BREAKING. Excited contestants queue as the nationwide auditions for Idols on M-Net and Mzansi Magic kick off in Cape Town for the 9th season.

With dreams of fame and the hope of singing under the spotlights beckoning, they dutifully appeared, queued and diligently waited for their turn today as Idols contestants descended on the GrandWest Arena in Cape Town as the nationwide audition process kicked off in Cape Town for a daunting 9th season of the popular reality show on M-Net and Mzansi Magic.

Amidst the well-oiled and great functioning industrial complex of the vast M-Net reality television machine which continues to demand attention within South Africa's popular culture sphere, Idols' Cape Town auditions today had some broken things.

With a strong Scottish accent, a contestant complained about his broken guitar strings. There were broken dreams too as contestants were sent home - and broken promises. Two girls hugged after only the one heard that she's through to the next round of auditioning. They initially promised that they would do Idols and stick together the whole time.

"I like Pasella. I was on Pasella. But this isn't Pasella,"boomed Idols presenter and producer ProVerb in the massive red seater amphitheatre attempting to bolster the energy of the crowd. But he hardly needed to.

The packed auditorium lept to their feet for the traditional rally cry from the Cape Town bleachers while the enthusiasm, energy and excitement was palpable. So eager to clap and shout, ProVerb had to gently admonish: "Only after the pause!" and then: "This ... is Idols!"

Old, young, wheelchairs, mothers with babies waiting for their other children - they were all in the crowd today. What you  see if you look into their eyes for longer than two seconds is always the same thing: Hope. Hope that today might be their day.

By Saturday afternoon hundreds still piled in in a steady stream, registering with their ID in hand for a chance to sing and maybe be on television. Hair was as perfect as you can get it if the bathroom in your house has to double as your make-up studio before you hit the big time.

After I quickly said hello to ProVerb and had a brief chat, I bumped into executive producer and director Gavin Wratten, as usual fully in control overseeing all the constantly moving myriad pieces of this dynamic real-time production.

After registration contestants filed through to a corridor for a chance to sing in one of four rooms - Pre-lim 1, Pre-lim 2, Pre-lim 3 or Pre-lim 4. 

Then they were ushered as groups into yet another luxurious room (usually one of the green rooms for local and international artists performing at GrandWest), waiting to hear if they've made it for an audition before the Idols judges in this year's competition.

The Cape Town auditions of Idols will continue this upcoming week as those chosen today - the good and the bad - will return in the week to sing for the judges. After that Idols, the production crew and the M-Net busses move across South Africa for the remainder of the Idols auditions.

Saturday 16 February Soweto Soweto Theatre
Saturday 2 March Durban Playhouse
Saturday 23 March Johannesburg Sandton Convention Centre