Mill Park’s Ivana Ilic made it to the top six on this year’s Australian Idol with her big voice and love for music.
The 20-year-old gave it her all with Alicia Keys’ ‘If I Ain’t Got you’ in front of celebrity judges Kyle Sandilands, Marcia Hines, and Amy Shark at the auditions.
Ms Ilic said Idol was one of the best experiences so far.
“Honestly that was one of the best experiences I’ve ever done, I cannot even begin to tell anyone how happy I am that I took that opportunity and actually did this show,” she said.
Ms Ilic received three yes votes, but in this year’s season contestants were not guaranteed a golden ticket with two or three votes and were instead sent to a holding area for the judges to narrow down the contestants.
Some contestants had to sing again, including Ms Illic who let her big voice win over the judges with her acapella version of Bruno Mars’ ‘When I Was Your Man’.
After the daunting audition process, Ms Ilic claimed her top 12 spot to progress to the live shows where the Australian public decided their favourite contestants through voting.
Top 12 was just as daunting as the audition process for the Mill Park artist, but her performance of ‘Midnight Sky’ by Miley Cyrus in the top eight advanced her to the top six.
Ms Ilic said having to sing in elimination twice was ‘a bit of a whirlwind’.
“I had to sing more than most people, I was under a lot of pressure through the show, I was up for elimination twice, it was definitely like a bit of a whirlwind, like an up and down rollercoaster for me,” she said.
Back home in Mill Park, Ms Ilic said her support system was ‘absolutely amazing’.
“My family were coming up every week, the people in my community were doing the most to make sure that I got into the next round,” she said.
“It was crazy, they were going around the local shopping centre, literally handing out brochures to people saying ‘vote for her’, and putting posters up.”
Top six was the cut-off for Ms Illic, just before the grand final decided this year’s Australian Idol.
Another key performance was Ms Ilic’s rendition of Rihanna’s ‘Diamonds’ in the top six, which was dedicated to the Sony Foundation Australian You Can Centre Youths.
“That performance meant so much to me, I just loved it,” Ms Ilic said.
“I finally got my ballad moment … where I could just sing a song, stand there and be still, and just sing – I love that.”
In her last hurrah of the show, Ms Illic said she made the most of her final performance.
“When I sang ‘Rather Be’ I just had fun with it, I was like ‘this is my last performance … I’m just going to have fun, give it my all and just really enjoy it,” she said.
Ms Ilic said the plan now was to work really hard with her music.
“You’ve just come off this show and you’ve got so much momentum going for you, I think keeping up with social media is really important now, taking as many opportunities as possible,” she said.
“I really want to get into the studio … and write my own music because I want to go into like a dance pop sort of avenue and that’s kind of the road I’m going down.”
