Speaker 1: Episode one, Becoming a pop Star. In the late nineties,
Speaker 1: the hunt was on for Australia's answer to the Spice Girls.
Speaker 2: We don't just want a group for the television show,
Speaker 2: We're looking for a career act.
Speaker 1: A call out was published a new Idea magazine, offering
Speaker 1: the opportunity of a lifetime, or so they thought. Warner
Speaker 1: Music was set to plug five girls from obscurity and
Speaker 1: turn them into household names, offering up a three album
Speaker 1: recording contract and a place in a girl band. The
Speaker 1: twel's definitely out there.
Speaker 2: It's our job, naga and find it.
Speaker 1: Australia strapped in for the ride, with Channel seven bringing
Speaker 1: a new show called pop Stars to our screens. Millions
Speaker 1: tuned in to watch the auditions, and it wasn't long
Speaker 1: until we were heavily invested. Don't you Treat Me back?
Speaker 1: Don't You make Me Sad? But behind the scenes, fame
Speaker 1: wasn't as they expected. Whilst the TV execs were raking
Speaker 1: in millions from the band, the five girls weren't making
Speaker 1: a cent. Their mental health was also struggling as they
Speaker 1: buckled under the intense media pressure to stay thin. So
Speaker 1: was life as a pop star really worth it. We
Speaker 1: are journalist Sophie Kate and Amy Torbert, and this is
Speaker 1: our new series Unspoken, where we bring you the unspoken
Speaker 1: stories behind the biggest pop culture headlines to rock the
Speaker 1: nineties and early naughties. Welcome to the first installment of
Speaker 1: our deep dive series on pop stars. Now. We were
Speaker 1: just eleven when the show came out and I remember
Speaker 1: at the time being so infatuated by Bardo. I remember
Speaker 1: having to beg our mum to take us down to
Speaker 1: their instore appearance in Adelaide and it was absolutely packed. Oh,
Speaker 1: these in store appearances were unprecedented. They had thousands of
Speaker 1: young girls lining up for hours to see them. I
Speaker 1: think the show was even shocked by how big the
Speaker 1: crowds got. And everyone had their favorite. I don't know
Speaker 1: who were your favorites. Kane so oh like any other kid.
Speaker 1: My favorite Sophie Monk. Watching the show back, it's quite
Speaker 1: clear that she was the standout favorite. I also had
Speaker 1: a soft spot for Belinda Chapel as well. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: were my two favorites, along with Sally because she was
Speaker 1: an Adelaide girl. I want to take you back to
Speaker 1: September nineteen ninety nine. That is when Channel seven announced
Speaker 1: it was set to bring out a new show called
Speaker 1: Pop Stars, and at the time, the term reality TV
Speaker 1: didn't really exist, with the show instead described as a
Speaker 1: thirteen part doc u soap which followed the creation of
Speaker 1: an all female pop group. Now, this was at a
Speaker 1: time when the Spice Girls were still top of the
Speaker 1: charts and Aussie music producers were desperate to create their
Speaker 1: own homegrown supergroup. Now, while the format of the show
Speaker 1: was unlike anything we'd seen on our screens before, the
Speaker 1: concept actually originated from New Zealand. So in nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 1: the show followed the journey of a girl group called
Speaker 1: True Bliss. Now, there was a lot of publicity around
Speaker 1: True Bliss, but they didn't have the success of Bardo
Speaker 1: or the longevity, and this was because the show failed
Speaker 1: to select the girls and they failed to actually place
Speaker 1: them in the right market. So it seemed like Channel
Speaker 1: seven were able to see where this show failed and
Speaker 1: when they brought out Pop Stars, it was so important
Speaker 1: for the producers to actually select the right group of girls,
Speaker 1: which they obviously did so well, and the show really
Speaker 1: did act as a blueprint for singing competitions going forward,
Speaker 1: because after that we saw Australian Idol launch, We've seen
Speaker 1: the Voice. There's been so many singing competitions. It's pretty
Speaker 1: interesting because Channel seven decided to buy the rights to
Speaker 1: this show and have it screen just before the Sydney Olympics,
Speaker 1: so it started screening in February two thousand and I
Speaker 1: loved seeing all of the signage for the Olympics in
Speaker 1: the background of the additions. It made me feel extra
Speaker 1: nostalgic watching this bag. Well, they really wanted a show
Speaker 1: that was going to draw in ratings so that people
Speaker 1: stayed on Channel seven, and this is exactly what they got.
Speaker 1: Because the show was a huge success. They ended up
Speaker 1: buying the franchise from New Zealand for a really small sum.
Speaker 1: So I wonder how the original creators of Pop Stars
Speaker 1: felt about it. They'd be so pissed off now. Auditions
Speaker 1: were held across the country in July nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 1: with a three person judging panel made up of Warner
Speaker 1: Music executive Chris Moss, band manager Michael Naphthali and radio
Speaker 1: host Jackie O. Henderson. Is crazy to think Jackieo was
Speaker 1: only twenty four at the time that she was appointed
Speaker 1: as judge, so she was the same age as many
Speaker 1: of the band members. She went on to select I
Speaker 1: feel like this is the reason why she just never
Speaker 1: seems to age, because I didn't realize she was so
Speaker 1: young at the time of being on Pop Stars. The
Speaker 1: craziest thing was she wasn't even paid for being part
Speaker 1: of the judging panel, which blew my mind because, as
Speaker 1: we said, this was the biggest show on television at
Speaker 1: the time. Yeah. Well, it's kind of a theme that
Speaker 1: we'll see throughout this whole process that the young women
Speaker 1: on the show really weren't compensated for their efforts. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen, JACKIEO told Kiss listeners that she did
Speaker 1: Pop Stars for free. She said, no one mentioned anything
Speaker 1: about money, so I didn't mention money. I remember we
Speaker 1: were in Adelaide doing auditions, and you know how they
Speaker 1: hand out per dims, which is like sixty dollars. They
Speaker 1: handed me this envelope and I didn't know what appear was.
Speaker 1: So I opened it and I saw sixty seven dollars
Speaker 1: in there, and I went up to the executive director
Speaker 1: and gave him a big hug and said thank you
Speaker 1: so much. I was stoked I was getting cash. I
Speaker 1: would love to know if the mail judges were also
Speaker 1: paid in per deems or if they actually got a
Speaker 1: proper salary. Well, I would hazard a guess that Michael
Speaker 1: Naphthaalaie didn't actually get paid too much because he was
Speaker 1: a ringing at the last hour because his boss, Grant Thomas,
Speaker 1: who owned Grant Thomas Management, declined from being filmed, so
Speaker 1: he was their first pick and he suddenly goes, no,
Speaker 1: I don't want to do it. So they brought in
Speaker 1: Michael and he was really popular with the girls. Belinda
Speaker 1: Chappele actually said in her book that he was the
Speaker 1: least intimidating judge of them all. He was really qualified
Speaker 1: at the time because he was an entertainment lawyer and also,
Speaker 1: as you say, okay, he worked at this management company
Speaker 1: and they managed the likes of the Finn Brothers, Split
Speaker 1: Ends and Crowded House. So this was a huge opportunity
Speaker 1: for five unknowns to get managed by a huge company
Speaker 1: like this. Yeah, but I suppose it's an opportunity for
Speaker 1: Michael himself because you see Jackie O also jumped at
Speaker 1: the chance to be on primetime TV. And nowadays we've
Speaker 1: got social media where everyone's got an opportunity to get
Speaker 1: their face out there. But at the time, being on
Speaker 1: TV was such a massive thing and so many people
Speaker 1: would do it for free. It's ironic because, as you
Speaker 1: touched on Kate Grant, Thomas didn't want to actually appear
Speaker 1: on camera. But Belinda said in her book that there
Speaker 1: was a judging panel for the cameras and there was
Speaker 1: also a judging panel behind the scenes, so although he
Speaker 1: wasn't on camera, he was there every step of the
Speaker 1: way through the audition process helping them make the decisions. Well,
Speaker 1: Michael would go up and ask his opinions, so it
Speaker 1: was kind of like a group vote yeah, and Belinda
Speaker 1: described this as the first taste of reception that was
Speaker 1: going to unfold behind the scenes of pop stars Now.
Speaker 1: The last judge was Chris Moss, who was the managing
Speaker 1: director of Warner Music and he was set to sign
Speaker 1: the group to a three album deal. You'll probably remember
Speaker 1: him because he used to wear these really bold, wacky
Speaker 1: T shirts. He also looks a lot like Ian Hewitson,
Speaker 1: who was a TV chef at the time. He was
Speaker 1: described by Belinda as being very kind and genuine with
Speaker 1: a good high but my perception of him on the
Speaker 1: show was really different because I always remember he would
Speaker 1: oggle at the young women who were auditioning, and in
Speaker 1: a bonus episode, he was actually caught out staring at
Speaker 1: a number of the girl's boobs or either gushing over
Speaker 1: them behind the scenes. Yeah, it's interesting that the TV
Speaker 1: stations decided to portray him like that when Belinda actually
Speaker 1: said he was so genuinely kind. It was clear from
Speaker 1: the start of this show that the TV network and
Speaker 1: music bosses really wanted this to be big. They seemed
Speaker 1: to throw everything at it. They enlisted the help of
Speaker 1: a lot of Australia's top music professionals and dancers to
Speaker 1: act as coaches for the girls. There were some huge
Speaker 1: names that they selected. Now as we touched on, the
Speaker 1: first episode did air in February two thousand and Who
Speaker 1: could forget this iconic theme song. This song has been
Speaker 1: in my head ever since we decided to do this
Speaker 1: deep dive and it really does take me back. It
Speaker 1: really takes me back to Sunday night during summer. That feeling.
Speaker 1: I still that feeling when I hear that song, And
Speaker 1: it was a really positive feeling that you got when
Speaker 1: you watch this show because you think about talent competitions
Speaker 1: now and it's very cutthroat and negative and people are
Speaker 1: pitted against each other. But it didn't have that vibe
Speaker 1: at all. It was a bit more wholesome, it really was.
Speaker 1: And when you go back and you watch the show,
Speaker 1: it was really shot so differently to say how Maths
Speaker 1: is shot now, because it was that doco style filming.
Speaker 1: There was no sensationalized music which set the tone like
Speaker 1: we see now on reality shows, and there weren't those
Speaker 1: quick edits which made people look really bad. It was
Speaker 1: sort of more a really genuine fly on the wall experience.
Speaker 1: Belinda Chapple mentioned in her book that the girls had
Speaker 1: no idea what the TV series was going to look like.
Speaker 1: She did say that everything was being filmed, but because
Speaker 1: they didn't have a template for what this show looked
Speaker 1: like on TV, they're like, how are they going to
Speaker 1: make this interesting? But it was interesting. It drew you
Speaker 1: in straight away. We've obviously watched it back, yeah, and
Speaker 1: I couldn't stop watching like it was really good. It
Speaker 1: was just so raw and authentic because no one knew
Speaker 1: how they were actually going to come across on TV.
Speaker 1: So people haven't tried to create these personas and if
Speaker 1: it couldn't get any more nineties. In order to actually
Speaker 1: audition for pop stars, you had to buy New Idea
Speaker 1: magazine which had the audition form inside. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: quite funny because Belinda said that the headline on the
Speaker 1: magazine was Australia's answer to the Spy Skirls, and the
Speaker 1: premise was that every girl who filled out the form
Speaker 1: would get a shot at being signed to Warner Music.
Speaker 1: And in the first episode we see all these girls
Speaker 1: with the magazine in the line filling it out, so
Speaker 1: it was great promotion for the magazine. Well, that magazine
Speaker 1: ends up being quite a contentious topic. We will get
Speaker 1: into all of the scandals later down the track, but
Speaker 1: one of the contestants that actually made the band was
Speaker 1: accused of stealing the magazine and twist. Now, there was
Speaker 1: such a huge response to the auditions, with thousands showing
Speaker 1: up to get their chance, and the show kept reminding
Speaker 1: us that the judges were plucking five unknowns off the
Speaker 1: street and turning them into pop stars. The concept of
Speaker 1: being plucked from obscurity and then receiving this instant fame,
Speaker 1: it was completely new to all of and it led
Speaker 1: to a lot of intense media scrutiny and think pieces
Speaker 1: at the time about whether the band members were worthy
Speaker 1: of the fame that they were receiving. And I think
Speaker 1: the popularity of this show really came down to the
Speaker 1: timing because it was the first time we'd seen anything
Speaker 1: like this before, and we weren't jaded or cynical about
Speaker 1: the concept. We were really rooting for the girls in
Speaker 1: the group. We wanted them to be successful. We were
Speaker 1: out there supporting them, buying their CDs. Now, in what
Speaker 1: they called a cattle call, the girls were shepherded into
Speaker 1: a conference room and asked us seeing three lines from
Speaker 1: one of four songs and this really takes me back
Speaker 1: to the late nineties. They could choose from Wanna Be Respect,
Speaker 1: My Heart Will Go On for Ain't No Sunshine, and
Speaker 1: they auditioned in a line of five girls and they
Speaker 1: had a couple of seconds to impress the judges, and
Speaker 1: if they made it through the first round, they'd come
Speaker 1: back for the second day of auditions, where the judges
Speaker 1: would then make a short list of twenty five to
Speaker 1: go to Sydney for a week of what they called
Speaker 1: very intense auditions. What I noticed about these auditions whether
Speaker 1: the judges weren't act like you're so used to seeing,
Speaker 1: you know, Ian Dicko Dixon just absolutely tearing someone to shreds.
Speaker 1: But they were all kind of positive about it, like yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's enough. There seemed to be a lot more care
Speaker 1: and almost dignity given to the girls that were auditioning,
Speaker 1: because they seemed to gloss over a lot of the
Speaker 1: bad auditions. And also the judges were shown being quite
Speaker 1: supportive of the girls. I mean in one of the episodes,
Speaker 1: we see a girl visibly shaking and they're given a
Speaker 1: lot of support instead of being made fun of. Their
Speaker 1: faces were quite hilariously, like you could tell instantly if
Speaker 1: Jackie O was a bit like yeah. I loved the
Speaker 1: shot from behind the contestants and it was you know,
Speaker 1: you can see the contestants singing and just the judges'
Speaker 1: faces and they were classic. It's almost that trying not
Speaker 1: to laugh. And I did love how Chris Moss would
Speaker 1: have this certain hand movement that he would do when
Speaker 1: he'd heard enough. Yeah, sometimes it was quite quick. One
Speaker 1: thing that I couldn't get over was the eyebrows. I
Speaker 1: just can't believe it because they were plucked within an
Speaker 1: inch of their life. Like every girl had pencils in eyebrows.
Speaker 1: Everyone was so thin, like thin you forget that diet culture.
Speaker 1: Back in the nineties, it was the Kate Moss era.
Speaker 1: I did love the fashion though, because we are seeing
Speaker 1: the nineties come back in a big way. Everyone was
Speaker 1: trying to emulate the spice perse. Now in the first episode,
Speaker 1: we meet the five girls who do eventually go on
Speaker 1: to join Bardo, and from the start, Sophie Monk was
Speaker 1: a fan favorite. As you touched on. She was only
Speaker 1: nineteen at the time, and she'd driven nine hours through
Speaker 1: the night to make the auditions, and at the time
Speaker 1: she was working on the Gold Coast performing as a
Speaker 1: Marilyn Monroe impersonator. And I feel like he can really
Speaker 1: pick that up in her audition. Let's throw to it
Speaker 1: that the hardly goal. You could just tell that Sophie
Speaker 1: Monk had that instant star quality when she performs. I
Speaker 1: still can't believe she was only nineteen. It really blows
Speaker 1: my mind. Now. The next girl was Katie Underwood, and
Speaker 1: the judges weren't really sure about her. She clearly had
Speaker 1: the X factor, but there were concerns that her voice
Speaker 1: wasn't strong enough. What love got to do got to
Speaker 1: do with it. She made quite the impression because I
Speaker 1: still have a vivid memory of what she wore to
Speaker 1: this first audition. So she had this silver reflective top
Speaker 1: on that looked a bit like a metal shield. And
Speaker 1: while it made hers stand out to the judges, they
Speaker 1: actually ended up asking her to change her outfit. Let's
Speaker 1: throw to what they said, we're.
Speaker 2: Going to ask you to come back, given that you've
Speaker 2: gone to so much trouble and it looks absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 2: Is there a chance that you can change your attire
Speaker 2: by one o'clock? I want you to rush out and
Speaker 2: like spend. That's not what we're some looking for problem.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: I love how polite they were. You know, if you
Speaker 1: can go out and buy something, it'd be great. I
Speaker 1: do recall when I saw Katie, I thought, oh, she's
Speaker 1: going to be one of those people like that everyone
Speaker 1: laughs at, you know, like the person. Well really, I
Speaker 1: actually had the opposite opinion. I thought that she looked
Speaker 1: like a star because she had a really unusual look
Speaker 1: and a striking look. Yeah, but I thought it came
Speaker 1: across that she was trying too hard and you know
Speaker 1: those people that go for that shock factor, they end
Speaker 1: up being the center of the show for five minutes
Speaker 1: and then they get kicked off. Well, when Belinda Chappel auditioned,
Speaker 1: she made a big impression. She was actually working as
Speaker 1: a model at the time and her agent had actually
Speaker 1: booked it in for three catwalk shows that day, so
Speaker 1: she knew in order to be seen by the judges
Speaker 1: she had to talk her way in to getting into
Speaker 1: one of those early audition groups. They must have known
Speaker 1: she had star quality then, because we did see a
Speaker 1: lot of duds performing and she did bring along her
Speaker 1: CV to show, look, I actually am a performer. They
Speaker 1: would have taken one look at her and gone, yeah,
Speaker 1: you can go to the front. Ye go straight through,
Speaker 1: because we know that so much of it was about
Speaker 1: the look and having that right pop star look. Definitely
Speaker 1: in her book, I found it quite interesting because she
Speaker 1: said that she'd always dreamt of being a pop star
Speaker 1: and when she saw it advertised a new idea, she
Speaker 1: just had this feeling that she was going to land
Speaker 1: the job. It seems to be this gut feeling that
Speaker 1: a lot of people get for something like Sadly, there
Speaker 1: are a lot of people that have no chance also
Speaker 1: a cut feeling, which we saw on the show. I
Speaker 1: do recall when Michael was saying, there are some people
Speaker 1: that really thought they had a good chance. And I
Speaker 1: suppose it's because, again, they'd never done big auditions like
Speaker 1: that in the past, because Belinda Chappele in her book
Speaker 1: talks about the fact that she used to go to
Speaker 1: auditions all the time, but these were professional auditions where
Speaker 1: they just don't let anyone in. But with pop stars,
Speaker 1: anyone who bought a new idea could audition. Now, Belinda
Speaker 1: did opt to sing respect, and in the book she
Speaker 1: said that it was a fairly average rendition of the song,
Speaker 1: and she explained that she was so nervous that she
Speaker 1: felt like her heart was going to jump out of
Speaker 1: her chest. So she made this very impromptu dance move
Speaker 1: actioning her pounding heart. And I always remember watching this thinking,
Speaker 1: what's that about? Yeah, I never knew what it was about,
Speaker 1: but I thought it was kind of like she was
Speaker 1: showing that she was fun and creative. Let's throw to
Speaker 1: her audition, Ah that scared. It's for their respect when
Speaker 1: you come home, hey, baby, when you get home, mister.
Speaker 1: It's so funny watching this show back more than twenty
Speaker 1: years on, because there are so many things that just
Speaker 1: wouldn't fly now. One of them that really stood out
Speaker 1: was the ageism. So in the first episode, they make
Speaker 1: fun of a group of women in their late thirties
Speaker 1: to early forties auditioning for the show. Let's throw to
Speaker 1: the clip.
Speaker 2: The auditions are open to any girl who was eighteen.
Speaker 1: My boyfriend's wife rang up and told me about it.
Speaker 2: Actually, Oh love her. She's a lovely lady.
Speaker 1: I'm shame.
Speaker 2: No, so what you reckon?
Speaker 1: You're gonna need chicky babes end today. If anything, were
Speaker 1: just going to help those young ladies out every night.
Speaker 1: Oh my dreams, I see I see you. The funniest
Speaker 1: thing about this was that these women actually seemed a
Speaker 1: lot more talented than some that actually made it through.
Speaker 1: They actually had good voices, yeah, but you could tell
Speaker 1: they just weren't what they were looking for. Maybe if
Speaker 1: it was the voice and they're particularly looking for a voice,
Speaker 1: but it's clear they were looking to manufacture a pop
Speaker 1: group of five twenty something. Something that was also really
Speaker 1: evident was the lack of diversity, because this show claimed
Speaker 1: that it wanted five different girls, that girls at home
Speaker 1: could relate to. However, the five women that they ended
Speaker 1: up choosing were all white and straight sized women. In
Speaker 1: saying that when watching the auditions, there were quite a
Speaker 1: few different nationalities that were actually put through the process,
Speaker 1: but they just went picked at the end. I also
Speaker 1: found it really uncomfortable because the judges would use someone's
Speaker 1: dancing ability as this thinly veiled excuse to reject plus
Speaker 1: size contestants. So in the first episode, we see an
Speaker 1: eighteen year old girl called Beth Huddle get through the
Speaker 1: first stage of the audition process and at the time
Speaker 1: she was working as a hairstylist and a cake decorator.
Speaker 1: For some reason, I loved the inclusion that she was
Speaker 1: a cake decorator and apparently she'd had five years singing experience,
Speaker 1: and the narrator explained that she'd been to many auditions
Speaker 1: before and during this one on one audition she did,
Speaker 1: Jackie O said to her, could you move around a
Speaker 1: bit because we want to see some of your dancing,
Speaker 1: And during this audition, Beth stuffed up the lyrics a
Speaker 1: couple of times, and she asks if she can get
Speaker 1: the lyrics to the song, let's play the exchange. Shall
Speaker 1: your hand Tato makes my upholstery. Oh my god, a couple. So,
Speaker 1: I know this looks really bad. It looks like I'm nervous,
Speaker 1: but I've just forgot my ways. I only let the
Speaker 1: song this morning. Is it okay if I get some lyrics? Sure?
Speaker 2: Well, no, it's not. Actually, to be honest, it's not.
Speaker 1: Since this show, it seems like Jackie O has continued
Speaker 1: to be cast in the role of the good cop
Speaker 1: woman that asked the girls to do something and kind
Speaker 1: of sets them up for failure and critique from a male. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's so true. Now, following this scolding, Beth then sings
Speaker 1: the chorus and she sounds really great, and the judges
Speaker 1: basically deliberate and in front of her, and they say
Speaker 1: her voice is really strong, but they didn't see any movement,
Speaker 1: and despite the fact that she really did have one
Speaker 1: of the strongest voices in this competition, they chose to
Speaker 1: cut her. Here's what they said, what love.
Speaker 2: Got to do?
Speaker 1: Got to do that? Why love the second handed bullshit?
Speaker 2: fIF We know everyone gets radiled with the nerves and
Speaker 2: it makes it really difficult and everything else, but it
Speaker 2: was a second callback and we see you come in
Speaker 2: and be very confident with the song at least the
Speaker 2: other point, because it wasn't just that movement and dance
Speaker 2: is also important to us as well, and we don't
Speaker 2: feel that we saw enough animation from that point. Ye,
Speaker 2: that's cool, So on that basis, we won't go for
Speaker 2: a callback from here.
Speaker 1: Thanks very much for your time. Anyway, you can see
Speaker 1: that poor Beth was really shaken by this experience. She
Speaker 1: did mutter under her breath that it was such a
Speaker 1: joke and said that she'd never heard of anyone not
Speaker 1: getting a callback because they couldn't dance, And she ended
Speaker 1: up breaking down in tears when she left, and all
Speaker 1: of the contestants asking her what was wrong. This is
Speaker 1: what she said, you know what, It's all about the
Speaker 1: image And oh darly, I got offered a contract with
Speaker 1: PolyGram in London and they told me I had to
Speaker 1: lose teen heroes, I had to get hair extensions and
Speaker 1: bleash it. It's all about the image. It was so
Speaker 1: obvious that the judges were just using Beth dancing as
Speaker 1: an excuse not to take her on because her image
Speaker 1: didn't suit the band. Yeah, which I'm surprised about because
Speaker 1: I would have thought in the early two thousands. They
Speaker 1: didn't really care about hurting people's feelings. Yeah, but everyone
Speaker 1: could see through it. They were even more avert as
Speaker 1: it went on because there was another contestant called Kara Holdham.
Speaker 1: Here's what they said about her, like.
Speaker 2: He had a real bit of character about her, and
Speaker 2: then got into the group tried to overplayed. I think
Speaker 2: it's rd to go and you feel comfortable in yourself
Speaker 2: and you should just be able to jump in the image.
Speaker 2: So I think that the fact that she was putting
Speaker 2: it down to the whole process I found that she
Speaker 2: had governed. I don't think we need to see anymore.
Speaker 1: It's hard to listen to that back because it's pretty
Speaker 1: clear the judges already had a very strict mold of
Speaker 1: what they wanted the girls to be. And I think
Speaker 1: this sort of fat phobic rhetoric and lack of diversity
Speaker 1: shows just how far we've come in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: like this would not be allowed now. Watching this series back,
Speaker 1: the entire audition process is really quite quick because by
Speaker 1: the second episode, the judges are already forming the final
Speaker 1: twenty five who will go to Sydney for the last
Speaker 1: round of auditions before the final five are then announced,
Speaker 1: and I think it was really good to do it
Speaker 1: this way because a lot of current singing competitions I
Speaker 1: feel like they really drag out the audition process and
Speaker 1: they sort of just use it as an opportunity to
Speaker 1: make fun of everyone. Australian Idle were the worst at that.
Speaker 1: The auditions went for so long, you like just get
Speaker 1: to the good bit, and I think because they wanted
Speaker 1: to drag it out, that's why they always humiliated people
Speaker 1: so much, because you can't just show all of the
Speaker 1: good scenes. Yes, now, in this episode, it's really nostalgic
Speaker 1: because the judges sit around watching the auditions back on
Speaker 1: a VHS player and then they use landline phones to
Speaker 1: ring the contestants to tell them whether they're going through
Speaker 1: to the Sydney auditions. And I love it because the
Speaker 1: girls are either living at home with their parents in
Speaker 1: a very suburban setup, or they're living in very small,
Speaker 1: one bedroom apartment and it's just wild to me how
Speaker 1: we operated without mobile phones. Then, like the fact that
Speaker 1: you're having to wait by a landline phone to hear
Speaker 1: the biggest news of your life. It's fairly obviously. This
Speaker 1: is set up firstly because the TV cameras are filming
Speaker 1: the girl's reactions. But if you didn't have a mobile
Speaker 1: phone back in the day, you have to let that
Speaker 1: phone call go to the answering machine. Imagine wait getting
Speaker 1: that when you got here. Well, they had TV crews
Speaker 1: set up at the girl's family homes, and it was
Speaker 1: really awkward to see the ones who didn't get through
Speaker 1: because basically they'd asked them to gather all of their
Speaker 1: family and friends over years. But I just couldn't get
Speaker 1: over the early two thousands decore and some of the
Speaker 1: homes because there were so many fake gerbras, which I
Speaker 1: remember we had them in our house. They also had
Speaker 1: so much dark wood like as furniture, and one girl
Speaker 1: she had this turquoise couch that had little swirls on it.
Speaker 1: Anyone have blow up furniture? No, I mean maybe more
Speaker 1: in the girl's bedrooms. I feel like that was more
Speaker 1: of a teenage thing. There was one contestant who was
Speaker 1: issued an ultimatum by the judges. Her name was Cherry
Speaker 1: Western Pearce, and she was told if she wanted to
Speaker 1: move through to the next round, she had to remove
Speaker 1: her tongue ring. Now they claimed it's because it made
Speaker 1: her have a lisp when she sung, but I think
Speaker 1: it's just that they didn't like the look of it.
Speaker 1: Now this line really cracked me up. Cherry's got to
Speaker 1: prove she wants it bad enough.
Speaker 2: If she wants to go to Sydney, a man covered
Speaker 2: in tattoos is her only solution.
Speaker 1: Now, this man with tattoos was the guy that was
Speaker 1: going to remove the tongue ring for Cherry. The way
Speaker 1: that the voiceover said tattoos was so funny, and I
Speaker 1: love the way they acted, like going to a tattoo
Speaker 1: shop was so scandalous and edgy at the time. Following this,
Speaker 1: the top twenty five are flown to Sydney and this
Speaker 1: is for their intense week of auditions where some of
Speaker 1: the top choreographers in Australia and vocal coach put them
Speaker 1: through their paces. It's pretty classic because when the girls
Speaker 1: arrive at Sydney Airport, we see Sophie Monk have this
Speaker 1: really awkward exchange with Ossie TV icon Barry Crocker. So
Speaker 1: Barry approaches Sophie and another contestant and he tells them
Speaker 1: that his granddaughter auditioned but she didn't get through, so
Speaker 1: they must be pretty great. When he departs, he then
Speaker 1: says to them, I'll see you on the stages of
Speaker 1: the world. Now, Sophie Monk had no idea who Barry
Speaker 1: Krocker was. And for those who might be in the
Speaker 1: same boat, he is a Gold Logi winning actor and
Speaker 1: he's also a singer. And there's also a saying that
Speaker 1: if you're having a Barry Crocker, it means that you're
Speaker 1: having a bad day or a shocker. So Sophie Monk
Speaker 1: seemed to be having a Barry Croker that day. Is
Speaker 1: it bad? All I can think of is Betty Crocker. Yeah. Now,
Speaker 1: the girls end up being taken to the Noverteale Hotel
Speaker 1: in the heart of Sydney, where the show puts on
Speaker 1: a thank you party. Now, the voiceover says, the girls
Speaker 1: are dressed up for a night on the town as
Speaker 1: they meet with the judges at the social event in
Speaker 1: the hotel bar. And you can really tell at this
Speaker 1: point how low budget the show is because there's just
Speaker 1: a couple of counterpas and a glass of wine for
Speaker 1: the girls. Yeah. And in her book, Belinda references this
Speaker 1: event and she said that at this time she became
Speaker 1: really aware of the cameras, and she noticed that a
Speaker 1: lot of the camera men were inappropriately zooming up on
Speaker 1: the women's bodies, and she knew that she had to
Speaker 1: use the cameras to her advantage, but she said she
Speaker 1: felt really nervous around them.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: The next day, the auditions were held at George Hall
Speaker 1: and a leading choreographer took the girls through their paces. Now,
Speaker 1: whilst the judges did use dancing ability as an excuse
Speaker 1: to send some girls home, it is apparent in this
Speaker 1: episode that the girl's ability to dance is actually a
Speaker 1: big deal and it looked like hard work. The girls
Speaker 1: are taught a dance routine so the judges can see
Speaker 1: who can pick up the moves quickly. Now, Sally Polaronos
Speaker 1: completely stands out from the pack, which isn't really surprising
Speaker 1: because it's revealed that she previously trained in dance, tap, jazz,
Speaker 1: and ballet, and as a child, she was also part
Speaker 1: of the Johnny Young Talent School. In a bonus episode
Speaker 1: of Pop Stars, the judges actually admitted that when Sally auditioned,
Speaker 1: they thought that she was a stripper. It's really awkward
Speaker 1: to listen to. Here's what they said to her.
Speaker 2: That they're getting it from because all these journos kept saying, like,
Speaker 2: you know, the rumor that one of us was a stripper.
Speaker 1: Now this is in reference to the media reports that
Speaker 1: were circulating around the time that Bardo was formed that
Speaker 1: one of the band members was a stripper, and the
Speaker 1: slight shaming nature of these comments was really gross. And
Speaker 1: I just think it's so ironic to think now that
Speaker 1: Anna Paul is a role model for young girls and
Speaker 1: also one of Australia's biggest influences, and people don't seem
Speaker 1: to bat an eyelid at the fact that she's also
Speaker 1: a sex worker. But people seem so appalled that one
Speaker 1: of the pop stars could have previously worked as a stripper.
Speaker 1: It's pretty funny that they thought Sally was a stripper
Speaker 1: because in Belinda's book, she spoke about how she shared
Speaker 1: a room with Sally to begin with, and she was
Speaker 1: quite taken aback when Sally got out a picture of
Speaker 1: Jesus and Rosary beads and put them by her bed. Yes, Sally,
Speaker 1: he was actually one of the most conservative members of
Speaker 1: the band. Now back to the auditions, and ironically, Marsha
Speaker 1: Heines drops past the auditions to speak to the girls
Speaker 1: and discusses the complexities of stardom, and she tells the
Speaker 1: cameras that pop stars is such a great initiative and
Speaker 1: something Australia should do more of, which is quite funny
Speaker 1: because years later she then went on to judge Australian Idol. Now,
Speaker 1: during the auditions, we also meet vocal coach Mark Williams,
Speaker 1: who was there to assess the girl's voices, and we
Speaker 1: hear that they don't want to pick girls with the
Speaker 1: same voice, they want a range of voices which compliment
Speaker 1: each other. It's pretty funny because by the end of
Speaker 1: the day Tiffany Wood had lost her voice and she
Speaker 1: told the judges her voice had gone due to the
Speaker 1: six glasses of champagne she had at the welcome party
Speaker 1: the night before. Now, the group slowly gets whittled down
Speaker 1: until there's fifteen girls who are put into the groups
Speaker 1: for the final performance. Now, these girls are given a
Speaker 1: bit of a makeover and styled to look like pop stars,
Speaker 1: so think crimped hair, pedal pushes, upper arm brace, flirts,
Speaker 1: butterfly clips and there's also a lot of fake leather
Speaker 1: going on. Now, Interestingly, the judges were supposed to pick
Speaker 1: the final five from there, but they bring it down
Speaker 1: to ten girls and they say to the cameras that
Speaker 1: they're going to send the girls home with the promise
Speaker 1: that they'll make their final decision within a week now.
Speaker 1: When the final ten were announced, the producers told them
Speaker 1: to celebrate with an afternoon at Bondai Beach, and Belinda
Speaker 1: recalled hearing one of the camera guys say to the others, okay,
Speaker 1: ready for the TNA shots. Mate now. Belinda said she
Speaker 1: was in disbelief and questioned if she'd really heard him
Speaker 1: say tits and ass shots. I felt really sorry for
Speaker 1: Belinda in this moment, because it would be pretty confronting
Speaker 1: being a young woman who is trying to win a
Speaker 1: singing competition and then you've got these camera guys wanting
Speaker 1: to take shots of your ars and tits. She did
Speaker 1: end up grabbing a shirt and a T shirt to
Speaker 1: throw over her bathers, and the camera guy said, no, honey,
Speaker 1: this is a bikini shot. Close off. Yeah. Now. To
Speaker 1: celebrate making it through to the final ten, the producers
Speaker 1: told the girls that they had something special planned for
Speaker 1: them them that evening, and they picked them up at
Speaker 1: the harbor at seven pm. They also told them to
Speaker 1: throw on their sexiest frocks and look camera ready. I
Speaker 1: wanted to include the word frocks because I didn't know this,
Speaker 1: but that was actually one of the name suggestions for
Speaker 1: the band Frocks. Really it was a terrible name suggestion,
Speaker 1: but it shows that that word must have really been
Speaker 1: used highly around two thousand. I remember when we were younger,
Speaker 1: were like, why don't they just call the band popstars?
Speaker 1: That's what it is. The girls were taken to dinner
Speaker 1: to meet the company's execs for the first time, and
Speaker 1: Belinda refers to them in the book as the Gray Suits,
Speaker 1: and they own the production company, and she was wondering,
Speaker 1: why are we only meeting them now this far into
Speaker 1: the audition process. And I think this was one of
Speaker 1: the pivotal parts when she realized that the composition wasn't
Speaker 1: quite what they thought it was. It felt a bit wrong. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So the next morning, the ten girls were instructed to
Speaker 1: report to the conference room, but this time there were
Speaker 1: no camera crews or judges there, just the two TV
Speaker 1: executives that they'd met the night before. Now they they
Speaker 1: walked in and introduced the girls to their lawyers. Blinda
Speaker 1: said that the room suddenly felt colder, and that the
Speaker 1: tone of the journey completely changed. She also wondered why
Speaker 1: there were still ten contestants there now. The execs told
Speaker 1: the group that they were through to the final stage
Speaker 1: of the selection process and that they'd liked to give
Speaker 1: them a contract, so they gave each woman five days
Speaker 1: and fifteen hundred dollars to get a lawyer to look
Speaker 1: over the documents. It's quite clear they didn't want to
Speaker 1: whittle it down to five contestants because they wanted to
Speaker 1: use these contracts as a bargaining tool, because if they
Speaker 1: had selected five girls, these girls would have felt wanted
Speaker 1: and maybe got together and said no, let's all agree
Speaker 1: to these terms. However, they ended up feeling pretty replaceable
Speaker 1: because if one didn't sign the contract, they had others
Speaker 1: waiting in the wing. This part of Blinda's book made
Speaker 1: me really angry because the production company was acting like
Speaker 1: they were so lovely giving them money to go and
Speaker 1: seek out legal advice, but in reality they probably did that.
Speaker 1: So then if later the girls suit and said, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, we won't given enough information, they could go, well,
Speaker 1: you went to a lawyer. Well, the exacts actually told
Speaker 1: the girls that if they don't sign it, they won't
Speaker 1: be in contention for a place in the band. That's
Speaker 1: how serious it was. These girls were so young at
Speaker 1: the time as well. Now, after the meeting, the girls
Speaker 1: were thrown into another meeting, and this time it was
Speaker 1: with the judges and the camera crew. So Chris Moss
Speaker 1: from Warner Music was there and he was telling them
Speaker 1: that as their management company, they will give them a
Speaker 1: daily schedule of what they're required to do as pop stars,
Speaker 1: and he explained that there's a fine line between work
Speaker 1: and entertainment and that's where a lot of people in
Speaker 1: the industry fall down in terms of relationships. So he
Speaker 1: told them that they won't be able to juggle what
Speaker 1: their life is like now and that they'll need to
Speaker 1: push themselves through it otherwise they'll buckle and break now.
Speaker 1: Belinda detailed in her book that after this meeting, they
Speaker 1: also had a subsequent meeting with a publicist from Channel
Speaker 1: seven in a private room without cameras, and they were
Speaker 1: basically told that if they're selected in the band, they'll
Speaker 1: have to sacrifice their family time, their friendship time, and
Speaker 1: also every waking hour will have to be alligated to
Speaker 1: the band. And this essentially meant that all of the
Speaker 1: girls that had boyfriends were expected to dump them. Now,
Speaker 1: this didn't happen, but it did end up ruining all
Speaker 1: of the relationships further down the track with the girls
Speaker 1: because they were told that they wouldn't be able to
Speaker 1: stay living with their partners and they had to move
Speaker 1: into a sharehouse with the other girls, and also that
Speaker 1: they would be traveling so much that it would be
Speaker 1: really hard to maintain a relationship. We spoke at the
Speaker 1: start of the episode about how Channel seven were so
Speaker 1: eager to choose the right girls to ensure that this
Speaker 1: group was popular. But do you also think they tried
Speaker 1: to select girls that they thought, well, we can control you.
Speaker 1: You know, they have to be young, so they're going
Speaker 1: to listen to what we say. They have to be
Speaker 1: young enough to just sign this contract. I definitely think so.
Speaker 1: I mean, as we've touched on, Sophie Monk was only
Speaker 1: nineteen years old. She was highly impressionable, but also highly
Speaker 1: mouldable to what they wanted. She seemed to be a
Speaker 1: yes person. I think at this time anyone would have
Speaker 1: signed this contract because it was a promise of fame
Speaker 1: and also to live out their dreams. Back to the
Speaker 1: conversation regarding their relationships, A big part of Belinda's book
Speaker 1: was her relationship with her then boyfriend Nate. It was
Speaker 1: a bit of an undertone throughout the story because they
Speaker 1: did stay together for a bulk of the time while
Speaker 1: she was in bar dough, but it seemed like it
Speaker 1: really did put a strain on the relationship. Do you
Speaker 1: think they actually wanted them to split up from their
Speaker 1: partners so they were sort of seen as accessible to
Speaker 1: the general problem. I think for marketability purposes, they probably
Speaker 1: wanted them to appear single and as if they were
Speaker 1: open to other options for any male consumers. And I
Speaker 1: think that's also why they made them all live in
Speaker 1: the same house, because they're taking them away from their boyfriends,
Speaker 1: but they're also taking them away from the environment that
Speaker 1: they know, so that makes them feel even more out
Speaker 1: of control and mouldable to do whatever they want, and
Speaker 1: that they're not listening to their boyfriends who might be saying,
Speaker 1: wait a second, why aren't they paying you promptly? And
Speaker 1: during this episode where there's still ten girls, we see
Speaker 1: the huge medium machine that was a on this show.
Speaker 1: They were already paparazzi following the final ten and they're
Speaker 1: trying to scope out who was going to make it
Speaker 1: into the band, and I think that would have also
Speaker 1: played into the girl's decision to sign on. At the time,
Speaker 1: a New Idea who published the audition form had exclusive
Speaker 1: access to the band and they were used to build
Speaker 1: the ongoing hype around them. And Osterio was also enlisted
Speaker 1: in the project because it ensured that they got a
Speaker 1: lot of radio time. And I didn't know about those
Speaker 1: past connections and collaborations before. What that makes sense why
Speaker 1: Jackie Oh was one of the judges. It seems like
Speaker 1: everybody had these fingers in this pie and it was
Speaker 1: all part of the money making machining en sure that
Speaker 1: this band was successful. Now, after receiving the contract, Belinda
Speaker 1: and her dad visited a top law firm and her
Speaker 1: lawyer basically told her that if you sign this contract,
Speaker 1: you will not make a cent in three years, and
Speaker 1: he explained that one of the clauses meant that any
Speaker 1: income made from the band, meaning all the moneies from
Speaker 1: the income streams, will go straight back into paying all
Speaker 1: of the costs. So basically the girls were paying the
Speaker 1: costs of making the album and going on to it. Now.
Speaker 1: Another clause which is so disgusting is that the contract
Speaker 1: stated that the band member's weight or appearance could not
Speaker 1: change in any significant way or they would terminate the contract.
Speaker 1: What if one of them got pregnant or something, well,
Speaker 1: contract gone. I just still can't believe that this was
Speaker 1: allowed to happen. Now, clearly it was a very one
Speaker 1: sided contract, and Belinda's lawyer told her that she was
Speaker 1: essentially handing over her life and every waking moment to
Speaker 1: the company that these two men ran, which was the
Speaker 1: Gray Suits. The clincher was that if they were selected
Speaker 1: in the band, they would have to survive on just
Speaker 1: thirty five dollars a day in the form of a
Speaker 1: per dim. So, for those who don't know, a per
Speaker 1: dem is money given to you to pay for breakfast, lunch,
Speaker 1: and dinner in this instance, so they weren't paid a salary.
Speaker 1: They were literally just fed. Yeah, because their salary was
Speaker 1: going in to paying off all these costs that they'd
Speaker 1: accrued by being picked by this TV company to be
Speaker 1: in the Bear. And as any good lawyer would do,
Speaker 1: Blinda's lawyer said, don't sign this contract. However, he knew
Speaker 1: how much she wanted it, and she said, it's really
Speaker 1: difficult for me because I don't even know if I've
Speaker 1: made the band. So he actually ended up making a
Speaker 1: phone call to a contact he had and he confirmed
Speaker 1: that she had in fact made it to the final five,
Speaker 1: and after a lot of deliberation, she did decide to
Speaker 1: sign the contract because she knew that if she did,
Speaker 1: and others would and she would lose her spot in
Speaker 1: the band. Do you guys think you would sign that contract? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would at the age of nineteen or twenty four,
Speaker 1: I'd be signing it so far. The sad reality now
Speaker 1: is if this contract was in place, you probably would
Speaker 1: sign it because you'd be able to build off maybe
Speaker 1: an influencing career or something in social media. But the
Speaker 1: girls didn't have that ability to be able to do that. Now,
Speaker 1: by episode five, we finally find out who our pop
Speaker 1: stars are, and it felt so old school because the
Speaker 1: judges had these printed at Kodak photos of the girls
Speaker 1: and they set them out on a coffee table and
Speaker 1: they used them to move around and work out different
Speaker 1: combinations of girls for the potential group, and after assessing
Speaker 1: all of the various possible lineups, they finally decide on
Speaker 1: their final five. Now again, the camera crews appeared back
Speaker 1: at the girls' houses to tell them whether they'd made
Speaker 1: it or not. The first stop was Sally polar Onus
Speaker 1: from Adelaide's house. JACKIEO arrives to tell her the good news,
Speaker 1: and it's such a blast from the past because they
Speaker 1: asked Sally if she's ever had a real job, and
Speaker 1: she explains she's currently working in the retail store. A spree.
Speaker 1: Is a spree still a thing? Now? No, I don't
Speaker 1: think it is. It was funny because they made Sally
Speaker 1: go back and tell her colleagues in a spree that
Speaker 1: she was joining the band. And I had totally forgotten
Speaker 1: about a spree. It's all I used to wear in
Speaker 1: the late nineties and early noughties. I loved in a
Speaker 1: spree top. How awkward was it watching them break the
Speaker 1: news to the girls who didn't make it, Yeah, especially
Speaker 1: when they had their family around. And also it kind
Speaker 1: of drummed into me how polite girls are more so
Speaker 1: back then, because they're all like, yeah, that's cool. That's
Speaker 1: kind of like on The Simpsons, Ralph Wiggans's heartbreaks, Like
Speaker 1: you could actually see the moment they were just absolutely shattered. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and one of the girls who didn't originally get through
Speaker 1: was Tiffany Wood. So Chris Moss rocked up to her
Speaker 1: really tiny apartment with the camera crew, and it didn't
Speaker 1: look like she knew that he was coming, because she
Speaker 1: opened the door in a nighty and quickly slammed that
Speaker 1: she was shocked that he was there. And they tell
Speaker 1: us that during the day Tiffany works at the Hilton
Speaker 1: Hotel and by night she's the lead singer in a band,
Speaker 1: so she had a really strong voice. I think it
Speaker 1: was a really bad move that they didn't put her
Speaker 1: in the band to begin with. And it was interesting
Speaker 1: to see her apartment because begrudgingly after getting changed, she
Speaker 1: opened the door and the apartment was an absolute shit hole.
Speaker 1: She even said, welcome to my little hole of a place.
Speaker 1: Well as you touched on, Sophie. Some listeners might be
Speaker 1: surprised to hear that Tiffany would didn't actually make it
Speaker 1: into the band originally, So she did take the rejection
Speaker 1: really well and told Chris that she didn't think she'd
Speaker 1: get in because she was sick during the audition process.
Speaker 1: It's kind of ironic that she didn't make it because
Speaker 1: their first single she was basically the main singer in it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she was such a huge part of it. We then
Speaker 1: see fan favorite Sophie Munk make the cut and she
Speaker 1: shows Michael her baby videos and her dad tells a
Speaker 1: camera that she's very comfortable around strangers and can talk
Speaker 1: to anyone. Next is the infamous Chantel Barry, who is
Speaker 1: only nineteen at the time, and she's told by Jackie
Speaker 1: Oh that she's in now. Chantell was very confident. Here's
Speaker 1: what she said during her first audition, what do you
Speaker 1: think we're looking for.
Speaker 2: Me?
Speaker 1: Yeah, she really seemed sure of herself because she'd actually
Speaker 1: moved to Sydney a couple of weeks before to break
Speaker 1: into the industry, and she didn't really seem that shocked
Speaker 1: when it was announced that she was in the band. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm guessing there are a lot of whispers going around
Speaker 1: with all these conversations the lawyers were having with the
Speaker 1: production team over the contracts. And I mean that was
Speaker 1: very evident when you read Belinda's book, because she already
Speaker 1: had been given the heads up that she was in
Speaker 1: the band, and she had been asked by the producers
Speaker 1: to get her mum and her sister around the house,
Speaker 1: and all her family declined being in the video. Even
Speaker 1: her boyfriend declined. He was hiding behind a curtain while
Speaker 1: she was told she made it. I got the feeling
Speaker 1: that they didn't want any of the boyfriends in any
Speaker 1: of the shots. But yeah, she had to basically fake
Speaker 1: that she was surprised, and she really wanted to ham
Speaker 1: it up because she didn't want any of the production
Speaker 1: crew to know that she'd found out either. She did
Speaker 1: a pretty good job of item genuine. Now, Katie Underwood
Speaker 1: was the final member to find out that she was through,
Speaker 1: and Jackie O broke the news by giving her a
Speaker 1: boarding pass. Now, this is where we're going to leave
Speaker 1: you for today. In next week's show, we discuss the
Speaker 1: fallout as a final five are forced to move into
Speaker 1: a new house together and start a grueling fitness regime.
Speaker 1: A storm is brewing, a scandal so juicy. Channel seven
Speaker 1: couldn't have scripted it better themselves, as band member Shantel
Speaker 1: Barry leaves a group under suspicious circumstances. We really hope
Speaker 1: you have enjoyed today's episode. If you have, could you
Speaker 1: please make sure you are subscribed on Apple podcast and
Speaker 1: also Spotify and if you can leave us a five
Speaker 1: star review and if you want extra content from us,
Speaker 1: don't forget to sign up to Outspoken Plus. This episode
Speaker 1: was recorded on the traditional land of the Ghana people
Speaker 1: of the Adelaide Plaines. We pay respect to elders past
Speaker 1: and present, and don't forget to follow Outspoken on TikTok
Speaker 1: and on Instagram. We're at Outspoken Underscore d Underscored podcast.
Speaker 1: We'll be sharing lots of reels and iconic moments from
Speaker 1: pop stars