It's Christmas Day

Merry Christmas to everyone... 1 week until the deadline for entry!

New Rules

The rules have changed:

• Ten people will progress to the final rounds of TFF Idol
• Each judge will be given 2 (two judges 3) acts to 'look after'. This will be based upon their friendship with them and their judge will not be allowed to give a score on them but will be allowed to comment.

Any other questions, please feel free to reply to this post.

Judges Profile #4: Paul Thomas

Paul, the unexpected fourth judge was added to give the competition a bit of the feminine touch that Emma couldn't satisfy.

Paul describes himself as the Dannii Minogue of TFF Idol and as a loyal friend to last year's winner, he is sure to have picked up some expert knowledge of what to look out for in this year's contest.

Like no other judge, Paul is as individual as anyone you're likely to meet. A very pleasant and pretty boy but with a sensible head on, it gives me great pleasure in announcing him as the fourth judge.

Judges Profile #3: Emma-Louise Rose

Emma-Louise Rose is training to be a primary school teacher specialising in sport at Liverpool Hope University. She loves sport and is a life long supporter of Featherstone Rovers.
Born and bred in Pontefract Emma-Louise trained as a dancer for 15 years and a singer for 3 years. She also that this experience along with studying performing arts at NEW College will enable her to make fair choices.

Emma also auditioned for The X-Factor but failed to impress the judges. She is better suited to being on the other side of the table.

Emma feels that giving contestants hope is a great way of encouraging them to do well and extracting the best from them. She hopes to find the next Leona Lewis in the pit of talent that lays before her and feels that with her two fellow judges she can't fail in doing so.

Judges Profile #2: Martin Sixsmith

Martin Sixsmith is a Second year English Literature Student at the University of Leeds. He brings a wealth of musical knowledge collaborating on a highly successful Band Aid collaboration in 2004 and developed his talents from then on. As a lover of the arts Martin has the strengths to recognize true musical talent from the strength of lyrical input and vocal output that will be on offer.

His strengths continue when you add to the equation he is a reality music television mogul; never missing a single episode of Popstars, Popstars: The Rivals, Pop Idol, Pop Idol 2, Fame Academy and every series of the X factor. (Note if Martin was on X Factor he would have made sure Leon would never have been in the competition let alone win it)

His greatest weakness is not knowing when he is wrong. He just cannot accept this to be true and will undoubtedly explode into action as the series progresses. Martin hopes to discover someone who when all is said and done could be Britain’s next big thing and launch a successful myspace download page which gets up to 20+ hits a month.

Judges Profile #1: Arnie Craven

Arnie Craven is a European Politics student studying at Leeds University. He is a typical old man, enjoying Motorbiking, cricket and Pink Floyd.

His greatest strength is being able to increase his mental age at the rate of three Arnie years to one human year. At the moment, he's approaching 60.

His greatest weakness is trying to be 'down with the kids. He just can't do it. He's also terrible at golf.

Arnie hopes to be a fair but firm judge, delivering justice and respecting the people's wishes for a TFF Idol winner to actually be able to sing. Here's hoping!

Important dates

1st January 2008: Deadline for people to be confirmed entrants
11th January 2008: Deadline for entrants to submit their song
18th January 2008: The start of TFF Idol

What is TFF Idol 2?

TFF Idol 2 is based on the final rounds of Pop Idol/The X-Factor. It will be exactly the same as the first TFF Idol except the voting system.


What happens?

• People record themselves singing a song and send it to ben6550@gmail.com
• On TFF Radio (links to listen to shows will be made available later and also podcasts will be available to download or stream on this website and itunes) the opening show will play all the songs sent and this will be whittled down to just 8 by our 3 independent judges.
• Once we've got 8 songs, people will then be kicked off each week until we have a winner.

How do we vote?

• To vote, you must follow a link that will be available on this blog and select your favourite three acts.

How is this different from TFF Idol?

• The main difference is that your votes will only count for 40% of the final tally. The other 60% will be the average percentage that the three independent judges gave you.

That sounds complicated. Why do it?

• This is to stop rigging and cheating that seemed to influence last year's vote. This way, asking all your friends to vote wont necessarily win you the competition. You'll actually have to be able to sing.

Who are the three independent judges?

• The three judges wont be revealed until after they have votes to stop influencing.

How should I sing on my entry?

• You can sing over another recorded song, create your own, sing over a backing track or just do it acapella. You will fail to get a good score from the judges if the background singing overpowers your voice though. No cheating :P

What are the judges looking for?

• This year, we're emphasising 'The Fun Factor' (TFF) so make it sound like you're having a fun time and if you can't sing, just try and have a laugh.

What do I win?

• Something great to put on your CV and if you live near Cardiff or Leeds you have the option to record songs and produce a CD. You'll also be played on TFF Radio loads. Also, who wouldn't want to boast that they're the winner of TFF Idol 2008?

Great. How do I enter?

• Just send an email with your name, age, profile link (if applicable) and your song. You'll then automatically enter. It also helps if you have msn.

Any more questions, reply to this. You can post anonymously.

TFF Idol 2 is here

Entries for TFF Idol will close in early January and TFF Idol 2 will begin at the end of January. Visit here regularly for updates.