text: Canadian Idol Top 24: Mitch McDonald
  One of the coolest things about being on Canadian Idol for Mitch McDonald is going to be singing in front of a band.
  Mitch McDonald, 22
  This is something McDonald, 22, from Port Hood, N.S., has been looking forward to most. Where else do you get this kind of exposure and experience?
  "Playing in front of a mastermind band, it's so cool," says McDonald. "The big thing for me, too, are the people — you make really close friendships. So the music side is definitely in front of that band and on a personal level it's definitely the friends you make."
  Growing up in Nova Scotia, McDonald was listening to traditional Cape Breton and Celtic music from his mother, while his father gave him a taste for country music.
  "When I started playing the guitar around 14 or 15, I started getting into my own stuff, and in the last five years one person who has really influenced me is Gordie Sampson (of Big Sugar)," he says.
  When McDonald walked into his Idol audition, the judges were talking amongst themselves and laughing, which helped him forget about his nerves. After he finished singing, McDonald says the judges were very positive and told him he had a unique voice.
  "I listen to so much music that I'm pretty confident I'm going to make the right decisions when it comes to song choice," he says. "I know what I can do with my voice, and hopefully I can find stuff that's obviously not too mainstream. I'd like to find stuff that hasn't really been performed on the show but stuff that Canada still knows enough that I can make an impression with."