ELVIS ... NEW. 'If you keep doing this, it's your competition to lose,' the Idols judges tells Dave van Vuuren.

From Elvis Blue to Elvis ... New?

Could the winner of the 7th season of Idols on M-Net be Dave van Vuuren (20) from Krugersdorp? Dave van Vuuren undoubtedly got the best scorecard of the night out of the 15 contestants. He was heaped with the most, and unanimous, praise in tonight's episode by the Idols judges - even by Randall Abrahams who smiled.

Dave van Vuuren who works in a call centre, sported a brand-new haircut in tonight's episode of Idols - the most classic of all men's hairstyles: the Elvis Presley inspired Pompadour from 1950s vintage rock culture. With a buzz cut at the sides and the vertical follicles kept in place by what requires lots and lots of hair product, Dave van Vuuren (who has a six week old grey female kitten named Moon) belted out U2's With or Without You.

''You take it through the roof. If you keep doing this, it's your competition to lose,'' said Idols judge Unathi Msengana.

''The performance is exceptional,'' said Gareth Cliff of Dave van Vuuren's performance.

Randall Abrahams added: ''It's what U2's Bono should sound like.'' Randall Abrahams also referred to Dave van Vuuren as ''a vocalist who is honest.''

Two things were however really bad in tonight's Idols episode. The sound throughout the episode was absolutely horrible for viewers at home - all sound. The singing, the (unequalized!) overblaring noise from the back-up singers, the music, and the overall sound of the show. The sad thing is that viewers are forming opinions and voting on how the sound and singing sounds on their TV sets which must clearly be different during the actual pre-recorded show. Disappointing.

The other really badly done bit was the so-called ''contestants' home videos'' done by on Samsung video recorders. Why include really badly done amateur video and then attach a sponsor's name to it? Wow. It just really did not look good - grainy; fuzzy and shoddy.