Kiddy Contest Kids

Begun by the Austrian Broadcasting Corp. (ORF in German) in 1995, Kiddy Contest updated the televised music competition concept for the kiddie set, targeting a demographic -- kids who were not yet tweens -- missed by the various Idol incarnations around Europe. When auditioning for the show, kids write their own lyrics, and occasionally new arrangements, for the contemporary pop songs they perform. The songs are recycled into kid-friendly fare by a final crowd of ten kids, age eight to 13. With each passing year, a new contingent performs on the live broadcast, reaching a large chunk of their demographic even before the songs are released on CD. The Kiddy Contest Kids regularly top the Austrian charts and make inroads on the German charts as well. ~ Adam Greenberg