Dear Reader,

In Switzerland, “Musicstar“, the national version of “American Idol“, “Deutschland sucht den Superstar” or whatever the singing contest casting show is called in your country, is currently on TV. All the candidates seem to have one thing in common: They all claim, that they “live for the music”, that music means everything to them and a life without it, meaning as a musician, would be impossible for them to imagine.

Surprisingly, once the show is over, most of them are never heard of again. Some reappear in casting shows for some “TV-Game-Show-Host” or maybe even in “Big Brother”.

[Have a look here for quite an extreme sample of this species, called Julien. And don't miss the gallery and the bio (note: it does not mention, that he tried to become the next "Joya rennt", - or was it the next Nadja Zimmermann?). He is well above twenty! Not like you might have thought: a big-ego teenager without any 'know-thyself'. No no...! - Oh I am sooo looking forward to his video: it is "coming soon" :-)].

But back to the topic. The reason for people to show up in the public eye on shows like Musicstar is, that the costs, that is the effort to sign up on a casting show is relatively small compared to the costs of going through the struggle of choosing “musician” as ones “one and only” profession right from the beginning and far from a more “usual”, more secure career path, one that is well embedded in society but less glamuros.
People who claim they couldn’t live without actively making music, logically have to take it the hard way, be it with or without any casting opportunities. They are forced to. What other choice would they have?

Sandra Wild is currently the big favorite in the Musicstar show. In her private life, she works for the state, she gets couples to sign their certificate of marriage. Although she is not an unexperienced singer, she has had some success with singing as a teenager, I still think she has too little ambition, guts and self-confidence to break out of the secure environment she is used to. This even in spite of the fact that she will surely win the show and become the next Musicstar-winner.

Here are two TV broadcasts I watched this week, where Sandra Wild was in (I tried to translate excerpts of some of her statements as good as I could):

From “TalkTäglich” hosted by Markus Gilli on TeleZüri (view):

Markus Gilli: “[...] if it won’t work out with you and the music-business, then you will have to do a private marriage company: ‘Marrying with Wild’ [...] Let’s talk a bit about your future [...] you are currently on a break from your marriage certifier job in Arbonne. Are you considering to pick your job back up again [...] or is this option currently a bit endangered?”

Sandra Wild: “To be honest, I cannot yet really tell, because it depends a bit on how far I will make it in the show. Actually I plan to pick up my old job again later on. But if I had to suspend that a bit because of too many other appointments, then I don’t know, I have to check with my employer first. If it would be possible to take some time off and then restart my job again later on [...]“

From “Club” hosted by Matthias Aebischer on SF1 (view):

Matthias Aebischer: “What do you want to do after the show? I didn’t ask yet. You said you already knew about some opportunities?”

Sandra Wild: “Well I just plan, of course I will have to see what offers will come in then…”

Matthias Aebischer: “You hope there will be offers?”

Sandra Wild: “I already know they will come. [...] Well I wish, that once, that I can maybe, probably get a record contract. That I can record an album, where I can bring in my own wishes, I will try. If I somehow manage, I would like to do a lot of concerts with a real band. I would like to make real music and what I am also really exited about right now is: this morning I got and offer to give some singing lessons sometime. That I would like to develop a bit further in fact. I would also like to learn more and definitely teach singing and see that I can do ‘Music’ as a job, a bit. And live of it. [Because of the offers I know about...] I know what could happen and I am really glad I do. That I am not thrown into the cold water, that I don’t know about. This way I am not at the mercy of fate and can assess a bit what’s comming and prepare for it.

Carmen Fenk (a former winner of the show): “But you can also bet on the wrong horse. Have disappointed hopes.”

Sandra Wild: “Indeed, indeed. But I don’t do/have that. I just wait and see…”

I think she sings really well and I find her truly congenial. I don’t want to talk bad about her, I don’t mean to be personal (unlike I did intend to with Julien further up).

I think the impression one can get from her is exemplarily for the majority of a lot of people who go to castings. But the teenage dream of being famous, together with the ease of a casting sign-up is not the full story.

Without audacity to take some risks and a lot of diligence, everyone will eventually be caught by our all most common fear: The fear that makes most of us going to work everyday and live a boring, unspectacular, normal life without any risk or ambition.

When Roger Federer decided he wanted to be a professional tennis player at the age of sixteen, he told his dad, he would not go to school anymore…

I wish Sandra Wild all the best of luck and hope she proves me wrong :-)

Thank you.

Update (8/14/2007): Sandra is giving it another try, see here.