The grand final of Wii Idol was held today at the Victorian Information Technology Teachers Association (VITTA) Conference.

The idea of Wii Idol was for primary schools to compete against each other using Nintendo’s Wii Music video game. Schools were each allowed a team of four, including three students and one very lucky teacher. The competition began earlier in the year with regional heats and culminated in today’s showdown.

Each "band" played two songs, with most students playing different instruments in each to show their diversity. It was great to see the amount of fun that the primary school students were having. Luckily Wii Music is just as educational, helping students develop musical skills and gifting them a higher understanding of the artform.

The Wii Idol competition also gave students an insight into a very important aspect of live performances - the outfits! The bands were definitely inspired by a range of musical influences, with nods to both The Blues Brothers (dark sunglasses) and heavy metal (crazy wigs) being some examples.

Bands were judged on creativity, timing, skill, performance and teamwork. The judges panel had a very hard time deciding on the winning team, needing more than a few minutes of deliberation time before revealing the victorious band/school.

Congratulations to the band known as The What, hailing from Old Orchard Primary School, for taking the top prize in Wii Idol 2009. What was that prize? A Nintendo DSi each, of course (along with some extras for their classmates). Nintendo didn’t let anybody walk away empty handed though, as each competitor got themselves some special Nintendo merchandise of their own.

Thanks to VITTA and Nintendo for providing such an entertaining experience, both for the schools involved and today’s audience. The Wii Idol Grand Final definitely left conference attendees with a big smile on their faces! Let’s hope it is back in 2010 with even more schools competing for glory.

Here are some photos from the event!