For immediate release

Thursday 12th August 2010

Rest home rockers contest title

Voting by the general public begins tomorrow in the quest to find Northland’s best rest home rock group in the hugely popular ‘Elderly Idol’ competition.

Radius Baycare rest home and hospital were yesterday the final entrants in the inaugural competition that seeks to find the best old age rockers singing and dancing to modern pop music.  
 
The Paihia rest home and hospital is one of 11 Northland rest homes contesting the ‘Elderly Idol’ title with their pre recorded video entry singing and dancing to modern hit song ‘Tik Tok’ by Keisha.

The competition is being run by local MORE FM radio station who came up with the novel idea after watching the movie ‘Young at Heart’.

“We wanted to do something to celebrate the elderly people in our community as well as play on modern culture and this competition seemed like a fun way to get everyone involved”, says More FM Northland Programme Director Richard Jones.

Richard says the Northland competition has been such a huge success with hundreds of listeners tuning in to watch video entries and cast their vote on the MORE FM website and may even have the potential to become a nationwide contested competition.

Radius Baycare rest home and hospital said many of their residents who took part were aged in their 80’s and really got into the spirit of the competition.

“We all had so much fun practicing the song and getting dressed up in the theme of the music – our ladies wore dark shades and hats and the men had gold chains and leathers on”, says Diane Evans, Radius Baycare Activities Co-ordinator.

Other participating rest homes throughout Northland rocked out to songs such as Fun House by Pink, Evacuate the Dance Floor by Cascada and I Gotta A Feeling by Black Eyed Peas.

Winners of the ‘Elderly Idol’ rock competition will be announced on Monday morning following a public vote on the radio this Friday. Winners will be awarded the title of ‘Elderly Idol’ and also receive a luxury lift recliner chair donated by Harvey Norman worth more than $1600. Listen to MORE FM this Friday morning for more details or visit www.morefm.co.nz

ENDS