Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Well, last night I introduced Idol Chatter readers to Keith Semple, one of the golden ticket recipients from the rather lame Chicago audition show.

Turns out Keith didn’t make it to Hollywood anyway.

The guy from northern Ireland told the FOX station in Chicago that he’s in the U.S. on a work visa. He said Idol contestants are required to be permanent U.S. residents by the end of the show, and there was some concern he wouldn’t be able to meet that requirement.

So his golden ticket was yanked.

Which is a shame, because in the few seconds we heard Keith sing , he displayed one of the better voices Chicago had to offer.

Oh, well, Keith says the band he sings for, 7th Heaven, is one of the busiest in the nation, performing about 250 gigs a year. And his disqualification from Idol doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy Keith’s music.

7th Heaven has a CD available through iTunes. And Keith has a new song available from his Web site. It’s called “Teenage Idol,” coincidentally enough, and you can hear the entire song for free on his MySpace.

Keith and his band appeared on FOX’s Chicago affiliate after the airing of Tuesday’s audition show. Here’s a link to the video.

According to the TV report, Keith is a past winner of an Idol-like “Pop Stars” show in Britian, and 7th Heaven was unaware of his audition for American Idol.