Rotorua Daily Post reporter Bridie Witton grabbed her guitar, put aside her cynicism and joined the pre-audition queue.
The air was tinged with nervous excitement as more than 100 wannabe singers tried to hold themselves, and their voices, together.
The best anyone could hope for was to leave with a "maybe" from the judges, meaning in two to three weeks you might get a call telling you tofly to Auckland and audition in front of the judges and live audience. Or you might not.
The conversation between strangers waiting to audition centred around what songs they would perform and if they had ever done anything like this before.
As a journalist with a healthy amount of cynicism, I know a strong voice will only get you so far. You need to have a point of difference.
As well as a personal story, you need to be a malleable pop product. I was one of the wannabe singers, but I felt a sense of detachment and even offered encouragement to people who looked like they might combust from nerves.
Soon enough it was my turn. I walked in like a champion - I was only doing this for investigative journalism purposes anyway - and as I sat down I realised this was actually a big deal, a lot of people had taken this extremely seriously and any half-hearted attempt on my part would be disrespectful.
I walked away from the auditions with a "maybe" from the judges, and had to stifle a fist-pump. It looks like I have also gotten on the X Factor bandwagon.
