'Idol' interest wanes for Flathead singers

Although she was crowned Flathead Valley's own "American Idol," Kerri Javorka has not become an ardent viewer of the popular FOX network talent show.

The also-rans have been cast aside and only the best remain in the current round, but Javorka's experience at an "American Idol" audition in San Francisco last August left her a little disenchanted.

"I just haven't been interested," she said. "When you are there in the beginning and you see audition after audition of lousy people and you realize how many good people they turned away in order to bring in those embarrassing acts just so Simon and the nation can laugh at them…"

Javorka, a 19-year-old music major at Montana State University, and Liz Helder, also 19 and a theater student at Flathead Valley Community College, traveled to San Francisco after the Flathead Valley talent competition last summer.

The Kalispell Eagles Aerie 234, which sponsored the Flathead Valley "American Idol" contest, paid for Javorka and Helder, a longtime friend and third-place finisher, to attend the auditions.

The two are both Flathead High School graduates who studied voice with Cathy Helder, Liz's mother.

Their local success did not put the pair in special standing in San Francisco. On the first day Javorka and Helder waited in a parking lot for hours, along with an estimated 5,000 or more hopefuls, to get a wristband that would get them inside the Cow Palace on audition day.

Day two also required patience, as the duo queued up again just to enter the Cow Palace. This time, Javorka said, the proceedings were a bit more lively.

"There were TV crews walking around interviewing people and I got interviewed for the local San Francisco station," she said. "I sang a few songs for them."

The contestants were herded into their seats and required to wait some more for their chance to dazzle the judges.

Then it was show time.

The performers were not pampered. Paul Abdul and Simon Cowell were nowhere to be seen and there were no celebrity consultants. The judging was done by producers who called contestants in groups of five. The "rooms" for auditioning were walled off with cloth partitions. The singers in adjoining rooms were easily heard, as was a constant buzz of conversation from people waiting in the chairs. There was no musical accompaniment available.

"As a performer, you're used to having people's attention and giving your best performance, and here you are standing in front of these producers with no less than 1,000 people in the risers in front of you talking and laughing and then people on either side of you who you can't really see and they're singing as well - it was just white noise that never stops," Javorka said. "It was distracting."

Producers waved off some auditioners after one song. Javorka and Helder made it one step further and were asked to sing an additional piece. Javorka started with something classical and added Bette Midler's "From a Distance," while Helder sang "Come What May" from the film "Moulin Rouge" and the Norah Jones hit "I Don't Know Why."

"At the end of the audition, they told us, 'You all have good voices, but you're not quite what we're looking for,'" Javorka said. "They didn't give you any feedback."

Javorka and Helder split up for the auditions. Javorka said there were no pretenders in her group of five.

"They all had great voices.One of them had great charisma as well. It was really frustrating to watch someone with great charisma and a great voice who could easily be a successful performer get denied from going on."

Helder said that those who were told they didn't make the cut were not left on their own, but escorted out of the building.

"People get pretty intense about the competition," she said.

Helder estimated that 85 percent of the people auditioning were talented singers; the rest were either overestimating their skill or hoping a gimmick would give them a pass to the next round.

"The judges are also looking for people who are bad," she said. "A lot of it is presentation. There was a guy dressed like Michael Jackson who got through on pure ridiculousness."

For both, it turned out to be a worthwhile experience, and neither was truly disappointed in the outcome. Popular music is not in either's plans for the future.

Javorka is currently singing the lead soprano role in a Handel opera in Bozeman. She takes part in a Celtic music session each week on fiddle and vocals, and she would like to sing with a jazz ensemble.

Helder, a sophomore at FVCC, plans to attend Southern Oregon University next year and eventually earn her bachelor's degree in theater. She is going to spend this summer acting in musicals with the Virginia City Players.

"I tried to go into it saying this will be fun and I'll put myself out there and whatever happens, it doesn't mean I'm going to not do music," Javorka said. "I learned that going out for a television show is not always the best way to get your voice heard."

Reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4431 or by e-mail at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com.