Philly Idol comes to Wildwood
By RORY CARLIN
A mixed crowd of families, leftover late-night revelers, and supporters converged on the Wild-woods Convention Center at 6 a.m. to cheer on five Philadelphia area contestants as they com-peted for a chance to jump to the head of the line when the American Idol Judges come to Phila-delphia for regional auditions to the national phenomena.
Good Day Philadelphia, a morning show on Philadelphia’s FOX 29, was on hand to distribute a “Fastpass” to the winner of the preliminary American Idol audition. The event, sponsored by Coca Cola, brought people from Philadelphia to Port Elizabeth to what local event promoters were call-ing, “Philadelphia’s Playground.”
Coke, as the major promoter of Idol, provided the “fastpasses,” and decided Wildwood would be the location for the tryouts. Coke’s interest in the Wildwoods comes after undertaking a major investment and advertising campaign in the city.
The site selection was a bit taxing on some of the constestants, many of whom were up as early as 3 a.m. to travel from Philadelphia to the shore.
“We were awake all night,” said Cathy Rizzo, decked out in a T-shirt with the image of her Idol pick, Devin Riley of Port Elizabeth, emblazoned on the front.
The other four contestants, Lindsay Pagano of Warminster, Pa; Cailin Shanahan of Chalfont, PA; Joesph Catalano of Mays Landing; and Chantae Marie Oliver of Philadelphia, all attracted loyal fans.
The judges, Chris Booker and Diego Ramos of Q102, former “American Idol” finalist Anthony Federov, and Power 99’s Shamara, played roles similar to that of the real American Idol judges beamed into living rooms across the nation. Booker, the crowd and commentators observed. jock-eyed to be the Simon Cowell of the panel.
When Booker gave a negative critique Chantae’s performance of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” and Diego critiqued her video submission which played, muted, during her 30 second audition, the crowd broke into boos. Background sarcastic mutterings of “yeah, can you sing?” and “I’m gonna smack him upside the head” could be heard, with the Q102 staff yelling back, “We love you, Diego.”
After the performance, Chantae said she “could have done better if I wasn’t so nervous.” She felt that the comment Diego made about her video submission was unwarranted. “I thought he should have judged me on my singing,” she said.
After the interview, a producer with FOX 29, Aubry Fish, came by to give Chante some words of encouragement. “Out of 250 people, we picked you as a finalist,” she said. “Anyway, what does he know? He is only a radio DJ.” The words came as a great consolation to the well-mannered young woman, who cracked a smile at Aubry’s words of support.
While Chantae’s spirits may have been dashed, they would not remain down for long. She wasn’t the winner; that fell to a beaming Lindsay Pagano of Warminster who received a FOX 29 gift basket and the coveted “fastpass.”
However, instead of exclusively giving a single “fastpass” to the winner, all five finalists received the pass as well for the chance to compete nationally on American Idol.
