September 25, 2003 – When rocker Sass Jordan takes to the stage at the opening ceremonies of the 2003 Road World Cycling Championships in Hamilton it will be with renewed vigour and confidence which comes from being more recognisable than at any time in her lengthy career.

Fifteen years after “Tell Somebody” topped the charts the Juno Award winning singer-songwriter is once again a household name in Canada thanks largely to the phenomenal success of the television show “Canadian Idol”. Jordan was one of four celebrity judges who selected the top 100 young Canadians from more than 13,000 hopefuls from across the country.

“It was a production company,” Jordan remembers of her first contact with the show, “They had people in mind and they auditioned us. I thought that, at the very least, it gives me a presence in the public eye again. So I thought I might as well do it. Plus they are paying me. But I had no bloody idea that it was going to be the most popular Canadian produced television show ever!”

Modeled after Britain's “Pop Star” and “American Idol” the show mesmerised Canadian television viewers throughout the summer with more than 3 million registering votes each week for their favourite performers. Critics, however, were swift to discount the program as a poor excuse for a talent search. Jordan herself realised it was not the road she pursued as a struggling young singer “paying her dues” in clubs and bars, riding tour buses back and forth across the country for little pay. Yet she could understand the participants' enthusiasm and naked talent.

“I felt emotionally attached to the (kids). Just like anybody else who watched the show but only because I had an idea of what they were going through,” she says, “because it was such an artificial concept but then again in my belief all life is an artificial concept. It was just another one in a series of them.”

Jordan laughs hoarsely at her witicism. And she will no doubt be laughing all the way to the bank. Her sixth and latest album – a greatest hits compilation aptly called “Sass……The Best of Sass Jordan” which includes three newly penned songs – is selling remarkably well. And she has plans to release another album, which she is currently writing, preferably next spring.

When the promoters of Toronto's Concert for SARS – dubbed SARStock by Torontonians – went looking for Canadian rockers to fill the bill headlined by the Rolling Stones and Scottish-Australian favourites AC DC, they at once called on Jordan. It was one of very few shows that she committed to do besides, of course, the World Road Cycling Championships opening ceremonies. A full flledged tour has been considered but probably won't happen until her new album is released.

“I have played couple of places (this summer) there wasn't time. (Canadian Idol) was completely exhausting,” the transplanted Montrealer explains, “We got to do three songs, fifteen minutes at the concert for SARS. The thing was it was an event. It was more about the event than it was about the individual performers – other than the Rolling Stones. I mean Justin Timberlake was on the bill for God's sake.”

“I am actually more interested in making this next record. I do these one off shows. I would rather save touring, if I can, for a new record. Touring is exhausting and I have got kids (10 and 5 years old) so it has to be thought out completely differently these days than it was ten years ago. I am doing a television special in December. It's a special on me for Musique Max the French equivalent of MuchMoreMusic (or MTV).”

Jordan will share the Copps Coliseum stage with many diverse acts including fellow Canadian rockers Tom Cochrane and Jeff Healey October 5th and each will perform three songs to welcome the world to Hamilton.

“I think it's three songs. That seems to be my specialty,” she laughs. “We will be rehearsing – I am not the kind of person who keeps these things in my mind – I have these people who go 'ok we have a rehearsal on monday.' We are going to be rehearsing a couple of days before the date.”

“I just want to do a three song set that is entertaining and fun. You don't have time to do crap. It's too short. And I don't think people at events like this pay that much attention to the music entertainment. Its an add-on to the event.”

Tickets for the opening ceremonies are $10 for adults and $5 for children under 14 and students and are available at TicketMaster (905) 527-7666 or the Copps Coliseum box office.