Horng-yUh Life: Australian Idol 2006

Australian Idol 2006 (26 Nov 06)
Australian Idol 2006 was a great hit with the Australian public. Competition for this year's crown has been the most intense in the competition's 4 years' history. Participants are individually talented and vocal ranges diverse! Each of the top 8 are winners in their own sense. But as the competition intensified, the 2 grand-finalists are Jessica (a 16 yr old from Alice Spring who has the vocal powess of Whitney Houston) and Damien (an Irish who has the voice of an angel).

Both Haz and I are avid followers of the competition and of coz, it would be such an awesome experience to be able to catch it live at the cooooool location of Sydney Opera House! Through applications via the official website and tixs from frens, I managed to get 6 tixs to the outdoor party! No chance of getting the tixs into the Sydney Opera House though (maybe next year since Channel Ten is PwC's client).

As it is, Haz, me, Max, Kevan and Aiwei (Chris missed it as she was down with flu) were on the steps of the Sydney Opera House from 4pm! (too early as the outdoor concert started only at 730pm - thought was able to get tixs into the Opera House if we were early.. fat hope! haha..)

Luckily, the weather on the Sunday was fabulous! Not too sunny and as we are near the sea, the sea breeze was sooo nice. It got quite cold later in the night but fortunately, all of us were well prepared (except Max who was sooo strong that he survived the whole event in just a polo t!).

The outdoor event was activity filled (from 7pm onwards) with strong solo performances from past Australian idols like Guy Sebastian, past Idol finals like Shannon Noll, The Young Divas, etc.. The climax of the night occured at around 8pm where there were fireworks just above our heads! Watch the fireworks up close! (http://www.youtube.com/v/7Xp-SQf9xVQ) Pretty short becoz have to both capture the awesome moment on both video and photo (you can view the photo that was taken at the end of the clip on Max's blog).

Overall, it was a great experience and surprise surprise surprise, it was Damien, the overwhelming underdog who won the competition! Worthy winner! I actually met him in person the following week at a shopping mall and he said Hi to me too.. Great humble guy! By the way, we bought his singles and the song was well sung and definitely worth the money spent! Let's look at the photos taken that day...

The 5 of us on the hard stony steps (our seats for 4 hours). Pity our butts...
Behind me were the big screen and the outdoor stage where the performances took place
Ronald McDonald, the sponsor of the outdoor event, posing for the photo sportingly.