Sing to the audience, not to the wall!
Perhaps I was expecting too much from the female contestants because after all the hype-up and talk that who and who is how good and so on and so forth. I was hoping to see some really good performances for tonight's female contestants in the Quarter-Finals. Appearance-wise, most of the female contestants are considered quite attractive beyond the average standard. Experience-wise, some of them are mooted to be students from well-known singing schools in Singapore. Yet entertainment-wise, the performances turned out to be quite a disappointment because after so many Superstar competitions, the contestants tonight still do not understand what was meant by total entertainment value.
It is not merely about how well one retains control over one's vocals, but also how well one can stir the mood of the audience and entertain them with a good and spirited performance. It doesn't necessarily mean that a fast-tracked song will do the job but inviting the audience to get involved with the song is very, very important. Let the audience feel the emotions that one injected in the song and let the audience feel the song experience deliberated by the song-writer.
Too many female contestants are merely verbalizing songs, almost completely forgetting to entertain the audience with stage presence, audience interaction and even maintaining simple eye-contact with the audience. Song techniques are important but being a Superstar requires not just the basic singing techniques but also the stage skills needed to get the audience moving either to the mood of the smooth-tracked ballad or to the beat of the fast-tracked song.
Of course, this may sound like a blog rant from a practically unknown armchair judge, but I truly believe the following is exactly what makes a performance worth watching - sing the song, move the audience. If one don't even believe in the song performed, one can never portray the kind of mood and emotions needed to move oneself, let alone the audience. If one don't even tune in to the mood of the audience watching and listening to the performance, one might as well sing to a KTV set or a wall. Interact, engage and move the audience in the appropriate ways made possible by the song genre and type and one will have a stellar performance.
There are times when I think I should just leave the harsh comments to myself and just allow contestants to perform in whatever ways they deem fit. However, because some of these contestants will become celebrities, they will have the social responsibility as performing artistes to express and even educate what it means by performing for and entertaining the masses. Also, I personally cannot stand the sight of fielding weak contestants to represent Singapore's music and entertainment scene so I am trying to pour whatever comments I have (hopefully those are constructive enough) to make sure good performers stay and weaker performers continue to improve. Flamers, angry fans against my comments aside, I attempt to continue this with only two things guiding myself: social responsibility of celebrities and personal quest to see that it's the qualitative performances that go onstage for Singapore.
I pray the contestants read what I have posted here so they can mull over what was said and hopefully spur them on to continue to do their utmost. I have been onstage before so I know it is already difficult to manage so many things. But who says it's an easy journey to begin with in the first place?
It's not enough that we do our best;
sometimes we have to do what's required.
By: Sir Winston Churchill British politician (1874 - 1965)
(Picture source: TheD, 24 Mar 2003, stock.xchng)
(Quote source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/35384.html)
1 comment:
Thank you so much for the advice... =)
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