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Elvis "tribute" hopefuls vie for title

17/08/2007 22:56

By Kevin Krolicki

MEMPHIS, Tennessee (Reuters) - The King is dead. Long live the King -- of Elvis tribute artists.

Fans have voted, celebrity judges will weigh in after a final round of performances on Friday night in Memphis, and for the first time Elvis Presley’s estate will sanction the "ultimate Elvis tribute artist," its preferred term for an Elvis impersonator.

Reflecting Presley’s continuing international appeal three decades after his death, the 10 finalists include a Canadian, a Norwegian and a British hopeful as well as seven Elvises from the United States.

Two of those are seasoned Elvis professionals from the Las Vegas area and veterans of the highly competitive casino circuit with their own dedicated fans and highly polished Web sites -- Trent Carlini and Donny Edwards.

Jay Zanier, a 15-year-veteran of the Elvis tribute circuit and another of the finalists, said Presley’s music had been the bridge from his Italian immigrant parents to popular culture when he was growing up in Canada.

"That’s all we really listened to was Italian music and Elvis Presley," Zanier said. "And all throughout Canada, I think, when Italians started immigrating, they started buying Elvis records."

Professional Elvis impersonators have flourished on the fringe for years in places as far flung as .....continued below

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London and Los Angeles but have never had the sanction of the Presley estate, which shunned them.

But that is changing with the commercial growth for Graceland, the Memphis mansion Presley bought for just over $100,000 in 1957.

ELVIS INC.

Forbes magazine ranks Presley as the second-highest-earning dead celebrity after Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, with an estimated $42 million in revenue in 2005-2006.

Since opening to the public in 1982, Graceland has become a major tourist hub with some 600,000 visitors a year and more growth planned.

Entertainment mogul Robert Sillerman bought 85 percent of Elvis Presley Enterprises in 2005, with the remaining 15 percent owned by Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie.

As part of the "Elvis Week" anniversary, Lisa Marie Presley released a re-mixed version of her late father’s hit "In the Ghetto," adding her voice to Elvis’ original track from 1969.

Sillerman has described a vision for a new Graceland visitors centre, convention hotel and digital museum intended to create the effect that Elvis never left the building.

As part of that transformation, Sillerman, who is chief executive of EPE parent company CKX Inc., is attempting to take the company private in a partnership with "American Idol" creator Simon Fuller.

The search for the "ultimate" Elvis tribute artist has taken on some qualities of the popular "American Idol," including fan participation.

USA Today has posted videos of all 10 finalists on its Web site and asked fans to vote for their favourite.

The results of that poll were due to be announced on Friday at the final round of performances at the Cannon Center for Performing Arts in downtown Memphis.

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By Kevin Krolicki

MEMPHIS, Tennessee (Reuters) - The King is dead. Long live the King -- of Elvis tribute artists.

"That’s all we really listened to was Italian music and Elvis Presley," Zanier said. "And all throughout Canada, I think, when Italians started immigrating, they started buying Elvis records."

Professional Elvis impersonators have flourished on the fringe for years in places as far flung as London and Los Angeles but have never had the sanction of the Presley estate, which shunned them.