Signs that a ukukele craze is on!

Ukuleles in popular culture - examples.

My example:
A new season of the danish version of X-factor just aired yesterday.
It is a popular singing talent show in Denmark, I believe the same name is used in the UK.

Every year some talents brings a guitar to the audition, but i never saw a ukukele. Untill this year, when three separate participants brought one!

I had no clue there was a trend when I bougth mine last year.

Anyone else noticed some signs?

Now we just need a decent uke store in Denmark

A person showed up with a pink ukulele for her audition on American Idol. She didn't make it through, but I don't think that had anything to do with the ukulele.

The trend has been building (and waning off and on) for the last number of years since Iz's version of "Over the Rainbow" was used for some movies and TV shows, plus the wide use of YouTube, especially of Jake doing his incredible performances. I'm a member of a senior uke group in Culver City, CA, 100 registered people with a new one joining every few weeks.

Joyful Uke said:

A person showed up with a pink ukulele for her audition on American Idol. She didn't make it through, but I don't think that had anything to do with the ukulele.

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I saw that too. I thought that contestant seemed more focused on playing her pink Makala soprano, rather than her singing. It was a distraction for her and the judges.

I've seen them send a lot worse through. Good job young lady.

We seem to be in the third period of the ukulele, since about 2009 according to what I have read.

(First was 1920's, second was 1950's.)

Doc_J said:

I saw that too. I thought that contestant seemed more focused on playing her pink Makala soprano, rather than her singing. It was a distraction for her and the judges.

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While her performance may have been a bit 'dry', and similar to lots of those on YouTube that are not really above average, she did not flub the words nor the chords (hard to do when you are very nervous, as I would be, despite an insane amount of practice), and had a decent quality to her voice...my concern is that I hope that she is not discouraged from continuing to play and sing, at the very least for the sake of her baby girl...

Getting a 'no' on Idol can be a devastating blow to some folks. Nice that the husband made it through this round. I like his singing more.

Also nice to see a Makala Dolphin on tv, however I suspect unless you are a member of UU, most of the people watching will not know or care what uke she had been playing.

uke1950 said:

We seem to be in the third period of the ukulele, since about 2009 according to what I have read.

(First was 1920's, second was 1950's.)

Click to expand...

A lot of credit for this current wave of popularity should be given to Jim Beloff (http://www.fleamarketmusic.com). He started to evangelize the ukulele back in 1993, appearing on hundreds of talk shows on tv (around the world) and giving lots of workshops as well as doing lots of concerts, and was 'instrumental' in the creation of The Magic Fluke company (owned and run by his sister and brother-in-law, Phyllis and Dale Webb).