All Together Now: Meet the Sydney hopefuls

TWO Sydney contestants on Channel Seven’s new music contest show, All Together Now, Emma Mylott and Anton Aktila tell what it is like to convince 100 people with all musical tastes and opinions to get up and dance for the chance to win $100,000.

Emma Mylott, of Kellyville, performing on Seven’s All Together Now. Pictures: Supplied

CONVINCING 100 people with all musical tastes and opinions to get up and dance is no easy feat, but contestants on a new television show have to do exactly that for the chance to win $100,000.

Seven’s new music contest All Together Now premiered in October and each week contestants from a range of genres perform in front of 100 judges and try to get them on their feet, singing and dancing along.

The more judges who join in, the higher the performance scores.

Mylott won over many of the judges on Sunday night.

Anton Aktila will hope to do the same this Sunday.

The 100 judges, captained by singer Ronan Keating, are a diverse mix of ages, backgrounds and musical opinions — from a cabaret performer to a Michael Jackson impersonator and an opera singer, as well as Granville singer-songwriter and DJ Ray Isaac.

Isaac has auditioned for other talent shows in the past and knows how tough it can be on the contestants, so in his role reversal as a judge he aims to be supportive.

“I’m a very sensitive kind of person and very sympathetic, and I know exactly how it feels to be a contestant,” he said.

On Sunday night, Kellyville singer Emma Mylott’s powerful vocals managed to convince enough judges to see her propelled into the grand final.

Mylott performed Y ou Give Love A Bad Name by Bon Jovi, encouraging 98 judges to stand up, and later performed Fever, winning over 94 judges and securing her place in the grand final.

The 24-year-old events manager and singing teacher said the All Together Now experience was “surreal”.

Ray Isaac is one of the judges the contestants are hoping to impress.

“Having 100 people on a building almost in front of you is quite weird but it was fun, really fun,” she said.

Isaac, who was one of the many judges who stood for Mylott, said the performers who got him to his feet were the ones who generated the right “energy”.

“A lot of people that made me stand up either made me cry or made me happy because of song choice, or honestly it was more about their energy, what they brought to that performance,” he said.

“And their energy connected with ours and all of us stood up and danced and it was just euphoric, really exciting.”

One of the contestants hoping to impress Isaac and the rest of the judges this Sunday will be Anton Aktila, of Merrylands.

Isaac on his feet during All Together Now.

Aktila is no stranger to talent quests; he appeared on the inaugural Australian Idol in 2003, which was eventually won by Guy Sebastian.

He said All Together Now was “a totally different concept to something like Idol, so I thought I’d give it a go”.

Aktila gigs regularly around Sydney and is used to encouraging crowds to get up and dance, but performing in front of 100 of his peers in the music industry will be an entirely different concept.

“You’ve got 100 people six storeys high right in front of your face - it feels like they’re standing on top of you,” Aktila said.

Aktila will hope to win over the judges this Sunday.

“It’s cool if they’re all standing up, but if they’re sitting down it’s intimidating.”

By day the singer is a librarian at Penrith Library, a job he has had for 16 years.

“I like the difference between the two jobs,” he said.

“Working in a library it’s not as quiet as people think - it’s quiet, but not as quiet as people think.

“But I do like the contrast between the two, one’s really energetic and loud and the other is way more chilled and relaxed.

“And I feel like it keeps me grounded.”

All Together Now airs Sundays at 7pm on Channel Seven.