Throng

What did you think of Andrew Austin's Top 22 Performance on Canadian Idol?

18 year old Scarlett Burke has been called up for the Canadian Idol Top 22 round after 16 year old Ritchea Hodge from Toronto bowed out of the competition for personal reasons.

Does anyone know which Canadian Idol Top 22 contestant has pulled out due to personal reasons? Who has replaced them?

Now that the Top 22 has been decided, each male competitor will perform live on Mondays beginning June 25 and female competitors will perform live on Tuesdays beginning June 26 on CTV. The first two live performance shows are 90 minutes in length with subsequent performance episodes one-hour long.

After each live, performance show, Canadians will vote for their favourite competitors and results will be revealed during a half-hour show on Wednesdays, beginning June 27 at 7:30 p.m. ET on CTV.

On Wednesday's show, the two competitors with the least votes from both groups will be eliminated, leaving 18 to compete the following week. The process will continue with four competitors eliminated each week until the Top 10 is finally determined on Wednesday, July 11.

For the rest of this week, each member of the Top 22 will be profiled on CTV's eTalk at 7 p.m. ET. Members of this group are:

Performing Monday, June 25: The Guys

* Andrew Austin, 27, Sarnia, ON, Musician/Singer/Songwriter

Katrina and Kat are going home while Martha is staying. Montana, despite having no group to perform with, she's sticking around.

The next phase for the remaining contestants is to pick a partner to perform a duet with and start rehearsing.

Morning came quickly. A little too quickly for some.

First up was Christine Hanlon and Paul Clifford. Zack was worried that Christine always looks angry when she sings.

Ryan Langlois and Arron Reed get it easy compared to Dwight D'eon and Naomi-Joy Blackhall who Zach gets to jump across to the judging table and sing to the audience that isn't there.

Clifton Murray and Emily Chambers find a real connection with one another and they convey the mood of the song better than anyone else so far today.

Sam Romijn and Annika Onegard prove that the two 16 year olds really have something to add to the competition although Annika's voice sounds as though she's struggling.

Morgan Donaldson and Bianca Schmutz are a little detached from the song and each other.

198 golden ticket winners have arrived in Toronto for the most intense week of Idol competition. Tonight will see some of the best ever performances on the Canadian Idol stage as hopefuls put it all on the line for the greatest musical prize in the country.

Tonight, many dreams will be made but many more will be denied. The fight for the Top 22 begins now.

They've come from all across the country for the opportunity of a lifetime and are congregating at the historic Fairmont Royal York.

The judges give the contestants a pep talk before the stage is handed over to them where they will each get one chance to impress the judges and try and secure a spot in the next round.

First up was Dwight D'eon and with Farley away for the morning, he only had three judges to impress. Dwight impresses with the Goo Goo Doll's Iris. Last years top 100 contestant Paul Fracassi has a spirited performance. Geoffrey Stone tinkers away on the piano and adds real talent to the stage.

In the next group is Dan Legrand whose buddy has abandoned the trip to Toronto. Dan rocks it up with some metal and Sass asks if they can keep him for one more day. Tyler Mullendore is such a pro and looks like such a rocker. He gets the other contestants all rocking and clapping along. Joel Martin performs an old school classic with an acoustic twist. Baby's Got Back!

Last year, for the first time ever, our Idol came from the province of Québec and now we're back in Montréal where thousands of hopefuls are trying to make it two in a row.

Poor Ben Mulroney gets roped into the judging room when Maxime Tremblay, 17 from Saguenay, QC arrives and speaks more French than he does English and so needs a translator. It's not that great with all the arms waving everywhere and the judges ask Ben's opinion to which he replies he was only there to translate. Afterwards, Ben tells them never to invite him into the judgeing room again.

After one contestant gets a solid no for having no real charisma despite having reasonable tone, in walks Kira Lina, 25 from Montréal, QC. She is told why the last girl didn't get through and then proceeds to repeat the same mistakes. They say no and she's just walking out the door when they tell her she should have powered up. She sings again and convinces them to change their minds. Off to Toronto she goes.

There have been plenty of guitars during the Canadian Idol auditions but this is the first time that anyone has bought in a pair of spoons. Benoît Cliché, 24 from Québec, QC can't sing to save himself but he's a real pro with the spoons.

Broadcast Schedule Revealed as Canadian Idol Gets Set to Rock the Nation, Starting June 5 on CTV

- Canada’s most-watched Summer series returns -
- New rules allowing instruments produces new crop of talent for Top 200 –

Toronto, ON (May 29, 2007) –Thirty-three CDs. Seven No. 1 singles. Almost one million units sold. Sixteen JUNO nominations. Over the past four years, Canadian Idol has not only changed the lives of hundreds of singers across the country, but the Canadian music industry as well. Now, the dream-making series returns for a fifth blockbuster season next Tuesday, June 5 at 8:30 p.m. ET (visit CTV.ca to confirm local broadcast times) with a 90-minute audition episode featuring the best and worst of this year’s cross-Canada audition tour. Thirty-one episodes later, another life will be changed when the next Canadian Idol is crowned.

In 2003, Canadian Idol made Canadian television history by becoming the most-watched, home-grown (English language) series of all time. Four seasons later, Canadian Idol continues to hold that title as well as Summer’s No. 1 show overall. Last September’s finale peaked at 3.4 million viewers when Eva Avila was crowned the 2006 Canadian Idol champion.

Canadian Idol judge Farley Fledge has come out swinging at American Idol judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson and saying there will be no Sanjaya in this years season of Canadian Idol.

Farley says that there's no chance he and fellow Canuck judges Sass Jordan, Zack Werner and Jake Gold could have a similar lapse in judgement.

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Last year we made another dream come true. Canada voted and the next Canadian Idol was Eva Avila. Eva exploded onto the scene with a gold album, two hit singles and a best new artist Juno nomination which solidified her Idol status alongside stars like season one winner Ryan Malcolm who is breaking new ground with his band Low Level Flight. Kalan Porter went straight into Canadian music history with the biggest selling debut single of all time with Awake in a Dream. Melissa O'Neil's debut album earned her a Best New Artist Juno nomination.

It's not just the winners that are making it big either. Billy Klippert recently won indie music's Pop Artist of the Year. Rex Goudie sold over 100,000 copies of his debut album Under the Lights. Theresa Sokyrka's intense fanbase helped her Juno nominated album These Old Charms go gold. Jacob Hoggard's band Hedley have had international success with their self titled double platinum album.

With 30 CDs released and over one million albums sold, each and every one of our Canadian Idol winners has gone straight to number one. This is the real deal. A real shot at stardom. This is Canadian Idol.

With a rule change allowing instrument-playing competitors to accompany themselves in their auditions, the show welcomed a vast new crop of undiscovered talent.

Canadian Idol returns to our screens for the summer tonight at 8:00pm on CTV.

The auditions for the fifth season of Canadian Idol have begun, with more than 1200 people showing up in Metrotown for the event. Canadian Idol has said to have been voted the most popular television show across Canada.

Read more.

Do you know anyone auditioning for Canadian Idol this year? Do you think the lines won't be so long this time around, or will it be bigger than ever, just like American Idol?

As American Idol makes its long-awaited return, CTV announced today further details about the upcoming cross-country, musician-friendly search for the next Canadian Idol. In addition to releasing audition venue information, the network also confirmed today that the tour will now begin Feb. 3-4 in Vancouver, one week later than previously announced, allowing prospective competitors additional time to prepare for the auditions. With the 10-city audition tour now kicking off in less than three weeks on the West coast, full details about how, where and when to audition are now available on the Canadian Idol website at http://www.idol.ctv.ca.

As previously announced, for the first time in North America competitors can audition while playing musical instruments. Like last year, the 2007 Canadian Idol “Easy-Access” tour makes it easier than ever to audition. There is no need to line up as competitors can arrive any time between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on each day of the auditions. As well, almost all of the auditions are scheduled on weekends and most of the auditions will be held at malls.