Heinz Winckler was the winner of the first South African series of Pop Idols. Idols was the South African version of the British Pop Idol show, and was presented as a talent search competition with successive elimination rounds narrowing the number of contestants. Throughout the show, Winckler was referred to as "Hunky Heinz" because of his good looks.
Post-Idols career
Winckler's debut single, Once in a lifetime, went double platinum in South Africa. His subsequent debut album, One step closer, included this song as well as Soledad, a cover of the Westlife song which he performed during Idols, and Next stop happiness, which became a single as well.
He was nominated for two South African Music Awards, including best single for Once In A Lifetime and best pop album for One Step Closer.
In 2003 with the inaugural World Idol competition, Winckler came fourth behind Belgium's Peter Evrard (3rd), the USA's Kelly Clarkson (2nd), and Norway's Kurt Nilsen (Winner).
His second album, Come Alive, was released via BMG, and features more ballads and rhytmic songs. It includes the singles Can't Lose With You and Thank You, as well as I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing. Also included are songs written by himself; Drowning Me is a track co-written by him.
He performed Chasing Shadows, the theme song for the Disney movie Treasure Planet.
