Wannabe Wicked
Wannabe Wicked is a talent competition conceived for fans of the musical Wicked. Contestants compete in a series of performances judged by industry professionals, and those who perform successfully move on later rounds. The criteria that must be met in order to succeed is based on vocal quality, performance delivery, vocal accuracy and overall performance. In the end, the winner receives a walk-on role onto the hit musical Wicked. Wannabe Wicked Origins The concept for Wicked fans to experience a day in a life of a Wicked performer originated in Great Britain in which fans submitted auditions videos singing an excerpt of a song from the musical. From those videos, a select few were chosen to compete in later rounds. The winner of the Wannabe Wicked contest in Great Britain was Louise Henderson. She won a walk-on role and was able to experience the many aspects of the daily routine of the Wicked performers. For more information of the British version of the competition check out: Wannabe Wicked UK Wannabe Wicked in North America The Wannabe Wicked contest made its way to Los Angeles, California in the summer of 2008. It involved a series of three rounds that the contestants had to contend with, which consisted of the video audition, semi-finals live performance at City Walk at Universal Studios Hollywood, and the finals live performance at City Walk at Universal Studios Hollywood. All of this was part of the Wicked Wednesday summer series at Universal Studios.Universal Studios Hollywood. Contestants chosen from the video auditions were notified of their day to perform live in the semi-finals. The performances for the semi-finals and finals were to be judged by top industry professionals. There were five days of semi-finals competition each with a total of ten contestants. At the end of each of the semi-final rounds, three contestants were selected to move onto the final round, which was held on August 20, 2008. There were a total of fifteen contestants that performed during the finals, and the talent was fierce. Prior to the finals, a separate contest, which was called the Fan Favorite, was posted online to showcase all the finalists' performances from the semi-finals. Online viewers were given the option to vote for their favorite performer. As great as the performances were on the online videos, the finals revealed a more ready, talented and ferocious group of performers, which was not reflective of what was seen online. The contestants all performed ultimately better than what was seen from the semi-finals. Every contestant brought their own personalities to their songs, and performed in front of a massive crowd showing off what they were made to do. One contestant, Kingsley Malang, was noted by the emcee as being the only male of the competition to perform a song written for the part of a female, in which he succeeded. His performance included the actual blocking that Elphaba performs from the stage production. Local news media was also present at the event capturing all the