Our own Idols: appropriations of popular television in Dutch festivity culture

Introduction
The 2004 annual theatrical evening at the Gertrudisschool – a primary school in the Dutch city of Utrecht - had as its theme the popular TV show Idols.1 Pupils were invited to sing live before their peers and the crowds of parents. They could choose to imitate a well-known Idols finalist or to come up with their own choice of song. As in Idols, the performances were introduced by a male and a female presenter, and judged by a panel of judges. Even the intervening advertising breaks were not forgotten: the singing was interspersed with skits in which pupils acted out current TV adverts. At the end of the evening, a winner – not an ‘Idol’ but a ‘school idol’– was announced
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