The lowdown on Jody's win at the Idols 4 Finale last night:
From the press release:
After a close-run Idols season that saw 7 803 990 votes cast, it was Jody Williams who captured the most votes from the fans and was named their new Idol. The petite schoolgirl from Milnerton beat out her fellow Capetonian, 21-year-old Andriëtte Norman, in an emotional two-hour show in front of a capacity audience at the Ellis Park Arena.
“We are incredibly proud of Jody,” said M-Net's Head of Original Productions, Carl Fischer. “As the voting figures bear out, Season 4 was particularly closely-run because all the Top 10 contestants were very talented, so it’s a wonderful achievement to have emerged the victor.” (A statement on the 2007 voting statistics will be released on Monday.)
The two-hour Final Spectacular kicked off with the remaining 8 finalists from the Top 10 group - Dominic, Caroline, Yolanda, Carla, Björn, Daniel and Tender - who reunited for a medley of the AC/DC headbanging classic “Shook Me All Night Long” and The Kinks’s “You Really Got Me”.
Season 3 runner-up Gift Gwe returned to the Idols stage with “Back To You”, from his new album of the same name. Munro and Carla performed a sexy duet of Bryan Adams and Mel C’s “When You’re Gone”, while Tender and Caroline sang the apt “Missing You”, from Brandy, Tamia, Gladys Knight and Chaka Khan.
Then Daniel, Björn, Caroline and Dominic teamed up for a soulful version of the Bob Dylan classic, “Forever Young”. The girls of NKD, Idols 2005 finalists Deirdre Visser, Kesha Charlton Perkins and Nicky de Lange,chimed in with their radio hit “What I Believe”.
The stars of the show, Andriëtte and Jody, each sang three songs - one of their own choice and one of the judges’ choice. Andriëtte chose Allanah Miles’ “Black Velvet” and the judges chose Anastacia’s “I’m Outta Love” for her. For Jody they picked “Run To You” and she chose “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”, both by her idol, Whitney Houston. They also each got to debut the new Idols single, “Love Is All Around”.
After the voting lines closed and while the votes were being audited, Andriëtte and Jody shared the stage for the first time, singing the moving duet “Tell Him”, made famous by Barbra Streisand and Céline Dion.
As South Africa’s new Idol, Jody’s life has changed dramatically in one moment. To start with, she walks off with a recording contract with one of the world’s largest record companies, SonyBMG, plus R100 000 in cash from M-Net. She also drives away in a new, customised, Citroën “Idols Edition” C2 1.6VTS. Runner-up Andriëtte’s face lit up when it was announced during the show that she, too, would get a Citroën C2.
Jody and Andriëtte are now both the proud owners of a PSK-915 Docking Station, a PSK-3807 Docking Station, a SSDP9797 Dual Screen Portable DVD player, a SSFF9200 Series MP4 Player and a Navig8 GPS System from JNC. In addition each of them get the Xbox 360, a R2 000 voucher from Look & Listen, a laptop with connectivity and hampers from Cardies.
Jody also won a Shure SLX2458 Uhf Wireless Handheld Microphone c/w SM58 Mic Capsule and free haircare and skincare products from Phree Edge and Tigi for a year.
One of the most exciting moments for the new Idol was a personal videotaped message from Céline Dion, congratulating Jody on her victory and announcing that she would be the opening act at all the shows of the Canadian diva’s South African tour in February next year.
Jody's single will be released by SonyBMG tomorrow, backed by her rendition of Luther Vandross’s “Dance With My Father”. Fans can already download “Love Is All Around” from the M-Net website at
www.mnet.co.za as of right now. Both Andriëtte and Jody’s versions of the song are available in various formats (including MP3).
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