Season 1 started in March 2002. The winner was Heinz Winkler , with Brandon October (2nd place) and Melanie Lowe (3rd place) as runners up. Ten years down the line Heinz Winkler has appeared in musicals such as “Rent”, and although I cannot find any proof on Google, I seem to recall him playing the part of a doctor in a local Afrikaans drama on TV. Perhaps someone can confirm that. He also performed the song “Chasing Shadows” for the South African release of the Disney movie “Treasure Planet”. He got married in 2006 and has two children. From the resume on Wikipedia, I can’t see much info about him after he got married. Even Brandon October hasn’t done much to become a huge star. Melanie Louw on the other hand has a Facebook page and can be followed on Twitter.
Season 2 was a year later in 2003 and was won by the 20year old Anke Pietrangeli AKA “The Kimberly Diamond”. According to “Entertainment TV” in an article written in 2010, she has virtually disappeared from the music scene.
Season 3 aired in the middle of 2005 with a final between Karin Kortjie and Gift Gwe taking place at Gold Reef City. Karin Kortjie walked away with the prize with 62.58% of the viewers votes. She was one of Idols most controversial winners. She disappeared from the music scene after her then boyfriend was charged with murder. Nowadays she sings mostly in churches.
Season 4 was back on Mnet in 2007 after a two year absence, during which time their sister channel KykNet, aired Afrikaans Idols. The winner for season 4 was a 17 year old from Cape Town, Jody Williams . Apart from having a fairly successful career, her one claim to fame was in 2010 when she represented Africa in the song “Everyone” the Official Theme song for the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games. She collaborated with four other artistes, one of whom was Sean Kingston.
Season 5 in 2009 saw Jason Hartman and Sasha Lee Davids becoming joint winners after a mix up with the viewers’ votes. Jason is very active to this day in the music business and has also become an activist in conservation projects such as Conservation Guardians which he started in 2011. Sasha Lee Davids however is probably better known for her reality TV show on VuzuTV: “The House of Davids”, which aired last year.
Season 6 in 2010 was the turn of Elvis Blue from George in the Western Cape, with KZN singer Lloyd Cele being the runner up. Both have been successful to date having won a few awards between them.
Season 7 aired in 2011 after controversial judge Mara Louw was given the boot and replaced with Unathi Msengana, a local radio personality and musician. Dave Van Vuuren from Johannesburg was declared the winner. I might add that after Seasons 5/6 it is too early to tell whether theses Idols winners will survive but they seem to be making waves.
Season 8 and 2012 was another controversial year for SA Idols, as contestants who should have been in the top 3 got voted off before they even made the Top 5. Khaya Mthethwa from Durban came out tops, and became the deserved winner in the end.
But what of those contestants that didn’t make it to the Top Three? Where are they? Are they still singing? As a build up to Season 9 of SA Idols I’ll take a look at what they are up to. Most information used here can be found on this Wikipedia link: Idols (South Africa) , whilst other links are to the artistes Facebook pages. You may wonder whether there is life after Idols, but as this summary of Idols shows you have to keep working at your singing talent. After you've won, it's no use to sit back and enjoy the ride. Let's see what the future holds for these winners.
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