Judge brings reality-show experience to The Next Star

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This article was published 05/05/2011 (5584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After three seasons of assessing young Canadian singing talent, Suzie McNeil has developed an eye, and an ear, for what it takes to be The Next Star.

“You know who the stars are, as soon as they walk in the door,” says McNeil, who at age 29 has almost a decade of music-industry experience under her belt. “In the first year, we didn’t know — we put through a lot of kids who, bless their hearts, weren’t necessarily the best, because we just weren’t aware of the talent that’s out there. Four years later, we know there’s… 14- and 15-year-olds who’ve got a very clear idea of what kind of artists they want to be.

“I don’t know what you were doing when you were 14, but I sure didn’t know what I wanted to be.”

McNeil and fellow judges Steve Cranwell and Christopher Ward have begun the coast-to-coast audition tour for The Next Star‘s fourth season, with the local tryouts taking place Saturday at the Winnipeg Convention Centre. Doors open at 6 a.m., with pre-registration for eligible auditioners (aged 15 and under on Sept. 1, 2011) taking place between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. (full rules and procedures are available at www.ytv.com/shows/nextstar/).

Given its reality/competition format, The Next Star has drawn inevitable comparisons to its major-network counterparts, American Idol and Canadian Idol, but McNeil is quick to point out that the YTV series employs a kinder, gentler approach to its search for a young teen singing sensation.

“It’s only like Idol in the way people really seem to enjoy watching and critiquing from the comfort of their own living rooms,” she says. “But the biggest way this show differs from Idol is in the age of the competitors. You have to be really careful how you treat the young participants, and The Next Star has done an amazing job of allowing them not to feel the kind of competitiveness and rejection you’d get in an Idol type of show.

“We go across the country and pick a field of kids, then we bring them to Toronto and out of that, we pick six. That’s the hardest it gets, that one show where you’re either in the Top 6 or you’re out. After that, it’s like a summer rock camp where they all go through the same things together — they all get a single, they all work with a producer, they all get a video — and at the end, there’s just one winner. It’s very much glass-half-full, not half-empty.”

Of course, McNeil is no stranger to cutthroat reality-TV competition herself, having survived to the final four in the CBS series Rock Star: INXS. She said that experience has definitely influenced the way she comports herself as a judge on The Next Star.

“Based on my Rock Star experience, I think I can offer advice from Step 1 right to the end,” she says. “And the main advice is just to be confident — our own worst enemy is not believing in ourselves; it seems so simple, but it means a lot. As soon as they step through that door, the kids who come in believing that they’re stars are the ones who stand out.

“And after the show is over, my advice is that there are a bunch of doors that have been opened for you, and it’s your choice which ones you’re going to walk through. These kids will be given a vehicle to get exposure, but it’s what they do with that exposure that really counts.”

Winnipegger Mimoza Duot advanced to the Top 6 in The Next Star‘s third season, surpassing the Top 10 finish achieved by older brother Moises in the series’ first year.

“That’s a very talented family,” says McNeil, who has a new album, working title Blessing in Disguise, due out later this year.

As a performer who has both appeared in a TV competition and paid her share of music-industry dues, McNeil said she has no problem with young artists being offered a reality-TV shortcut to stardom.

It’s a positive way of getting your face out there,” she says. “You can show yourself as an artist, and if you’ve got something to say, you get a chance to say it.

“The music industry has changed so much. Even big artists like Beyoncé and Katy Perry are using every possible outlet they can, including TV and the Internet, to further their careers because it’s so competitive out there.”

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca

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