Jennifer Geens
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 02/04) - In any idol contest, there has to be a Simon -- the evil judge who is almost impossible to impress.

Joe Maloney was supposed to be Simon in the Royal Canadian Legion's North of 60 Idol contest. He even had a handwritten sign on the table in front of him reading "Simon."

Lucy Escalante was the first contestant to step on stage and at 14 belts out Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You." - Jennifer Geens/NNSL photo

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But after a few singers had taken the stage he passed the sign on down to Jim Stratford of CJCD.

Stratford said Kayla Besaw was "a bit below okay," called future semi-finalist Danielle O'Neill's performance "average" and told Hay River's Mackenzie Pope he'd make somebody a good backup singer.

"He even looks a bit like Simon," said fellow judge and CJCD staffer Joanne Cochrane.

"I was being honest," said Stratford later.

"I wasn't deliberately being mean."

But with prizes at stake like a trip for two to Nashville, he felt he had to make sure the ultimate winner is a deserving one.

Stratford wasn't totally without mercy, though. The youngest contestant, 14-year-old Lucy Escalante, thought the judges were holding back with their criticism because of her youth.

"They didn't say what they were thinking," she said.

Escalante opened the competition with a gutsy rendition of the song Whitney Houston made famous, "I will Always Love You."

Cochrane told her she had a very pretty voice.

Contestants sang songs ranging from hip hop to country to rock to Barry Manilow and Rat Pack classics.

What sets the Legion's North of 60 Idol contest apart from American Idol and Canadian Idol, aside from its setting of the Yellowknife Legion, is the age range of the entrants.

Canadian Idol, for example, restricts the age of the participants to between 16 and 26. Two of Saturday's three semi-finalists (the exception was 22-year-old Danielle O'Neill) were in their 30s.

O'Neill, Kelly Merilees-Keppel and Glen Butt move on to the semi-finals on May 1.

One contestant who was hoping to be back in May was Mackenzie Pope, the 19-year-old singer who went to Fort McMurray, Alta., as part of the NWT's cultural contingent for the Arctic Winter Games.

He and a buddy drove all the way from Hay River for the contest. He went on stage with only four and a half hours of sleep.

"It's fun to get up there and just go nuts," he said.

If he had made it to the semi-finals, he would have had to make the drive two more times.

"But if I start it, I'll finish it, even if I go broke," said Pope.

Pope went all out on his second song, "Born to be Wild," but again failed to impress Stratford, who called it "average."

"He's just jealous because you're cuter than him," Cochrane said to Pope.

Pope was shut out of the semi-finals when the wild card spot went to Brenda Lowen.

Lorne Power of the Legion said they are no longer taking entries. The Legion has a full slate of contestants -- 10 a week for the next four weeks. Last Saturday the club room was completely booked for the first night of the contest.

"Be here early," said Power of the next competition.