Biography

Petro, a Capetonian Libran, but a Centurian girl at heart, was born on the 4th of October 1982 in Durbanville.  Before stardom, the now popular Petro de Villiers was an unknown musician singing and performing with a band called Which Way South in various clubs and pubs.  Having had nine years of formal singing training  proves that Petro's been a musician almost all her life.  After a few years with her band, Petro decided to pursue a solo career.  That meant creating a platform to possibly launch a career as a recording artist. Petro's no stranger to the recording studio, though. Her vocals feature on former band member, Johan aka Jhade's debut solo album Dream Just A Little on the exclusive track I Who Have Nothing, a powerful duet.  Determined to realize her dream, she entered several talent contests of which she won about eight or nine of them.  One of which was a huge national singing competition, called Reach For The Stars, where Petro walked off as the winner of the "Original" and "Oldies" categories. However, her big break came when she decided to enter the phenomenal M-Net talent competition, Idols.  And because she's been singing all her life, she thus regards Idols as merely a learning school and a good experience for any singer. When Petro auditioned for the first series of Idols, she never made it past the first round.  Fortunately for Petro, she was better prepared second time around. Finally Petro got the recognition she deserved as a performer. Throughout the competition, Petro was known as the only true rock chic of  Idols, but soon proved her versatility when she was vocally challenged by her powerful rendition of  the lovely ballad, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, by Roberta Flack.  Nonetheless she did the song justice - no wonder she was the lead vocalist in a band.  Petro was labelled as the gutsy Idols finalist after her departure from the competition because of her backchat to Idols judge, Randall Abrahams. At that moment, her dreams of becoming the next Idol were shattered.  The former Idols judge openly told her  that her ballad singing was better than her rock singing, despite the loud applause from the crowd after her dynamic performance of Like You Madly, a rock classic by local band, Just Jinger.  Unfortunately Petro was the fourth person to drop out of the coveted  Top 12.  At least she reached her goal, seeing as it has always been her dream to make it to the finals, even though  her proudest moment was making it into the Top 32. Petro may not have won Idols, but she's already gain a massive fan base after making the Top 10 out of  approximately 10 000 entries! Since Idols, Petro has dedicated herself to The Barnyard Theatre as one of their top vocalists, often seen on lead vocals. She has thus continued to keep audiences entertained in shows such as Natural Woman, Boogie Wonderland and most recent Harvest Moon Petro's also been in the studio, recording and working on material for her debut CD. Soon all her fans will be able to listen to her beautiful voice at all times of the day, on the way to work, when relaxing playing a few games at Casino.com (http://www.casino.com/za/) or over dinner with friends. "You're a born performer, which is something not allot of people have" if these words by Gareth Cliff (5fm DJ and former Idols judge) are anything to go by, Petro will no doubt, bring music in  South Africa up to international standard and take the local music industry by storm!...