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Tuesday, January 23, 2001
'Popstars' ready for Cdn. debut
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By By Andrew Flynn
TORONTO (CP) -- Somewhere in this city five young women are holed up, anxiously awaiting a debut that could bring them fame and fortune -- or get them laughed out of town.
They are the chosen few, a handful who survived out of the 4,000 or so that attended gruelling cross-country auditions for Popstars, a reality TV show that begins on Global on Feb. 4.
Popstars is a Canadian search-for-the-stars series that chronicles the making of a musical girl group, from audition to the launch of a CD in the real world.
And its producers know the real world can be cruel. The group will have to battle the stigma of being "manufactured," on top of just trying to compete in a dog-eat-dog industry. But they think the final five will gain credibility when the public sees what they can do.
"We've got five very talented women that we're thrilled about and they're now a force of one, they're a group," says Michael Geddes, president of Lone Eagle Entertainment and the man behind the whole experiment.
Tryouts began last summer in four cities -- Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver -- a cattle call to which thousands of wannabe female pop stars between 18 and 25 flocked.
They were winnowed down to 10 finalists, and one episode will document both the elation of those who make the final cut and the disappointment of the other five who came close but got the axe.
Just who the final group are won't be revealed until the seventh episode. Until then, their identities will remain a closely guarded secret.
"Yes, they're a manufactured act, probably along with 80 per cent of the music out there -- that's fine," says Geddes.
"But we're going to be true to the fact that this isn't an exercise in getting in and out. It's an exercise in making something great and hopefully sustaining it long term."
Popstars is based on a hit Australian TV premise, a reality show that tracked the making of the girl band Bardot, which ended up with a huge following and a hit record.
More recently, ABC and MTV in the U.S. aired Making the Band, which created the male quintet, O-Town. That show was the brainchild of Lou Pearlman, developer of the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync.
There's also an American version -- also called Popstars and based on the same concept -- that began earlier this month on the WB network. Heading up the list of producers for that show is Vancouver music producer David Foster.
That others have trod the same ground doesn't bother Geddes. He says the quality of the music will be what differentiates the Canadian Popstars from others.
"We were looking for the five best talents in Canada to make a recording project. The show is really a documentary of that. When the show is over these girls are a bona fide act -- they are out there and the market will determine how successful they are. That means we have never taken our eyes off the music."
Allan Reid, a talent scout for Universal Music Canada (which will produce the actual album and support the group with promotion), says choosing the music has been almost as laborious as choosing the girls.
"We've been through close to 900 songs, literally from all over the place," says Reid.
"When we first got into this, we had an idea of what we wanted to create. We knew it wasn't going to be the Spice Girls and we don't see ourselves trying to clone Backstreet (Boys) and Britney and that kind of pop genre.
"It will not be bubblegum music. It will be a very credible mix of soul, R and B and pop."
Though the final five -- who have been living together in a downtown apartment since the final cut last fall -- were chosen for their singing talent and charisma, they have also proven to be promisingly creative as well.
"The girls we've selected, they're actually writing songs themselves," says Reid. "We didn't know that until we put the five of them together and started asking questions."
Neither Lone Eagle nor Universal plans to abandon the group after the show ends. In fact, says Geddes, the end of the program will herald the beginning of the group's real career.
The five women already see themselves as more than a disposable pop band, adds Reid.
"They look at this as their career," he says. "They want to be able to say to their friends, their family, their peer group, 'I believe in what I'm doing. Yes, I was assembled and put together, manufactured as part of this TV show, but they've put me together with four other people I gel with.' These girls, seriously, they feel like they're soulmates."
Facts about Popstars:
What: A 13-part TV series documenting the creation of a Canadian "girl group."
Who: More than 4,000 women between the ages of 18 and 25 auditioned. Five were chosen.
When: Sundays on Global TV starting Feb. 4 (7 p.m. in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia; 6 p.m. in Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan; 8 p.m. Atlantic).
Web site: www.popstars.ca
Quote: "We're telling a real-life story. There's a tonne of emotion that we've documented, a tonne of drama, and it's quite interesting watching women bare their souls and give it up as they have and get down to the wire." -- Producer Michael Geddes.
By The Canadian Press
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