Publié : sam. août 11, 2007 6:20 am
Citation :Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Regional Voting Gives Canadians What They Want?
The Idol Blogger
With the elimination of Greg Neufeld last night from Canadian Idol, the issue of regional voting raises its ugly head yet again. Greg was a favourite to even win this current season of CI, or, at the very least to be a very strong contender in the finale. In fact, what were the strongest contenders even doing in the bottom three this week - Greg, Brian and Carly?
Regional voting has always been more of a controversy on Canadian Idol than on American Idol. There are people who deny its existence up and down and all over the place, and these deniers are usually from the east coast of Canada because it's they who are usually accused of practicing regional voting at the cost of voting for true talent.
It's a no brainer that either Carly or Greg had to go at some time. They were both from the same region, British Columbia. The trick was trying to figure out which one of these two would go first. I silently predicted that one of these two would go by the Top 5 week. I was surprised that it happened so soon. My silent prediction was based upon the reality of regional voting. Oh yes, it's a reality all right, but is it a bad thing?
At least regional voting is an inspiration for voting - vote for one contestant simply because they are from your province or general region disregarding their talent and the talent of others. Regional voting wouldn't be all so bad if each region felt equally inspired. It appears that the east coast areas of Canada are the strongest regional voters, followed by the west, and then the most uninspired are those regions in central Canada - Ontario and Quebec. Quebec is almost out of the picture because French Canadians simply don't watch maudis-Anglais TV programs. Eva Avila was able to establish a base support in the Greater Ottawa region last year and then won the hearts of thousands across the country when what was left to vote for was none too inspiring; lucky girl.
Regional voting sometimes reveals itself after the fact. Take the case of Gary Beals who made the Top 2 in Season 1 of Canadian Idol. He wasn't a bad singer when putting a gospel spin onto a folk song, but if he wasn't doing that, he could be rather horrid. Many wondered why he made it so high in the competition. Surely it wasn't because the nice people of Greater Halifax were insanely voting for him? Well, yes it was. When his debut CD came out the following year, that kind of voting scenario was more or less revealed. His CD hit the number one spot for the city of Halifax, and did not appear anywhere else in Canadian city sales charts. Enough were sold in Greater Halifax so that Gary's CD hit the number 10 spot on the national sales charts. But three weeks later it completely disappeared from the national sales charts taking a drop of more than 70 spots in its second week alone. It never appeared again on any charts anywhere. In other words, it bombed! However, it just goes to show you that just a very few buyers of a CD to make it bomb can translate into enough voters to push someone to almost win Canadian Idol.
There are other examples that I could present from the east coast like Craig Sharpe from last season. Craig's bombed CD and cancelled tour are just so obvious, but he did make it to number 2 last year just like Gary Beals did 3 years before him. Gary's case is a classic though. Based upon these principles of regional voting, I think I'll take a chance on predicting the Top 3 of this current season of CI. It's always dangerous to make predictions, but what the heck. Let us see if this article will hold any weight 4 weeks from now.
I predict right off the top, that Tara Oram and Dwight D'Eon will compose part of the top 3. Tara represents herself from Newfoundland, which is perhaps the area comprising some of the strongest regional voters. Dwight is from Nova Scotia which may be the second strongest regional voting province. It's determining the third contestant that gets somewhat dicey.
Brian Melo is out because he comes from a very weak regional voting province - Ontario - even though Ontario holds about 37% of Canada's entire population. Carly Rae Jepsen comes from the weakest regional voting province in western Canada, although some fabulous contestants have come from there. Saskatchewan is the next weakest province in the west for regional voting, and there goes Matt Rapley. So now we have JayDee Bixby left.
JayDee, I believe has established a relatively broad appeal across Canada with the younger female folk. This combined with the Albertan vote, he will probably slip into the Top 3, as long as he can work Elvis Presley songs into the remaining themes. So there we have it for the Top 3: JayDee, Dwight and Tara.
Should I throw caution to the wind and predict the winner? Well, if Elvis leaves the building, it's quite possible that Newfoundland will achieve a major Canadian Idol milestone.
source:
http://www.beaversonidol.com/2007/08/re ... -what.html
Regional Voting Gives Canadians What They Want?
The Idol Blogger
With the elimination of Greg Neufeld last night from Canadian Idol, the issue of regional voting raises its ugly head yet again. Greg was a favourite to even win this current season of CI, or, at the very least to be a very strong contender in the finale. In fact, what were the strongest contenders even doing in the bottom three this week - Greg, Brian and Carly?
Regional voting has always been more of a controversy on Canadian Idol than on American Idol. There are people who deny its existence up and down and all over the place, and these deniers are usually from the east coast of Canada because it's they who are usually accused of practicing regional voting at the cost of voting for true talent.
It's a no brainer that either Carly or Greg had to go at some time. They were both from the same region, British Columbia. The trick was trying to figure out which one of these two would go first. I silently predicted that one of these two would go by the Top 5 week. I was surprised that it happened so soon. My silent prediction was based upon the reality of regional voting. Oh yes, it's a reality all right, but is it a bad thing?
At least regional voting is an inspiration for voting - vote for one contestant simply because they are from your province or general region disregarding their talent and the talent of others. Regional voting wouldn't be all so bad if each region felt equally inspired. It appears that the east coast areas of Canada are the strongest regional voters, followed by the west, and then the most uninspired are those regions in central Canada - Ontario and Quebec. Quebec is almost out of the picture because French Canadians simply don't watch maudis-Anglais TV programs. Eva Avila was able to establish a base support in the Greater Ottawa region last year and then won the hearts of thousands across the country when what was left to vote for was none too inspiring; lucky girl.
Regional voting sometimes reveals itself after the fact. Take the case of Gary Beals who made the Top 2 in Season 1 of Canadian Idol. He wasn't a bad singer when putting a gospel spin onto a folk song, but if he wasn't doing that, he could be rather horrid. Many wondered why he made it so high in the competition. Surely it wasn't because the nice people of Greater Halifax were insanely voting for him? Well, yes it was. When his debut CD came out the following year, that kind of voting scenario was more or less revealed. His CD hit the number one spot for the city of Halifax, and did not appear anywhere else in Canadian city sales charts. Enough were sold in Greater Halifax so that Gary's CD hit the number 10 spot on the national sales charts. But three weeks later it completely disappeared from the national sales charts taking a drop of more than 70 spots in its second week alone. It never appeared again on any charts anywhere. In other words, it bombed! However, it just goes to show you that just a very few buyers of a CD to make it bomb can translate into enough voters to push someone to almost win Canadian Idol.
There are other examples that I could present from the east coast like Craig Sharpe from last season. Craig's bombed CD and cancelled tour are just so obvious, but he did make it to number 2 last year just like Gary Beals did 3 years before him. Gary's case is a classic though. Based upon these principles of regional voting, I think I'll take a chance on predicting the Top 3 of this current season of CI. It's always dangerous to make predictions, but what the heck. Let us see if this article will hold any weight 4 weeks from now.
I predict right off the top, that Tara Oram and Dwight D'Eon will compose part of the top 3. Tara represents herself from Newfoundland, which is perhaps the area comprising some of the strongest regional voters. Dwight is from Nova Scotia which may be the second strongest regional voting province. It's determining the third contestant that gets somewhat dicey.
Brian Melo is out because he comes from a very weak regional voting province - Ontario - even though Ontario holds about 37% of Canada's entire population. Carly Rae Jepsen comes from the weakest regional voting province in western Canada, although some fabulous contestants have come from there. Saskatchewan is the next weakest province in the west for regional voting, and there goes Matt Rapley. So now we have JayDee Bixby left.
JayDee, I believe has established a relatively broad appeal across Canada with the younger female folk. This combined with the Albertan vote, he will probably slip into the Top 3, as long as he can work Elvis Presley songs into the remaining themes. So there we have it for the Top 3: JayDee, Dwight and Tara.
Should I throw caution to the wind and predict the winner? Well, if Elvis leaves the building, it's quite possible that Newfoundland will achieve a major Canadian Idol milestone.
source:
http://www.beaversonidol.com/2007/08/re ... -what.html