I'm hooked on autobiographies and always have been so I was tickled to see that Marah Louw will be releasing hers in February next year.
The Sunday Times featured an excellent article about it on Sunday (30 October) and it sounds like a juice bomb delux. It's called It's Me, Marah and covers her personal and professional life, including her judging experiences on Idols and her controversial firing from the show after season six.
Marah, who judged seasons 2 to 6 of the show, was embroiled in two controversies during her final season with the series. The first was an on-air meltdown in which she dropped an F-bomb and the second involved her comments about racism on Idols after Elvis Blue won the season against Lloyd Cele.
The Sunday Times article included extracts from her book which covers both of these scandals and it's an eye-poppingly compelling read. She talks about the challenges she faced with race during the show, saying that everyone accused her of being a racist, no matter what she had to say.
Here are some direct quotes from the book:
"From the first season I was concerned with the final results of the competition. Although I never voiced my concerns, one of the things that always surprised me, time and again, was the lack of good black contestants.
Contestants have to go through a preliminary judging phase in order to qualify to perform for the main judges, and this initial phase was a point of contention for me.
The prelim judges judges were not representative of our country's demographics and I got the impression that talented black singers were eliminated to make way for other racial groups so that there'd be more white and coloured contestants in the final stages. The black contestants who made it through seemed mediocre in comparison to their counterparts and as a result the winners were either white or colored."
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"I also strongly believed that black contestants were less likely to win because Idols was screened on a paid channel that had mostly white viewership and voting was conducted via phone, text or online. Thus, the votes were subject to the biases of those with the resources to participate in the show.
South Africa was still a young democracy back then, with more people clinging to old racial classifications than there are now. Even if a black contestant was a better singer and performer than their counterparts, some white viewers wouldn't vote for them."
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"Being the only black judge on the panel also made me a target for unfair criticism. Every time I commented on a contestant I was called a racist. Sometimes I would meet black people who disapproved of me making good comments about a white contestant.
No matter what I did, I'd face a battle. Each year presented an even worse challenge than the previous one. I have never judged any contestant according to their race. I always judged them based on their skills as a singer."
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"However, I don't regret expressing my concerns regarding the final results of each Idols competition. It continued for years without any black contestants winning. As a black judge, I began to believe what some people had been saying all along: that I was window dressing to make the show politically correct.
I am glad that, after I left, my wish came true and black contestants are now recognised as being as talented as their counterparts."
And of course she speaks about the controversial night when she lost the plot and swore at a contestant. She begins her account by saying that she'd broken her toe on a chest of drawers before it happened and was given strong medication as a result.
She was judging on Idols and performing in Skouspel at Sun City so on the Sunday of the incident she'd driven for four hours, to Sun City and back again.
"After arriving home that afternoon, I took a quick shower, got ready and took the prescribed painkillers and Synap Forte anti-flammatory pills - both strong medications. I was exhausted from driving so when I got to Idols I drank some Red Bull.
I didn't know it had been spiked with vodka. During Idols I could feel myself becoming woozy and irritated. I totally lost control and the last thing I remember was looking at the contestants and feeling agitated. Unfortunately I used bad language in dismissing one contestant. The incident was the lowest point in my life."
She goes to explain that she apologised to the public the next day and how embarrassed and regretful she was. And then she discusses who was responsible for spiking her drink. Except she doesn't actually name them. At the time of it happening she did - she said that Gareth Cliff did it but he isn't mentioned in the excerpts. This is what she says instead:
"Later one of the contestants called and told me that my drink seemed to have been deliberately spiked. I got the same story from someone who worked on the production - they'd been sent to buy the vodka. I listened to all these stories but decided to keep quiet and not confront those involved. I prayed on it and left it in the hands of the Almighty God.
The person whom I was told had spiked my drink was later embroiled in controversy. A journalist friend of mind who was around during Idols that year sent me a text that read, "Justice served!" ...
You'll be shocked at what lengths people will go to to get you fired in this industry when they want to put in their friends."
Sssscandalous stuff... bring on the full thing!