Glasgow in Scotland, admitted in an interview that he might have joined Pop Idol if he hadn’t been already active in the business when the show started. He got in by what now seems like the "old-fashioned" way, Derek, who started singing as a child and has seen his whole family fully support him in his career, made a demo recording in his room and sent it to a producer in London. Within only two weeks, he was already singing as part of the boy group called Mero. He was only 16.

I do not know what happened to Mero but Derek continues to make music on his own. He has just released his first album titled Inescapable. It is a pop collection of new originals, some of them composed by Derek himself. Although now a solo act, his boy group roots are very much in evidence. Here are songs that girls like to swoon over and they surely will, not only because these are sweet and romantic but also because Derek is a great-looking hunk.

The first single out is Hurts So Bad but the tune I like best is Don’t Forget to Remember Me, which Derek wrote for his late aunt to whom he was very close. Other cuts are Just Like Me, On Time, What Can I Do, How Do I, Anybody Seen My Girl, Nobody Knows, She Belongs to Someone Else, Alone Again, Not My Girl, I Surrender, Miracle and the title song Inescapable. We will soon find out if Derek’s charms are indeed that, inescapable.

Back to the Idol phenomenon. A letter writer wants to find out if American Idol judge Randy Jackson is Michael Jackson’s younger brother. They have the same name, all right but although Idol’s Randy is hip on music and is a big producer and songwriter, he is not in any way related to Michael. He is not without celebrity connections, though. Randy is instead cousin to another Jackson, also a big name in show business, that is Samuel, the actor.

As for the youngest Jackson boy, Randy, he took over Michael’s place when the pop idol left the Jackson Five to go completely solo. I saw him perform during that moving Jackson reunion concert and I believe he continues to do shows with his other brothers.