The It Factor

Writen By Laura V.C

These will all be written by me for everyone to enjoy and critque if they like. Tell me what I'm missing, if you're bored, or if you like certain elements. Writing is all about pleasing the reader, so help me out will you, please?:)

This is my first attempt at an article, written for the experience of auditioning for Popstars, and what they could possibly mean by the It Factor.

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At first nervous at the prospect of singing before three judges and two TV cameras, I didn’t want to try out for the show, Pop Stars 3, but I had this yearning to try and become the next star out of a small city like Winnipeg, so I printed out the contract, gathered a few of my closest friends for moral support and left early in the morning to stand in a hefty line, awaiting my chance. I practised while my friends encouraged me with words like, “You’ll do really good.”

And, “don’t worry, Laura, you’ll be fine.”

The first thing I saw, the moment I approached the doors of the Marlborough hotel where they were holding the auditions was a large blue sign, standing upright and proud like a bar between myself and my dream. The words written on it were bold enough for the last person in line to be able to read if they looked. It was among ten points that the judges looked for in the auditions. It was something called, The It Factor. Underneath that was voice talent, experience, style, originality, and more though I didn’t read them all, I was too anxious and worried that I didn’t possess the It Factor. I was not the only one, either. Others were also baffled by this term, and spoke of it in whispers to each other all around me while I received my number 139, and handed in my signed copy of the contract.

“What’s the It Factor?”

“What exactly does that mean?”/p>

“Do I have it?”

“Do you have to dance, or is it a looks thing?”

I, myself bore the same questions. I didn’t think out of so many thousands of people that I would have the certain It Factor, these judges were looking for. The line went fast, and nerves were coming to slow me down, blank my mind of the twenty second song I had prepared. I needed more time to get ready before they shoved me into some room, I hadn’t yet been able to see and couldn’t get a feel for. My feet were sweating, my hands were shaking, and my mouth was dry. I’m going to freeze, I thought, and looked to all those that stared at the door with anticipation. I’m not going to make it.

No longer sitting in comfortable chairs, a group of nineteen of us were lined up,against a wall, looking at each other in hopes of finding the same nerves wrapped in all of us. A girl with black hair and the looked for personality began to make jokes, about what might happen in the secret room, and she even leaned close to the door as though it was forbidden and listened to the voices inside.

“We’ll be better then them,” she said, and threw a hand back carelessly.

All of us laughed, and right then we weren’t competitors anymore, but a team, and the team went in.

The room was dark and it didn’t feel comfortable to sing in. Three judges sat at a long table before a stage, and on either side of the stage were two TV cameras, moving back and forth in search of the next singer. The group of us were led up onto the stage, and were each told to come forward and sing. I was nervous, more then I had ever been in my life, but it occurred to me that when I walked out of there, It factor or no, I had done it. There was no chance that wasn’t worth taking, and I took it. I stepped forward and sang my twenty second piece, and it was over. I didn’t achieve a gold ticket, but I could say without a doubt that I achieved the it factor, just for being there, and taking the chance.

I would encourage anyone who hasn’t yet taken this chance to do so. The It factor may just be the one thing the judges and producers were looking for that no one else possessed, but we all have it. There are rules to go with auditioning, however, such as the contract that must be signed, and the practise that must go into something like this. Don’t walk into an audition blind and unprepared, always be ready even days before. Nothing and no one could stand in the way of a dream, not even the words, It Factor.