Jamie Petersen
More than a thousand young hopefuls with stars in their eyes, and some with frogs in their throats, registered to audition at the Cape Town leg of season 12 of Idols SA, at GrandWest on Saturday March 5.
Cape Town was the last round of the auditions and received the second-heighest number of golden ticket winners, 20 in all.
Afrikaans rapper Jack Parow replaced Idols judge Gareth Cliff, who was in America, for the Cape Town auditions. The rest of the judging panel stayed the same.
Micaela Kleinsmith, 19, from Parow Valley was the first person from Cape Town to receive a golden ticket.
“I just felt like it was my time,” said Micaela. I kept on pushing it away every year. I just decided I’m going to go for it this year,” said Micaela.
She scored three yeses from judges Jack Parow, Unathi Msengana and Somizi Mhlongo.
“I was so excited. I was freaking out, because I was the first one to get a golden ticket,” she said.
“Part of me expected to get a golden ticket, but a big part of me was, like, there’s so many good people, so there’s a chance that I won’t make it.”
This season is the first time that the Top-16 round will be made open to the public on Friday April 8. Season 12 will be broadcast from Sunday July 17 on Mzansi Magic, DStv channel 161, at 5pm.