Successful audition songs

For the first round of Lion King auditions, they simply asked to hear a song that was NOT from a musical. (I heard a story that someone started singing the first few words of 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' and were promptly told 'Thank You'...but that may be an urban myth).

When I went in to the warm up room, I heard several people practising various Elton John songs, which I thought was a bit obvious, but I suppose anything's fine if you can pull it off well.

I didn't have any sheet music prepared (in fact, I never do...that's a failing I ought to get around to fixing some day) so I took a guitar and did an abridged interpretation of 'Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay', singing 'the whistled bit' in falsetto. Apparently that touch was what made them smile, and made them think I could sing in a high character voice (Timon's), and I went straight through to the next rounds, which from that point on were assigned passages from songs in the show.



I admit I was pretty casual about the whole process, not really preparing anything as such (I didn't really choose that song til about the day before), but in this instance, it worked...probably because I was relaxed and there to have fun with a song I knew I could do well. I know there were lots of technically better singers before me, so a big part of my success would have been a confident stage presence, and my choosing the right style of material that I knew worked for me.
And standing out from the crowd is the name of the game - so long as you still fulfill what they are asking for...which in most cases is: that you can entertain them.


Cheers,
Craig

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