Rhiannon gives 'Idol' shot heaps

It's back to singing in the shower for Rhiannon Griffith of Havelock North.
The 16-year-old made the trip to Wellington on Friday to audition for the latest series of NZ Idol, which started with 500 people rubbing shoulders outside the Westpac Stadium like a can jammed with sardines.
After hours of humming to keep her voicebox warmed up, the gates were opened on Saturday and the race to the registration desk was on.
"It was crazy, everybody just took off in a panic," Rhiannon said today as she recovered from her exhausting weekend.
"I knocked over a camera man while I was dragging my Mum behind me."
It was soon Rhiannon's turn in the hot seat. Her first audition was in front of NZ Idol producers who decided whether performers were good enough to sing in front of the celebrity judging panel.
"There was heaps of emotion there, lots of girls who were turned down were bawling their eyes out," she said.
"I don't know why. They weren't rejected on national TV, so they could have just slipped out without people knowing they were there."
There was no crying for Rhiannon, though. She made it through the first round. But it was the Havelock North High School ball on Saturday night, so her success was celebrated in the car on the way back to the Bay.
Yesterday morning was stage two of the auditions, which meant a very early start.
A quick trip to the bathroom to freshen up before her five minutes of fame saw TV cameras follow her in to get that extra emotion for the viewers.
"That was weird. They followed me into the bathroom to get footage of me preparing the nerves. It was awesome and got me hyped up for the audition."
Rhiannon's moment of truth came.
She'd forgotten the words to the Celine Dion number she was going to sing so resorted to Run Away by The Corrs, who are from Rhiannon's homeland of Ireland.
"Everyone said Stables (Ian Stables) was going to be the mean one but he was pretty quiet. Megan (Megan Alatini) will probably need to be stronger because she just agreed with what everyone else said," she said.
"Frankie (Frankie Stevens) was the harshest judge. He ripped into me a bit but it was okay. They pretty much just told me that I'm still young and need more time to perfect my voice."
It was all smiles on the way home yesterday, though, proud that she'd given it a go.
"I'll go away and work on my voice. I'd definitely do it again, too."