Australian Idol: Encyclopedia II - Australian Idol - Second season 2004

Australian Idol - Second season 2004

The second season of Australian Idol debuted on July 13, 2004. The level of success of the contestants in the first season has lured over 50,000 people throughout Australia to audition.

As well as the five larger cities, the judges also visited Canberra, Hobart, Darwin and Tamworth this year. Of the twelve finalists, three were from Sydney, two were from Melbourne, and one each from Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Hobart, Perth, Canberra, Adelaide and Bega.

The winner was Casey Donovan. She beat out Anthony Callea (2nd), Courtney Murphy (3rd) and Ricki-Lee Coulter (7th). These four were the only contestants of the Top 12 to score hits with the two best-selling contestants being Casey & Anthony. Ngaiire Joseph (Top 30 contestant), Marty, Chanel, Daniel and Hayley have been expected to release singles or albums in the latter of 2005, but are yet to be released.

On a darker note, Telstra, a major sponsor of the series, made an embarrassing error when they issued a series of half-page advertisements in major newspapers congratulating Donovan on her victory, and linking to her website. However, the address was incorrect, leading to a website about gay porn star Casey Donovan, rather than the singer's. The company issued a prompt apology upon realising their mistake. [1]

After this season, judge Dicko bowed out of the series, later to appear in the Seven Network reality TV shows My Restaurant Rules and most recently, Dancing with the Stars. The 2004 season was also notable for an Asian contestant named "Flynn", who sang the Freestylers song "Push Up" after being found from a terrible audition, in the same vein as William Hung.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Second season 2004", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki