\u201cMum said you\u2019re in and need to fly to Argentina for the next round in five days.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 15,000 were whittled down to 3000 for in-person auditions. After 27 hours of travel, Coco was immediately put in line with girls aged 18 to 25, all with a shared goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, oh my gosh, what am I doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n
The first round was brutally efficient. \u201cI went in, and then the people were like, \u2018OK, you have 30 seconds to sing at the same time as five people in front of a camera, and then we\u2019ll tell you if you pass.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the whole day from 10am to 10pm, you\u2019re not allowed to say anything; you just had to sing into a camera and leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
She and about 250 others made the next round.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, that\u2019s enough for me. If that\u2019s all I get, that\u2019s enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Round two came with a list of approved songs, from which Coco chose Ariana Grande\u2019s Dangerous Woman.<\/p>\n
That audition video has amassed more than 4.5 million views on social media. <\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, the time difference is insane, so I woke up and I was like, what the heck is going on?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just, like, blew up.\u201d<\/p>\n
What followed was more than two months of rehearsals and auditions, each round longer and more demanding.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou go in at 9am, and you\u2019ve warmed up your whole voice and everything, and then you don\u2019t sing till like 2pm because they\u2019ve got so much production to do as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fourth round involved dancing, which was comfortable for Coco, who has danced since 3 and is dancing full-time at The Conservatory in Auckland.<\/p>\n
After reaching the top 60, she was invited to join the show\u2019s academy. She was handed 12 songs to learn in one night, all in Spanish.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough I speak Spanish to my mum, when you go there, they all only speak Spanish, so they\u2019ve got all this slang.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took a bit of a toll on me because I was trying to pick up everything.<\/p>\n
19-year-old Coco reached the top 60 before being eliminated on the reality show. Photo \/ Connie Maria<\/p>\n
\u201cI did an all-nighter freaking out because I didn\u2019t know any of the songs. I obviously don\u2019t live there, and they\u2019re not the top hits in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so stressed out, and I had them repeating in my headphones as I slept.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next day, she gave the audition everything she had. <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I nailed it, but that\u2019s the round I got eliminated on, and I had like a full panic attack on TV.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hardest part, she said, was how much she\u2019d grown to want it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the start, in the first audition, I thought, that\u2019s enough; whatever happens, now happens. I\u2019m already this far in.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut then the closer you get to it, you want it more. It\u2019s crazy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever said to my mum, \u2018I want to be in a girl group<\/a> from Argentina,\u2019 then as soon as you\u2019re in it, it\u2019s like, oh my gosh, it\u2019s my biggest dream ever, I have to have this. <\/p>\n \u201cThen it\u2019s crazy how quickly it can go away as well.\u201d<\/p>\n She was upset by the elimination and daunted by returning to reality, \u201ccoming back to your everyday routine when you\u2019ve been in something that feels so big is really scary<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n Now living in Auckland, she works with music producer Dean Martin.<\/p>\n She\u2019s planning to step away from full-time dance and commit to releasing more music.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, and I just wanna perform; in arenas and stadiums and tour the world, I just wanna do shows and make people feel like dancing and feel happy.\u201d<\/p>\n A New Zealand format, gone global<\/p>\nAfter her Popstars experience, Coco plans to step away from fulltime dance and release more music. Photo \/ Connie Maria<\/p>\n