Tonight

“Tonight's the night we make love till the end
Tonight's the night I vow my love to you
Look into my eyes
I'll love you till the end of time
I'm in love with you”

Tonight – TrueBliss

At the end of last week there were a few million people across the world who waited with held breath to see who would take out season two of The X Factor USA. Would it be the thirty something year old country singer finally getting his chance at fame, or the thirteen year old powerhouse with a voice well beyond her years? In the end, it was the country singer who won the $5 million recording contract and international fame. So what’s this got to do with TrueBliss? Well, New Zealand is adopting The X Factor format and screening it early next year, so it pays to revisit the very first winner of a New Zealand reality television singing competition.

Yes, if you didn’t know it, TrueBliss’ fame came through the New Zealand born concept of PopStars. The show’s creator wanted to form a new, five piece girl group, much like The Spice Girls, and doubled the hype by creating a television show to accompany. The format was sold overseas, with Bardot being created in Australia and Hear’Say being formed in the UK. Simon Fuller went on to create Pop Idols, which went to America as American Idol before Simon Cowell adapted the format in his own series, The X Factor. And now, the series is coming to New Zealand with Dominic Bowden hosting, Stan Walker and Daniel Beddingfield two of the judges – with two female judges still to be announced and my hopes still on one of Runga sisters. Thousands of unsigned singers will turn up and sing their hearts out, hoping to be put through to the next round and not told they are “a talent free zone”.

But will this singer or group become a hit in the country? Our previous reality television winners have crashed and burned when they tried to become big. NZ Idol season one winner Ben Lummis is now immersed in charity work and runner up Michael Murphy graces the stage once a year at Christmas in the Park. There’s nothing to be heard of from season two and three winners, and the show was canned after the third round. As for our TrueBliss ladies following their break up, we saw Megan Alatini judging on NZ Idol series three and owning her own business in Dunedin, Joe Cotton hosting on radio and appearing on Celebrity Treasure Island, Carly Binding having a string of successful songs for a few years, Erica Takacs making guest appearances and hosting that Coca-Cola sponsored top 40 show, and Keri Harper doing ... something.

I do hope whoever wins The X Factor New Zealand will make something of themselves in the music industry. Overseas acts have become famous in other countries through the show – Leona Lewis, One Direction, Reece Mastin and Chris Rene to name a few, so why not a Kiwi too. Although, let’s not forget this is for entertainment, and part of the pleasure is watching those first auditions where people hustling for new jobs cannot actually sing, much to the audiences, and later YouTube viewers pleasure.