Australian Idol's Ivana on close-knit nature of contestants after her elimination

Despite being eliminated from the show, 20-year-old Ivana Illic is grateful for the opportunity Australian Idol has given her, as well as the new group of friends she has made. 

In a post-elimination interview with Chattr, Ivana revealed that the group of contestants of which she was part was an important part of her journey.

“The group of friends that I’ve made, it’s crazy to think that during the Top 30 week, I only spoke to one person and now I’m really close to the rest of them,” she said. “I think everyone was a bit more shy and didn’t even really know each other yet. But I’m so happy that it turned around.”

This “close-knit” group of performers have helped each other throughout the entire journey, particularly when someone needed a shoulder to lean on.

“I think if we didn’t have that, that side of things, it would be a lot uglier,” she said.

Before making it to the top six on Australian Idol, Ivana found success in another singing competition, and she won. 

"I was on a little TikTok show last year called Undiscovered and I ended up winning the competition," she said.

"To enter, you had to write a song and make a music video to go along with it and whoever had the most impressive pairing won studio time and an EP, working with producer James Angus. 

"I ended up winning that and as a result, I got to go in and write some songs and produce them all. So now I have some songs lined up ready for release as well as the ones I've released just before I started on Idol."

The Australian Idol Grand Final will see Australia choose their Idol winner between Denvah Baker-Moller, Amy Reeves and Dylan Wright. 

The elimination episode recorded a total TV national reach of 1,496,000, a total TV national audience of 860,000, and a BVOD audience of 65,000.