Season TWO
Canadian Idol Season 2
Second season of the most-watched TV show in Canada began on June 1, 2004. Four famous judges, Jake Gold, Sass Jordan, Zack Werner and Farley Flex where ready to audition thousands of contestants and select one Canadian Idol. Ben Mulroney as a host and Jon Dore as a “roving reporter” were there to help them. This year Top 6 contestants performed the Gordon Lightfoot classic “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” while playing their own instruments. The winner was defined on September 16 at the John Bassett Theatre in Toronto.
These were the Top 10 finalists:
Brandy Callahan’s first public performance was at the age of two when she sang at the church.
When she was 18 Brandy formed a group which performed throughout Atlantic Canada. She worked as a hairdresser in Toronto when she decided to go for an audition for the Canadian Idol. Brandy was affectionately called “Mama” by other competitors and they were very warm to her when she was sent home. It even seemed remaining Idols were more distraught then herself when she sang her final song.
Manoah Hartmann was a school teacher and she never really intended to get into such competition as a Canadian Idol.
Her audition to the show came of a dare from her students. She agreed to try out for the show if they rose over $13,000. In fact Manoah was pretty confident because previous year they raised just $3,000. But students surprised her raising $15,000 so Manoah went to Canadian Idol. On the way, though, she had a car accident and she got a light concussion which made her forget the words of the song she performed at the audition. But despite this Manoah made a great self-confessed rocker girl impression on judges and viewers and made it to the Top 9.
Joshua Seller grew up on his mother’s gospel singing and on all the songs he listened on the radio.
He also sang in a church himself. Joshua always dreamed of a music career but working part time on two jobs they were only dreams. Actually he got to the Canadian Idol accidentally — he just went to give his friend a ride to audition but eventually it worked out better for Joshua then his friend. Canadian Idol competition helped Joshua realize he should do something to become a musician, not just sit and dream of a music career. In 2005, after becoming a Top 8 at the Canadian Idol, he released his debut album “Starving for Attention” on which he wrote or co-wrote 10 songs out of 11.
Kaleb Simmonds is a young and talented musician.
He is a human beat boxer, he creates rhythm and beat and imitate different sounds with his voice. Before his audition for the Canadian Idol at the age of 21 Kaleb already had an onstage experience. He began singing at the age of 7 at churches in North Preston, NS. When he grew older he performed in shows throughout the community and finally went to clubs. Kaleb was twice nominated in urban categories at the ECMA, in 2002 and 2003. He says it wasn’t his goal to win the Canadian Idol competition, he just wanted to show to the people how diverse music can be. Placing sixth on the show really gave him some recognition and helped to release his album “The Life of an 80’s Baby”.
Elena Juatco was 17 when she decided to try herself in Canadian Idol out of curiosity.
She was an Arts in Drama and Women’s Studies student at Queen’s University. She played in sketch-comedy and rock-n-roll troupe Queen’s Players and in different local performances. On the Canadian Idol Elena accompanied herself on the piano while performing “The Canadian Railroad Trilogy” by Gordon Lightfoot. In 2005 Elena made her professional scenic debut and since that she can be seen on different stages and in films. Besides, getting to the Top 6 wasn’t her last time on the show — in 2006 she was asked to be a Roving Reporter for the fourth season of Canadian Idol.
By the age of 21 when he auditioned for the Canadian Idol Shane Wiebe already sang in church choirs, toured and sang with a band throughout Europe, sang with the Vancouver Cantata Singers and the West Coast Mennonite Chamber Singers, attended a flight school and got his private aviators license.
Shane’s performances impressed Canadian Idol judges. Zack Werner said Shane could sing the phone book and it would still be great. After he finished fifth at the show Shane released his self-titled solo album. With his wife Angela they formed a group called “The Wiebes” and released their debut CD “Into Your Light”.
Jason Greeley from Upper Island Cove, NL already sang with the local band for 13 years when he decided to audition for the Canadian Idol.
At his 27 years he was the oldest of the Top 10 finalists and his expectations of him winning a competition wasn’t that big. Jason says he is happy of placing Top 4 even despite there was some controversy when voters from Newfoundland experienced difficulties while trying to vote for him. On June, 2005 his first solo album “Live…Love…Sing…” was released. Jason won multiple awards for this album among which are the Entertainer of the Year award and a nomination for Country Album of the Year from East Coast Music Association. Currently Jason works on his second album. Its release is planned for the fall of 2009.
Jacob Hoggard was already a lead-singer with his band “Hedley” aged 20 when he auditioned for the show.
He began learning music very early: at the age of 5 he learned to play piano and at 12 he mastered guitar. Jacob got to the show because of his band mates — they bet him $151 that he wouldn’t audition for Canadian Idol. On the show Jacob was very uninhibited and swaggered, he says the night of his elimination it was the closest to his normal behavior on stage as he climbed on a stool, sipped from a cup and joked to the judges while they were telling him their verdict. After becoming Top3 of 2004 Canadian Idol Jacob released an album “Headly” with a newly formed band which became two times Platinum. In 2007 their second album “Famous Last Words” followed.
Theresa Sokyrka from Moose Jaw, SK was 23 when she auditioned For Canadian Idol.
She is from a very musical family of Ukrainian origin. Her favorite musical genres are blues and jazz and she plays violin, guitar and piano. Theresa attended English-Ukrainian bilingual school at Saskatoon and studied music at Red Deer College. During the show she was so good at performing blues songs, Lionel Richie said there was “the soul of an old black woman living inside her”. Theresa used to scat while performing on stage adding flare to her songs. After becoming a runner-up of the second season of Canadian Idol Theresa managed to release four albums: “Four Hours in November” in 2004, “These Old Charms” in 2005, “Something is Expected” in 2006 and “Wrapped in Ribbon” in 2007.
Kalan Porter from Medicine Hat, AB was already an experienced musician when he auditioned for the Canadian Idol.
He started to sing in his childhood and has got a classical music education. He plays violin and viola among other instruments and writes and arranges violin solos for his songs. Kalan also played in a family band. He was going to go to Montreal to learn music at the university, but changed his plans for Canadian Idol audition. During the competition Kalan showed fantastic performance — he is the only competitor who has never been in the bottom two or three. Kalan’s first single “Awake in a Dream” was released after he became new Canadian Idol and immediately rocketed to the first place and stayed there for 8 weeks. It became the best selling single in Canadian history and was called 8 times Platinum. Kalan’s debut album “219 Days” was named after a number of days it took him from the audition to the show to release of the CD. Album went Platinum two times. The second Kalan’s album was named “Wake Up Living” and emerged in August, 2007.