Missy, Madonna and the Tv Show

Hip-hop star Missy Elliott says she’s a fan of American Idol, but her UPN reality series will be quite different. After all, Madonna stops by to talk to the contestants.

“You get a chance to see what it takes to be an artist and not just someone getting onstage and performing,” Elliott says. “Every singer can’t get onstage and keep a crowd’s attention… You have to have drive, you have to have personality, all of that. You get a chance to see all of those wrapped in one.”

Elliott, 33, serves as co-executive producer and judge on The Road to Stardom With Missy Elliott. UPN plans the talent show for midseason, although it may turn up sooner.

In the show, 13 performers live together on a tour bus and travel cross-country while performing for a deal with Elliott’s record label. Elliott and her judges drop a contestant each week.

Madonna speaks to the aspiring performers as a favor to Elliott. “We are friends, and that’s what we owe to each other,” Elliott says. “We both did the Gap commercial, so we have a friendship there.”

Elliott watched thousands of audition tapes for the show. “Some people, I think, have lost their mind,” she says.

She had to tell other hopefuls that they were auditioning for the wrong show. “Some people gave me very bad migraines,” she says. “Some people really think that they have what it takes. They must not have any friends.”

Elliott says she has never dropped Misdemeanor as her middle name. But UPN doesn’t have it in the show title or publicity materials.

“I think the press might have dropped it,” she says. “That name is like a tattoo. It’s with me forever.”
Article by Hal Bodeker
Source: Orlando Sentinel