‘Wind’ lifts Humansdorp girl to success

Entertainment Editor Bob Eveleigh chats to ANGELIQUE CAMPHER, who, last weekend, became the first Eastern Cape Idols entrant to go through to the final auditions in Johannesburg early next month.

GIVEN that the bulk of last weekend’s auditionees among the 359 young singers, who entered for M-Net’s Idols TV talent competition, came from Port Elizabeth, one would have expected that the first participant to go through to the final elimination numbers in Johannesburg next month would have been from the Friendly City.

But no, the first of only 11 participants eventually selected to take on the other 99 similar fortunate artists from Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg, hails from little old Humansdorp.

Her name is Angelique Campher (that’s Aaan-gelique, not An-gelique, as she quickly – and very definitely – pointed out to Idols PR consultant Diahann Chidrawi, of Total Exposure, and myself) and she’s 20 years old.

And she had never seen the British Pop Idols programme, from which the domestic equivalent has been bounced, before auditioning last Saturday at the Edward Hotel.

“We don’t have M-Net at home and, although I know you can tune a TV to open time, my dad has never done it,’’ Angelique told me.

“My uncle was responsible for me entering. He saw the details of the competition and, with only about three days to go before the deadline on January 31, he got hold of a form and I filled it in and sent it off.”

Arriving early at the auditions, she was the very first performer to face the first round judges and thus became the first of the 91 selected to go through the second round.

Similarly, she was the first to make it to the final 42 and then on to the last 11, so that is quite a record in itself!

She doesn’t remember much about facing judges Penny Lebyane, Dave Thompson, Randall Abrahams and Marcus Brewster – or what she said on camera to co-presenters Candy Litchfield and Matthew Stewardson before and after singing.

“All I recall is that the room in which I sang, off Western Road, was blue!’’

She sang Bette Midler’s Wind Beneath My Wings throughout the three tiers of auditions on Saturday and Sunday.

“I can’t remember what words I sang – if they were the right ones or not – but, funnily enough, I had a feeling that I sang better in the earlier rounds!

“One of the judges said immediately ‘I’m not voting for you’ and so I thought: ‘That’s me gone’.

“But the next two did and so it was up to the fourth and last one and when he started criticising me and my singing, I again thought ‘Well, I’m gone’.

“Then he said something like ‘we can only put a few of you through to the finals. And you’ll be going to Johannesburg!

“I was so excited I came out to tell my folks, who had to bring me down from Humansdorp two days running and patiently wait around until I was finished.”

The young woman has never sung much in the pop idiom in the past but is no stranger to performing before audiences of all sizes.

From her days in the choir at Humansdorp Secondary School, she has sung solo, usually on gospel songs but has never appeared in a “big’’ show or concert.

A completely untrained singer – the closest she has come to “training” was some breathing warm-up exercises she did before a school choir festival a couple of years ago – she is remarkably unfazed about the chance Idols offers for a career in show business – even if she doesn’t eventually win.

“I’m not expecting much but it would be nice to make a full CD album,’’ she told me.

“Although I love to sing, the glitz and glamour of the showbiz world doesn’t really attract me.”

As far as she knows, Angelique was the only person from Humansdorp to enter Idols.

“But there was a young man from Jeffrey’s Bay, with whom I’ve sung previously in duets, who was also at the hotel.

“But he didn’t seem to get past the first level.”

Her favourite singer is Whitney Houston and she simply loves the megastar’s earlier hits in particular.

For preference, Angelique likes big ballads and soul material, although a good blues is also her bag.

“In fact, I like any song, as long as it has good lyrics and a good positive message.”

When she got home on Sunday after the excitement of the two-day auditions had worn off a little, she made a point of contacting a friend up the road from her – whose family does subscribe to M-Net.

The idea, naturally, was to have a look at the latest episode of Pop Idol, with the British show rapidly reaching its first series climax.

But although she found it exciting, the later programmes like this one bear no resemblance at all to the earlier episodes, which had presenters Ant and Dec interacting with the many hopefuls around Britain who, one by one, stood on the star in front of the judges.

Should Angelique make it, there’ll be a couple more occasions for her to do likewise in South Africa before – if she is very, very lucky – she reaches the final 10.

As to what she will sing in Johannesburg, she hasn’t even put her mind to that question – she’s still getting over the first rounds!

But it might well be one of those Whitney Houston smash hits.

And let’s not forget that Houston herself came from a gospel song background to make a huge international career – as a Pop Idol!