It was quite interesting to sit back and listen to Ric McIntosh, The Voice Of The ‘Bool, doing what he does best, and has been doing for years, and then watching Jockey Robbie Dolan on The Voice singing in front of coaches and judges that include Rita Ora and Keith Urban.
The appearance of the Irish born and Sydney based Robbie Dolan on the popular television singing competition has taken the pretty much “elite/one dimensional” horse racing world, at least in Australia, into the mainstream consciousness.
The question is now what and how does one keep the momentum going and be more than fifteen minutes of fame?
For years, racing executives have been talking about those “younger people” as if they’re some strange species.
They’re only strange to those who don’t understand them and believe that that they can be indoctrinated into the gambling driven world of horse racing, something that has its fair share of enemies in show business where celebrities have a helluva lot of clout with sponsors because of their fan appeal.
Let’s not forget Taylor Swift giving the Melbourne Cup the flick at the last minute when her millions of “Swifties” objected to her appearance.
Wheeled in as her replacement were, I think, Snoop Dogg and quasi celeb Paris Jackson, both of whom would appear anywhere for the opening of an envelope and for not too much coin.
What about Robbie Dolan? Depends on how serious he is about his singing career, even if he doesn’t win The Voice Australia.
Often, this is a blessing in disguise.
Like heavily choreographed and researched singing television karaoke competitions, these shows are for either a very young or middle aged audience and which is why most of the songs chosen are often fairly pedestrian.
As when singing karaoke, there’s a need for audiences to know/recognise the songs. It’s why there are extremely few television competition shows for songwriters and featuring original material. The few that there have been disappeared after a couple of seasons.
When with one of the majors and the official music partner with one of these singing competitions, we would dread having to record an album with winning contestants as their popularity was very largely dependent on the television exposure received.
It was a seasonal thing and not unlike running a smooth sausage factory.
In an ideal world, if Robbie Dolan were to record a duet with James Bay who wrote “Let It Go”, the song he first covered on The Voice, terrific.
The odds of that happening are slim plus the return on time and investment would be some PR.
What might be worth exploring is something like a monthly Robbie Dolan Special with guests.
Could he pull off being host? Why not? This would give him enough time to spend with his young family and continue to keep race riding.
Robbie Dolan has open the door for those “younger people” to take a second look at horse racing and see if it’s something that might possibly interest them.
Reaching this questioning market cannot be done by old school racing executives.
It’s got to be worked on by those with experience in the entertainment world and understand how to obtain the most out of social media and which can lead to sponsorship opportunities.
Robbie Dolan has a helluva lot going for him- he’s personable, young and has a voice.
Let him enjoy this current ride, see what happens next and take it from there.
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