UNPACKED REALITY - AUSTRALIAN IDOL - KIANI & Drea

It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast to take that right. Hey, guys, welcome back to TV Reload. I want to apologize I've been of its slack this week. The episodes are a little bit backlogged, but I've got some amazing content coming up over the next few days, so stick around for that. But today we are talking to Kiani Andrea, this week's

I've actually had a lot more younger kids approaching me with their parents.

Which has been really really sweet, and even online as well.

I get a lot of messages from kids being like we love watching you and like we're supporting you, and we've got everyone in our school watching and I have loved that and I think I obviously try and respond to everybody. I do stually respond to everybody because it's just like, this is what I do it for. Like I love I love teaching kids. I love sewing into the next generation. So to have that connection with them, even in the public is really nice.

Well, it's interesting that you talk about the younger people coming up to you and talking to you about this experience on the show KEWNTI. You're actually seventeen, the youngest contestant that was still in the competition. What's it been like, I mean, it's a huge talking point. Is it harder to sing up against people that are a little bit older than you?

It definitely was interesting. Like one of the things that I think was quite hard for me was seeing that I was so young. You know, everyone's so much older, They've had more experiences and like I don't mean just in music, I mean like in life, you know, so you know there's times where they would want to go out and drink and party and you know I couldn't go. So there was times like that that was hard, being

Have you made lifelong friends out of these people?

I definitely have. You know, like there was a few people that, you know, some people you would struggle to kind of get really well along with. You know, like everyone was so sweet and I loved everyone, but there was those few people that you got really close with and then those people that you talk.

To, Yeah, you kind of get bonded together in this really extreme way, and you know, I can tell you that they'll probably be friends with you for the rest of your life because no one will really understand the experience like the other people that were around you.

Yeah, exactly, Like it was really great and you know, having all that support as well.

So you know, girls, they say that Idle is less about creating TV moments like the Voice and more about singing that allows us to see your personalities. Do you think Australia has got a real chance or a real depiction of who you both really are.

Yeah, that's kind of something that I struggled with a lot on the show, just the fact that trying to show my full personality and who I am to Australia, but you know, people thought I was a bit young.

Drea, do you feel the same way or do you feel like Australia got to know you quite well?

Yeah, I think Australia got to see who I am as a person. What you see is what you're going to get. Like, I'm a bit weird, a bit quirky, that is me, and as an artist, I want to stay true to that. Like I can be very serious and diplomatic when I need to be, I can be very emotional at times, and then I can just be me.

Drea, can you say why you would pick being on Australian Idol over doing the Voice or one of the other singing shows.

Honestly, I think there's such a legacy behind Australian Idol and how it's impacted the music industry in Australia. And for me, like I grew up listening to Guy Sebastian and like I bought well, I didn't, my dad bought his first CD. And then like I watched Ricky Lee's Journey, and then I watched Jessica Nowboy's Journey and like, because I met her last year at a gig that we both did together, Like it was just like that connection

Cool to be a part of that history.

So my heart, I mean, I was like I could go on any of them, but my heart was really leaning towards Australian at all.

I actually always want to know from contestants how they feel during the night. Did you guys have any idea if you were going to be the people being eliminated? Did you, Kiani have any idea that that was going to be your last week singing?

To be honest, like I had a really good feeling that I was going to be in the bottom four, and even like being in the bottom two, I was a little bit like I felt like a little bit that was going to happen. But there was like a slither of hope where I was just like, you know what, maybe I can power through this, but no, it's okay.

I can't know. Had a feeling and then when they called the bottom four, I felt peace in my heart.

I was like it's okay, Like you were fine, You've done what you've needed to do, You've achieved more than you set out to do, have fun, enjoy the rest of it, and then we'll see what happens.

I thought you did such a good job. I mean, these judges have big personalities and they've got a lot to say. How did you go being critiqued by these people? Did you get scared of Kyle Sandalanz? Did you connect with Amy? Like what was your interpretation of having to perform and then get their critiques?

It was so cool, you know, like I've always been such a fan of Amy, and you know, the first edition, I was definitely really scared to meet Kyle because of the things you hear and see, but he is such a great guy. Like honestly, everyone's so sweet, and especially Marsha, Like I'm not gonna lie. Being so young, I wasn't exactly too sure who she was at the very beginning, you know, I was kind of like Marsia heines, I

Well what do you think of Marsha now? Is she your bestie?

Like?

Do you love her?

She's so sweet and so genuine and like even she has so much hope for me as well, Like she'd talk to me a little bit offset as well, and now. She always said to me, age doesn't matter, like she came to show at sixteen, and she really believes in me.

So Miss marsh I would say, is her career has spanned for so long and she's seen the changes, but she's still incredible in her own right.

If if that makes sense, does make sense. Something that probably didn't make as much sense to some of the viewers and to me was the decision to put you guys into two separate groups. I wanted to know from you, Drea, did do you think that the order on the elimination would be the same if you'd all been put into a top twelve as opposed to being separated.

I think what we can learn from this whole series is like the shocks and eliminations that happened the first week with Ripley and Imagen kind of just proved to me that anything can happen.

So I feel if we had all twelve together, people would say.

Would be a level playing field and we would have had different a different top six, But I honestly cannot say. I think it was whoever was going to go, was going to go kind of thing regardless of the two groups.

I get the feeling though, with Dylan being in the bottom this time and being as popular as he is, I wonder whether next week he'll get a lot more votes. I actually feel like that's going to help him in a way get to the finale, is that we've kind of been scared that he's going to go.

I think so too. He's such an amazing artist. I really hope he does get through again. He deserves it so much. And yeah, I think it was a big scared to Dylan fans because you know, everyone wasn't expecting it, Like you should have seen our face drop, Like he was honestly the last person I would think that would be in the bottom pool.

So it was crazy.

But yeah, I think everyone will definitely vote for him.

More now, like you never know what's going to happen.

And that shocked me seeing Dylan in the bottom four because he's an absolutely incredible artist and an incredible human being for that fact as well. And yeah, I think that will definitely. I think we're all starting to learn our lessons that you actually have to vote to keep people in this competition.

If we didn't know that before, how well did.

You know The song Rush, which was by Troy Sevin because as far as group performances go, So I actually feel like that you guys nailed that one. The best is that because that song was more known to all of you, Like, what's your thoughts on that?

Like, it wasn't something that I knew personally, But as soon as we were given that song and I just heard it was a dance chin, I was all amongst it.

I was like, I love this, this is right up my alley. I'm ready to party with it. And it was so much fun. And it's cool because it is very modern.

You know, all the other groups songs we've done, they're more older, you know, like I didn't really know Freedom. I didn't know was the other one straight Lines?

Yeah, great lines. Yeah, it's my favorite song of all time. So really yeah, that's great.

Yeah.

Well I wasn't too sure about those ones. But Rush, you know, like that's that's in my generation. Like even Amy was really funny. When we first heard that song. We were all thinking, what is that song because we didn't know about the name, and Amy just starts going, ah, I feel the Rush, and everyone just starts singing and we're all like, we know this song. We finally know this song.

Well, I think being a little bit younger, and we think about like the people that and the artists that, you know, maybe the judges are a little bit older. Could you imagine maybe a younger panel, like do you think Troy Savann would work? Who's cool at the moment? Who do you think would be a good judge on this show?

Oh Man, Noah Kahan, if he was a judge, I think I'd have a bloody great chance, to be honest. I love Noah Kahan, so him. Even the younger generations they love him too well. Tash Sultana, Yeah, I'm just listing my favorite artists at this right.

This is really showing my age because I don't know who the hell you're talking about.

So oh, you should listen to them. They're so good.

It's interesting when you talk about artists and you talk about how people are getting music out these days, it's almost worth having someone like Troy Sevan or a person who's used TikTok or other social media platforms to get their music up. Do you think it's worth putting a judge maybe on the panel that's maybe using some of these modern ways to get music out. I don't know, what do you think Treya.

I honestly, I kind of agree with you there.

I feel like, with the way that entertainment is changing, sometimes we need to change our viewpoint as well to support that. But again, you don't want to lose the essence and the realness in what people have done prior, which is why I respect someone like Marsha so much.

What I thought was really funny about watching last night was Ricky Lee. Ricky Lee has been through this competition before. Did you learn much from Ricky throughout the season?

Yeah, well, you know, like I've always known Ricky just like watching her own stuff, and like even people I get people commenting saying that I'm like a young Ricky Lee.

You rather young Ricky Lee.

People are saying that, and like even the fact that she went out in top eight and now I've gone out in Palpe, It's just like, oh my god, she had such a cool performance. Like even the fire, the fire was insane last night, So.

I'd be distracted by that fire, That's all I can say. The fire would be a little bit distracted. I'd be worried that I'd singe myself.

Yeah, no, sane.

I would have tripped over and probably landed on it so to her.

The first time I met her and I.

Looked at her and I was like, if I could have a dream job or have a dream career, it would be hers.

She still gets to release music.

She's a radio host, which is so cool, and she's a TV show host.

People know if you say Ricky Lee in Australia, people know who.

She is, and that is a testament to how hard she works and the amazing art that she puts out. Watching her on stage yesterday was mind blowing. I was just gobsmacked. First of all, she's gorgeous address slade, but her voice and you could just like the lyrics that she's singing like on my own.

It's such a oh, how do I even explain this? Like her journey and I feel.

Like we've got out at the same spot in the competition, So I would really resonate with that, being like she's been in the industry, she's had all the management and the contract and now she's completely independent.

She's doing it on her own and she's still killing it. So it just goes to show that like her.

Careers spanned over twenty years, she's had the ups and downs, but she's she's still at the peak of her career because she's just worked hard, she's just kept going. So I was like, I am an ore of you right now, and I like, I'm so glad to have met her and like to have her in my corner and having her encourage me as well, being like you got this, I keep going.

It was it was beautiful, so beautiful. And that CD on my own is out now and I believe it's doing very well on the charts. You know something that we're all talking about in the media. I think Kyle Sandy Lands has put a bounty on this is the secret romance that apparently is happening behind the scenes. I don't know if it's okay to ask you guys this, but what are your thoughts? What can you tell me? Who is having the secret romance?

Oh? No, Ben, don't do this.

Sorry, this is gonna hurt so much.

But no, I.

Don't know anything.

Okay, Well you're no good, Drea? What about you? Can you help me out? I know that you've been on Kyle and Jackie. Oh did they ask you? I got tweety's been asked about. Everyone's being asked. Surely you can tell me something, Kyle asked again.

He was like, what what's the gas? And I was like, there's no gass, Just focus on the shot.

No, No, this is what we live for. This is what people live for. They want to hear the stuff from behind the scenes. I think everyone likes to be their own private investigator. I have a feeling that it's Trent, and I think it's Trent with someone else. But you know, speaking of Trent, he's kind of got the popular vote. How do you think he's going in the competition at this stage? I mean, I don't think he had the best voice to start with, but he's charisma his personality.

You know, you brings so much stuff to his performance as well, like you know, like even Amios says, he hasn't got the strongest voice, but as a person and as a performer, he's great. He's so good.

Well, he's got all of those camels voting for him as well, remember and.

All the girls.

He's got all the girls voting for him.

To do that.

Drea, what what is the plan moving forward? Looking at your time after Australian Idol has come to an end, what do we to expect to see from you.

For me, I think I'm going to just go heavy on the writing again. I've been taking a bit of a break from that, and when I get the chance too, I'm going to start up my gigs again in Perth and then I'll go back to speaking at schools, maybe not just in Wa but maybe across Australia now, which would be amazing. And I'm looking forward to going back and teaching my students my babies, I missed them so much, and maybe doing little tutorial sessions and just you know,

Well, guys, I actually think both of you have amazing careers to look forward to moving out of Australian idol, which you know, a lot of these singing shows are a bit of an invitation to a much much bigger career. Kiani, I want to know from you. Can you tell me who you think is going to win?

I hope my guesses. I reckon Amy has a really really high chance. She's amazing, and you know, like what you see of her on TV is the exact person she is in real life, which is so important, you know, like you want to stay true to yourself through the whole show, and she's definitely done that. And yeah, you know, like all Australia loves her. We love her, So I really hope that she wins.

Drea, any chance, so you can tell me who you think is going to win the show.

I think it'll be between Dylan and Amy.

Well, it sounds like everybody is in an agreement with Dylan and Amy being in the final two. Who knows. I mean, we've seen a series full of shocks. I do hope that Dylan wins, but I'm slowly coming towards the party of Amy. Maybe we need a female Idol winner this year.

I think we should. It would be great, We need it, Drea.

I want to finish the podcast with you, what is something with some question that I ask everyone who joins the podcast. What is something from behind the scenes, something that we didn't get a chance to see, kind of like a behind the scenes secret from what it's like to be on Australian Idol in twenty twenty four.

I think I think I'd have to say that the friendships that you see on screen are.

Even more genuine behind the scenes.

If you ever come into well we ever let a camera into the talent hold, a lot of us are dancing on tables and franking each other and throwing.

Kermit around and just having a good old time.

Kermit of a code for trend chase.

So the literal kerments at okay, great, no, no, oh gosh, that that could be a biscuitstrut.

No, but yeah, we are all like genuine friends and like we supported each other.

So much, like even when people are having a bad day, we kind of like look at them and they're like, what do you need? And we genuinely love each other and support each other. And it's been the most amazing experience to have those friendships on and off camera. And yeah, everybody on crew is amazing and I lost them all.

Kiani. I'm so excited to put this chat out on the podcast so people can hear from you. And yeah, I'm in your audience. I can't wait to see what you do next.

Thank you for thank you for talking to me.

Thank you very much. Thanks for having me