UNISA Competition

THE UNISA COMPETITION

I am at Wendy’s office – we just got back from the UNISA voice competition competitors’ meeting. It is one of the biggest international competitions and there were only 33 competitors chosen from all around the world.

The meeting was actually pretty funny – they went over the rules (here are some funny excerpts):

“No cuts in the music” (someone strenuously objected)

“You are not allowed to sing arias in other keys. You can try, but if a judge has perfect pitch you will be in trouble”

“You are not allowed to leave the stage during your performance. If you leave the stage to get a drink of water you will be disqualified. There is, however a screen on the stage –provided by our sponsor, Vodacom cellular phone – behind which there is a glass of water, and you can take a drink. But please, no backwashing into the cup. That has happened before, and with germs etc. it is not appreciated.”

Wendy put up her had at this point and asked of there was in fact only one cup from which to drink, or might they change the glass between competitors. Now she is everyone’s favourite! Everyone laughed and we were assured that there were separate glasses for the separate people, and a communal bottle. He perhaps should have just suggested: don’t drink from the bottle.

“If on stage you suffer a mental….”
Here he paused for around 15 seconds, and sister and I started to giggle. Oops.

“…lapse, you are not allowed to leave the stage. If you leave the stage you will be disqualified. If you suffer mental problems on stage you can stand there and think and then start you song again and you will not be disqualified, but you cannot leave the stage.”

“Everyone has been given a Vodacom T-shirt, provided by Vodacom, the competition’s official sponsor. (Yes, everyone had indeed been given one. I am certainly not the smallest singer there, and the huge shirts were monstrously baggy even in a Medium. There had been only 5 mediums, and I had managed to snatch one of them) You are expected to wear that shirt at all times if you are not on stage (horrified looks from the overdressed singers).”

Then we had to draw lots. They announced at the beginning of the draw that whoever draw the first position (the time slots were numbered, and we all drew numbers) had to stay afterwards to have their picture taken. As we drew lots the official photographer, and a press photographer took pictures of us as we read our numbers. I drew 7, which is 16:20 tomorrow, and 16:20 Thursday. The girl who drew 14 mis-read it as 1 at first, and when it was announced that there had been an error, there were audible gasps all around, and one singer clutched her heart in the sheer drama of the moment (!). The girl who did draw the first position was not pleased, as, according to her gestured conversation with the organizer, she was not dressed for photographs, and she was wearing no makeup. Very amusing, as long as that wasn’t me.

On the topic of photographs, my official photograph isn’t the best ever – Wendy took it in September during our stopover in London. I desperately needed a colour photograph, and so I threw on a decent shirt and we snapped some photos in the park. It is not as professional as some of the headshots (there is PARK behind it), but sister did a good job. There are certainly some worse headshots up on the wall.

There is more gossip, but as this will be on the internet I am going to behave and not post anything that can come back to get me later….

Tonight is the opening ceremony. All the singers still are all jet-lagged. I am so glad I arrived early! This is the biggest competition I have ever entered, and I have no idea how it will go, but it is certainly going to be interesting… Wish me luck!