Talent shows are the soap operas of the new age. Never-ending, dramatic and addictive, they invaded (or infested) Ukrainian television three years ago, taking young and old viewers hostage.
X-factor on STB channel has proved so popular last year that the second season was bound to hit us soon and big.
I am not a huge fan of TV formats but their production process has been tickling my curiosity for a while. On Oct. 22, when Australian never-fading star Kylie Minogue flew to Kyiv to take part in the so-called “Revolution,” the second installment of X-factor in Ukraine, my interest was rewarded.
I boarded the bus around 6 p.m. with other guests, clueless about where the shooting will take place. When enormous gates to the aviation plant Antonov, supposedly a strictly-guarded enterprise, were opened, I wondered if Kylie knew where she was about to perform.
Built in 1920, Antonov is a state-run plant. It started off with repairing planes built abroad but quickly moved on to developing their own crafts.
Today Antonov is famous for its cargo planes AN-32 and AN-70 and passenger AN-148, which you may have flown to Kharkiv or Lviv. The plant also used to make trolley buses.
Kylie arrived into this historical place separately and squatted in an actor’s trailer until the end (1 a.m.). When she was photographing herself in her comfortable trailer and sending images to Twitter in between performances, I was munching on cookies in the bar and exploring a nearby warehouse with some aviation equipment. So much for security.
Drinking tea from a plastic cup, I couldn’t help remembering Ukrainian tabloids, which misinterpreted Kylie’s rider, a list of things the star needs to give a performance, prior to the show.
When enormous gates to the aviation plant Antonov, supposedly a strictly-guarded enterprise, were opened, I wondered if Kylie knew where she was about to perform.
Among the usual requests for bodyguards and fresh fruit, she asked for china plates and silverware. Lost in translation, Ukrainian tabloids wondered how come this refined singer wants to eat off the simple Chinese plates.
I don’t know if the organizers got it right at the end, but images of Kylie using plastic disposable crockery or sushi wooden trays kept creeping up in my head.
The show was long. Numerous pauses and rehearsed smiles and applause on the orders of a stage director were expected but nevertheless tiring.
I hoped to leave earlier and asked my neighbor (a regular guest at the show) if there was a back door anywhere. She smirked saying that “no one has ever left X-factor early before.”
Another guest said that she once missed the bus, attempted walking to the plant by foot, was attacked by dogs, shouted by guards and would never do it again.
This meant that I and Kylie had to spend here seven long hours. The singer, however, eased the wait. Minogue performed four of her hits, two of them in the beginning of the show and two at the end. “I Should be so Lucky” got the warmest reception, when the whole audience joined in.
I expected the audience to go crazy when she comes on stage but Kylie got the same amount of applause as most other performers. People must have been tired of stage coaching: clap now, boo now, cry now, etc.
I called Antonov plant the next day to ask why they agreed to host X-factor. I was told that they have nothing to do with it as the deal has been struck between STB channel and the State Property Fund.
The channel’s press service asked us not to reveal the location of the show after this opinion piece came out in Russian.
But if up to 1,000 people come to the show’s shooting every weekend, guests as big as Kylie drive through the plant’s gates and the plant’s administration makes no drama about it, why keep it a secret?
Filming on the set of the country’s most famous aviation plant adds some industrial romance to the talent show. I just hope that it doesn’t mean that our aviation industry has nothing better to profit from.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olga Rudenko can be reached at [email protected]
