Critics slam Winckler's C.D, but its selling well
 (Pretoria News article - 27 June)

Prominent city musicians and disc jockeys expressed mixed feelings yesterday about Idols cream-of -the-crop Heinz Winckler's single CD once in a lifetime, released at the beginning of this week

Brendan Jury, a musician in the band Ohm, said Winckler was "musically insensitive and immature." Jury referred to Winckler's performance of Every breath you take by the police and said:" That song was one of the best-selling singles ever made, one of the most intense and darkest songs ever written- and Heinz turned it into a happy, upbeat, bubblegum pop song.

"He had no sense of what the song meant because during his performance he clicked his fingers and did that horrible head movement." Jury said he didn't mean to badmouth Winckler but that a great music career had to be built on originality and talent. "He does look good and carries himself well but he doesn't have great talent. But he's got a lot of support and he'll probably do well in the industry because he attracts a young audience" he said

Roger Lucey, former arts editor for e.tv, said Idols was a disgrace. It was destructive to south African music, he said. "Its pathetic and odious, the whole thing is a disgrace. An artist needs to be original, meaningful and relevant to his country. "The lyrics of his own song are stupid and the quality is a regurgitation of old-style foreign music," Lucey Said.

But Robin Auld, musician and owner of Free Lunch Productions, said Winckler's product was on par with that of boy bands in the UK and the U.S. "He's right up there with Ronan Keating. The Idols competition is not really based on talent. "Pop music is based on image, attitude, lifestyle and general hype, and I don't have a problem with that," Auld contended.

Karl Klopfer, the national buyer for Musica, said so far its sales had exceeded those of UK pop idol winner Will Young. "He's doing amazingly well around the country. The demand is huge," said Klopfer. Klopfer said Winckler's sale figures where 10 times higher than those of a normal single. He estimated Winckler had sold almost 2000 copies of his CD in the first two days of release.