Kids from Fame to take on popstars
Chart stars Shania Twain, Enrique Iglesias and Anastacia are among the experts who will give masterclasses to pop wannabes for the BBC’s new talent hunt Fame Academy, it was announced today.
The programme launches next month with viewers watching a dozen hopefuls go their paces in a mansion as they live and breathe performing.
It will be competing for viewers with ITV1’s Popstars: The Rivals and is set to create a new “Nasty Nigel”-style cult figure in headteacher Richard Park.
Show bosses are keeping quiet about final details of the show but each week viewers and fellow competitors will have a say in which wannabe is expelled.
However each of them is set for stardom with management deals in place and the prospect of record releases while the eventual winner is promised the biggest prize awarded for a TV talent show.
Park - formerly the boss of Capital Radio - today unveiled the property in Highgate, north London, which will be home to the aspiring stars.
The BBC has hired the building after it lay empty for three years and it has been transformed with dance areas created and its own recording studio. 35 cameras and 70 microphones will pick up what goes on.
Tough-talking executive Park - described as the “Alex Ferguson of the radio industry” - will with his team put each of the 12 through a rigorous training regime.
“We want people to be the very best they can be,” he said.
They will be pushed from around 6am to 11pm each day with training from Pop Idol vocal coach Carrie Grant, while dance technique perfected by Kevin Adams, who has worked with the Spice Girls and Cher.
Adams will also oversee their nutrition and general fitness by pushing them through punishing gym sessions.
“To become a top act in the year 2002 you have to be pretty fit - the demands are very heavy indeed,” said Park.
“If you’re out on the road you’re doing sometimes 20 hours a day. By the time they leave here they are going to be fitter than they have ever been before.”
The finalists will even have their own counsellor who will look after their personal well-being to make sure they are all getting on in the house.
Show bosses began auditions in July to find the chosen few who have a range of musical tastes, backgrounds and ages, although they are all from 18 to 35.
Around 10,000 applied with 30 still involved. They will soon be whittled down to the final 12 who will be seen on-screen.
