In Mid 2008 prompted by my cousins in-laws in NZ
who had heard Brandt sing at my cousins wedding, Brandt sent a DVD off to the Stars in their eyes TV show and after almost 6 months of being short listed, we finally got the news that he had been accepted onto the show.Stars in their eyes is a reality TV show and I think is the second highest rating show in NZ, this is it's second season.
It is a singing show where each performer walks on as themselves for a short interview after the 2 minute 'at home' promo is shown, then they enter a tunnel and as you can only do on TV, walk out a moment later fully made up as the artist that you are impersonating.
Brandt McRitchie is Tom Jones.
First we had a visit from segment producer, Pietra and the camera man Tony who flew over from NZ and stayed at the apartments, we had a great time with them and they filmed some awesome footage of Norfolk Island to use in the Promo.
Then Brandt had a couple more trips over to Auckland to work with voice coaches and costumers to get his look right.
We finally had the dates and the draw, Brandt was to be in show 3 along side four other very talented kiwis, although Brandt wasn't a kiwi, he was adopted for the time as being from the West Island.
The other performers were imitating Rob Thomas from Matchbox 20, Bic Runga, Gwen Stefani and Billy Idol.
The Production crew at Imagination TV were amazing as were Brandt's voice coach, the band, back up singers and dancing girls as well as the costumers and make up people.
Brandt sang Tom Jones fantastic upbeat song
"If I only Knew" from Tom's Sex Bomb album. This was chosen because Brandt's DVD that was sent in was of him singing this song when he won the "Cooroy Idol" Karaoke competition.
Little did we know until afterwards that the title was so appropriate, even though it was a big hit in Australia, the song is unknown in NZ. It wasn't until the dress rehearsal when the awesome brass section of the band commented to Brandt what a great song it was and they were glad they had learned it because they hadn't heard it before, then he knew that he was in trouble with the local voting audience.
'If we only knew' in hindsight, sex bomb would have been a better choice.
After all 5 songs were sung for the Audience, It could have gone any way, but the Audience voted the very talented and very nice guy, Nigel McCutcheon as Billy Idol to go through to the Grand final.
The whole thing was an awesome experience.
Brandt has been picked up by the NZ agent, Mr Austin Powers impersonator himself, Gary Brown of Tornado Entertainment Ltd.
He has performed several Tom Jones cabaret type shows since and has another one coming up in January 2010.
Little did we know until afterwards that the title was so appropriate, even though it was a big hit in Australia, the song is unknown in NZ. It wasn't until the dress rehearsal when the awesome brass section of the band commented to Brandt what a great song it was and they were glad they had learned it because they hadn't heard it before, then he knew that he was in trouble with the local voting audience.
'If we only knew' in hindsight, sex bomb would have been a better choice.
After all 5 songs were sung for the Audience, It could have gone any way, but the Audience voted the very talented and very nice guy, Nigel McCutcheon as Billy Idol to go through to the Grand final.
The whole thing was an awesome experience.
Brandt has been picked up by the NZ agent, Mr Austin Powers impersonator himself, Gary Brown of Tornado Entertainment Ltd.
He has performed several Tom Jones cabaret type shows since and has another one coming up in January 2010.
See Gary's website.
Because we couldn't view the TV show and because all the locals were asking to see it, Brandt showed his DVD copy at the local Theatre and gave the proceeds to the hospital auxillary fundraiser.
We all had a good giggle when a friend, Kath threw an enourmous pair of Knickers at the screen during his song.
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