Page 11 of Going Solo (The Brent Boys #2)

Local lads advance in TV talent quest

Twelve East Anglian residents are among the 107 hopefuls currently in London for filming of the group stage of hit reality TV show “Make Me a Pop Star.”

Among them are sixteen-year-olds Tobias Lyngstad of Colchester and Cole Kennedy of Polstead.

Kennedy, who attends the June Brown Performing Arts College in Sudbury, is the son of dairy farmers Andy and Orla Kennedy of Dollops Wood Farm.

“Music is my life, and I want to share that passion with the world,” Kennedy said.

Lyngstad’s father, Bjorn, is a project manager for construction giant EssBuild. His mother, Chloe, owns a salon in the Colchester high street.

“This is a life-changing opportunity,” the Hawthorn Academy and Sixth Form College student said.

The boys have struck up a friendship and travelled down to London together with their mums for filming. Famously, the show’s contestants all bunk together in the same hotel during the competition.

“I’m treating it like a great big adventure,” Kennedy said.

In the group stage, contestants must perform a specially prepared song for the judges. They are then sorted into three groups. Each group is mentored by a different celebrity judge over the course of ten days, during which time they compete and collaborate through a workshop process designed to see talent rise to the top—either in groups or as solo artists. At the end of the group stage, twenty-one acts go through to the televised live shows, when one act is eliminated by public vote each week until the final.

The first chance the show’s fans will have to see Cole and Tobias on television is in three weeks’ time, when the East Anglian auditions episode (filmed in July) goes to air. Once the pre-recorded audition and group stage episodes have been shown, the live shows—featuring the final twenty-one contestants—will air on Saturday and Sunday nights from late September until Christmas.