Otakuthon Idol

Rules and Guidelines

  • Contestants must sing alone; no group or duet performances allowed.
  • Contestants may choose one song from Jpop, Jrock, Visual-Kei, anime, manga, game, musical or enka sources or may choose to sing an original song.
  • The song must be Japanese and at least 75% of all the lyrics must be in Japanese. Full English anime/game songs will be rejected (ex: Real Emotion, Melodies of Life, etc.).
  • The song may be no shorter than 2 minutes and no longer than 6 minutes.
  • The contestant must have the lyrics memorized. No cuecards or sheets will be allowed.
  • The contestant must provide an audio CD (no MP3s, WAVs or other formats will be accepted) with an official karaoke track of the song they will be performing. The song must be the ONLY track on the CD, must be an original recording (ie: no MIDI, no instrumental only tracks), and may not have been modified in any way from the original (ie: no vocal cuts, remixing, or additional editing).
  • Lipsyncing will not be permitted.
  • The contestant may perform a “skit” before their song, but the whole performance may not exceed six (6) minutes.
  • The contestant is permitted to cosplay during the performance, but the costume will not be judged nor taken into consideration for the final results.

Audition Process

  • Auditions will be held in a designated room at the convention centre. The time allocated for auditions will be limited to the above-indicated time slot.
  • Contestants will be auditioned on a first-come, first-served basis and must be ready when called in front of the panel of judges. They will need to fill out a form prior to the audition (ie: name, song, etc.) and submit one audio CD with the karaoke track of the song which they will perform (it should be well-labelled with the contestant's name and title of the song).
  • Contestants will be asked to perform 60 seconds (or less) of their song without the lyrics. Once the auditions are complete, the results will be compiled and the judges will select seven (7) finalists. A list of all the finalists will be displayed near the audition room. The name of the runner up will also be posted in the event one of the seven finalists is absent for the competition.
  • The finalists and the runner-up will be required to attend a preparation meeting approximately one hour prior to the live contest. If a finalist is late by more than 10 minutes, the runner-up will officially take his place.

Otakuthon Idol Grand Finale

The finalists will be called up in a random, predetermined order to perform their entire song/skit in front of an audience and judges. Performances shall be judged based on :

  • Vocal talent
  • Memorized lyrics
  • Stage Presence
  • Song difficulty level, and originality
  • Judge’s personal choice

If you have any questions, please send an e-mail to the Otakuthon Idol director : idol@otakuthon.com