/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC-ARGENTINA: Thousands of Youth Aspire to Singing Stardom

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 25 2003 (IPS) - More than 12,000 young Argentines, ages 16 to 25, went through the first audition recently for a new "reality TV" programme that promises two places among the firmament of popstars.

"Escalera a la fama" (Stairway to Fame) will begin broadcasting in April on Buenos Aires channel 13, with backing from a television production company that is financing the marathon selection process of singers, and from three recording companies that will produce albums for the winners.

In the past two years, other Argentine TV shows have served as contests to select young people who want to be in a pop music group, become a professional football player or even run for a seat in parliament.

The most successful in this genre were the two versions of "Popstar", a programme that hit the small screen in many other countries with local contestants vying for a spot in a five-person group.

In Argentina, the show resulted in two successful pop groups, the young women of Bandana and the young men of Mambrú.

Bandana, famous here and in other Latin American countries, already has recorded several albums, a song for a movie soundtrack for Disney Studies, and the five women are currently shooting a film.

Mambrú, meanwhile, emerged a year later but has become wildly popular, surpassing any of its members’ dreams of fame.

With the two pop bands as a precedent, the television production company has set its sights this year on finding star solo performers.

Telefé, a rival of channel 13, bought the rights to produce a local version of the Spanish programme "Operación Triunfo", also a reality show that is a competition among solo singers. Telefé, too, in the middle of auditions, travelling to the Argentine provinces to interview thousands of aspirants.

The formula of convening young people who dream of being stars and parading them across the small screen in a prolonged selection process is being repeated in several countries around the world.

In Argentina, where unemployment among young adults creeps above 25 percent, the calls for auditions always seem to surpass the expectations of the organisers. There seem to be plenty of young people with free time on their hands – and hopes for a shot at fame and fortune.

"We had scheduled just one day for the first auditions, but we had to add another two, just to be able to see everyone who came," a member of the production team, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told IPS.

The day was Feb 17 at a theatre in Buenos Aires. Some would-be stars showed up four days before that, and by audition day the queue was more than a kilometre long.

Accompanied by parents or friends, or only by their dreams, the hopefuls waited their turn. Many came from provinces as far away as 2,000 km, and most seemed convinced that the experience itself would be worth the effort, even if they are not among "the chosen ones".

"They listen to you, you listen to others. The same jury that chose the members of Bandana sees you, they comment on things you need to improve, and maybe with a little luck you make it to the second audition," Malena Gutiérrez, 17, who came to Buenos Aires from the western province of Catamarca with her mother, told IPS.

A relative of Gutiérrez gave her a place to stay during the audition process, though other contestants have proved willing to sleep on the street near the audition site, anxious that they might miss their chance.

"There are people with talent, people who would like to become a singer, and there are people who just want to be on a television show," commented Magalí Bachor, a professional singer herself and a member of the panel of judges for "Escalera a la fama".

Another member of the programme’s jury, music producer Afo Verde, said he has noticed how the phenomenon of these music-based reality shows has affected the music industry.

"Before it was the reverse: you bought your guitar, you learned to play it, you found a drummer and a bass player, then a singer. You formed a band and you tried to make it on stage," he said, adding that the dream was that a music producer would ultimately hear the band and put it on the road to stardom.

Now it is music producer Verde who goes out in search of potential stars, alongside Bachor and songwriter Fernando López, who has several musical hits to his name.

"The critics say that this way the result is a more artificial, stereotyped singer, but we believe that even though the process is less do-it-yourself, the qualities of the person chosen are what really determine if he or she will be a life-long artist or not," commented López.

After the first audition of the thousands of aspiring singers, the number will reduced to 1,500, and then to just 20, through a series of "tests" of singing ability, stage presence and ability to learn dance steps.

The final 20 will undergo intense musical training to participate in the final televised phase of the process, which will end with two winners, a woman and a man.

When the two young singers reach "the top of the stairway", they will make their first recordings, with songs to be chosen by the jury, who have at their command extensive resources in the form of composers, musicians and choreographers.