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Opinions were divided when the 14th season of Idols SA kicked off in July.
Some said they were over the show, but the sheer number of voters this season has proven that the contest is still popular.
Even before next week’s finale at Carnival City in Boksburg, the show has smashed its voting record, with 110 million votes logged so far.
The show has also broken online records, with more than 14 million views on its YouTube channel and more than 100 000 subscribers.
Idols SA executive producer and director Gavin Wratten this week said: “Looking at the number of votes that other reality shows in South Africa receive, I would never have imagined that 100 million votes were in any way achievable.
"To have passed this milestone with the finale still to come is incredible.”
Incredible is also how one could describe the transformation of the three Idols left standing.
We decided to haul out their audition tapes to look at their now-and-thens.
Cape Town was where last year’s winner Paxton Fielies auditioned, and it’s also where we met two of this year’s final three.
Yanga Sobetwa was 16 when she stepped up to the audition camera in a casual military green jumpsuit and purple gladiators, her hair simply tied into a bun with her twist braids.
She turned 17 in the Idols house and has stepped out glowing and confident with gorgeous natural hair.
She’s as confident as she was in the start, so certain she’d pick up a golden ticket she’d already arranged long-distance learning with her school, Rhodes High, ahead of the auditions.
She had to prove judges Randall Abrahams and Somizi Mhlongo wrong, who predicted she’d crash.
The girl can unleash high notes with that small body and that hoarse voice, and who can forget her showstopper performance where she belted out Letta Mbulu’s hit anthem Not Yet Uhuru – and scored a standing ovation?
Heading into the finale, with Somizi laying his jacket on the floor for her to step on, Ms Yanga is queening.
Underdog Thato Makape, a barber from Postmasburg in the Northern Cape, travelled 1 250km to Cape Town for the auditions and blew the judges’ hair back with Lauryn Hill’s I Wanna Give You Some Love.
He still performed with a guitar back then, which the judges told him to ditch as it was competing with his voice.
He’s lost the dye in his dreads, but none of the hunger that has characterised his bid this year.
And what a difference a stage coach makes.
Where Thato stood static during his audition, today he’s the hottest dancer on the Idols stage.
His versatile voice has found its Afro-pop niche and the six-pack he revealed (and keeps flaunting on stage) sure scored him a good few of those record-breaking votes.
His showstopper performance was effortless and full of energy, and it didn’t surprise anyone when Randall Abrahams referred to Thato as a young Usher.
It was in Joburg that we first met the shy 19-year-old from Alberton, who seemed to have such self-confidence issues you wanted to climb into the TV and hug her.
Thando Mngomezulu didn’t even celebrate her golden ticket when she made it into the top 10 – her understated victory dance had Instagram lolling as she literally gave us a Madiba jive.
But with time and lots of patience, we got to see Thando emerge from her shell.
Today, you can see she loves she stage and has unleashed her inner warrior queen, and, with it, a sense of fun.
She nailed her Destiny’s Child rendition and we were all talking about how she had improved, especially after her performance of Soweto Gospel Choir’s Ke Na Le Modisa.
Then Thando topped it all last week with Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never. You better duck because Thando is ready to drop some bombs on stage.
. Idols SA is on Mzansi Magic (DStv channel 161) at 5pm
