Top five ways in which contestants prepare to appear in 'Stars in their Eyes'

After nine years, we’ve seen it all when it comes to how people ready themselves to appear in our fundraising event ‘Stars in their Eyes’. I thought it was about time we lifted the silver shower curtain of joy and share a wee bit of goss from backstage… Here are our top five ways in which people prepare to appear in Stars in their Eyes…

*Our dancers from Sharon Gill School of Dance with Michael Buble*

5. Rehearsals

Some people, whether it be because they’re nervous or because that’s just the kind of person they are, take their preparations very seriously. Most years, we’ve had backing dancers provided by Sharon Gill School of Dance and one contestant even made the effort to meet with the dancers ahead of the night itself to see the choreography and work out what she could do to compliment it! That’s dedication right there!

*This guy should probably rehearse more… Or get a better wig… Or both.*

4. No rehearsals…

Yup. Some people rock up to Inverurie Town Hall on the day and say ‘I should probably listen to this backing track…’ Others have listened to it, but that doesn’t always help. Especially if the backing track is repetitive… Poor Robbie Williams.

3. Costume prep

We have had such an eclectic mix of artists represented over the nine years of our event. From Elton John to Kate Bush, S Club 7 to ZZ Top, so you can imagine that the costumes required have varied in style and availability!! But give them their due, our acts take it upon themselves to source their own costumes and they go all out! And there have been quite a few contestants who have turned heads with their choice of costume - Jon Bon Jovi this year was kitted out in a black leather skin tight jumpsuit, Cher a few years back rocked a black leotard and not much else! There’s something for everyone at our shows… But my favourite example of dedication to costuming has to go to our Bing Crosby who stuck little bits of blu tack behind his ears to make them stick out more. Genius.

*Kirsty wishes she could’ve had a drink, or six, but sadly she appeared on the show after the ‘no alcohol’ rule was introduced. She still won though.*

2. Dutch courage

You must be thinking, ‘there can’t be many more ways you can prepare for a performance’… well, you can just get drunk! Our David Bowie was feeling particularly nervous, especially because we’d put him on last, so he decided a wee drink would settle his nerves. He just forgot to stop at one. Needless to say, since that year we’ve had a ‘no alcohol backstage’ rule in place!

*Our hero. Joe Whiteman. I mean Freddie Mercury*

1. Just agree to do it the week of…

We’ve only had to do this once (and once was enough, thank you!). One of our contestants sadly had to pull out the week of the show. Cue panic stations and us racking our brains trying to decide who we could ask to step in at such short notice. It didn’t take long for us to decide who to call on. The lovely Joe Whiteman of course! Thankfully, he agreed and with three days to go, we managed to film and edit his intro video, get him sorted with a costume and backing track and for all his efforts, he managed to come in third and win £150 for the CdLS Foundation. Well done Joe, and thanks for saving our bacon… again!

As you can see, we have a lot of fun with ‘Stars in their Eyes’ and our contestants do too! If you fancy taking part in the show, feel free to give us a shout - just take your inspiration from numbers 5 and 3, yeah?