Baghdad Idols

(left: the 14 first-ever Baghdad Idols contestants - I'm in black second from left)

I decided it would serve my war stories collection well to utterly embarrass myself in front of a couple hundred of my closest friends, as well as a number of ambassadors and generals in town. I therefore participated in the Baghdad Idols contest, recently held at the Palace Pool stage. Not belonging to the "karaoke mob", (and hence, not familiar with the setup of backup music) I showed up with initially two friends to accompany me, which quickly grew to four, and so the terror of "the band" soon spread through my fellow 13 contestants. We sang a nice rendition of Tracy Chapman's "Give me Reason to Stay here" (somehow seemed fitting) but alas, did not advance to the second round ( I do think the "band" was a bit too far outside the box), but what a great time we had! All the contestants were invited to perform on the final night before the sing-off between the final two contestants. A minor (okay, major) technical malfunction didn't do my slice of "American Pie" any favors, but crowd pleaser that it is, I received a hearty help-along from the crowd.

(Right: "Give me one reason to stay here....and I'll turn right back around..." -better be a good one though)