I just came back from watching the first segment of males' auditions (10.30am to 12.30pm) of the abovementioned, as well as the publicity performances by a number of CSS 1 and PSS 2 Superstars (12.30pm to 1.30pm) at Toa Payoh HDB Hub a few minutes ago.
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The CSS 2 male contestants were below my expectations and 97% of their performances were disappointing. Many of the guys simply garbled and murmured, muttered and whispered into their microphones. They showed neither self-confidence in introducing themselves nor their songs that they were about to sing. They also demonstrated neither skill nor technique in projecting their voices for the judges and audience to hear. Some even chosed songs which, in my own opinion, are sucidal selections, since there were no music accompaniments when they sing onstage.
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The HBD Hub Atrium is a very noisy place when crowds gather and most of the contestants failed to notice such an important acoustic aspect of the stage and sound setup. With little confidence, weak skill, and poor technique to speak of, only two of the one hundred contestants whom I watched with interest managed to impress me. Maybe my expectations of them were too high but I felt that if they could not even hold their microphones properly and project their voices adequately, those 98% of the male contestants should have come better prepared with more practice.
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Most of the 98% whom I had watched painfully between 10.30am to 12.30pm lacked the necessary emotional management of songs and simply muttered their lyrics into a seemingly-alien piece of equipment (the microphone). They neither gave appropriate eye contact, hand gestures, nor body language to the judges and audience. Only a handful attempted to stir some interest and buzz with audience interaction and most of them just put on a stony expression onstage, with no interest in captivating the audience and judges' attention and hearts. Sigh~~~
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Thankfully, the audition stage was saved by some noteworthy performances by some of the CSS 1 and PSS 2 Superstars and the mood was somewhat rejuvenated at around 1.30pm before I left home. Amongst the Superstars who performed between 12.30pm and 1.30pm were Geraldine, Renfred, Yiyuan, Khim, Alejandro, Yuyang, Daren and Diya. With no offense intended at either the Superstars or their ardent supporters, I would briefly give my personal comments about their performances below:
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Geraldine - Safe song performance suitable for her vocal range but I was hoping for something different to boost her versatility. She gave little audience interaction and barely made much use of the stage though. Nevertheless, it was a good performance to the ears.
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Renfred - Vocal-wise, he lacked the punch necessary to bring out the strengths of the song he sang but he gave an energetic dance segment in the middle of the song, whic was much more uplifting, considering that his dance moves were sharper and more well-practiced than his song.
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Yiyuan - His performance was mediocre to my ears primarily because his dance moves were flagging and weak, seriously toning down the energy of the supposedly impactful song. Yiyuan, if you are reading this, sharper moves and more decisive manoeuvering of the body please. Half-hearted ones are easily discerned in the eyes of those who have seen enough dancing. The saving grace was that Yiyuan's microphone pronounciation was amongst the clearest.
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Khim - She played real safe (too safe) with Elva Hsiao's song (again) and I was a little disappointed because even though her singing had improved and stablized with much better control of her voice projection volume. Khim, if you are reading this, try to attempt other songs like from Ella (SHE) or Coco Lee or Landy Wen because I believe your voice range can fit their songs quite comfortably instead of making little progress in your song selection.
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Alejandro - It has been a while that I heard him sing since his elimination from CSS 1 last year. His voice was thick and mellow and he provided one of the best vocal performance amongst the Superstars. Unfortunately his performance was delayed by an initial technical glitch and he lacked that little bit of smile to convey the warmth of his performance. Other than that, I was pretty pleased with his performance today.
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Yuyang - Yuyang was another careful performer and chosed a song which fitted his vocal range perfectly. However, like Geraldine and Khim, Yuyang played the safe card to the extent that he seemed to sound just the same as the CSS 1 days without significant improvements in his song attempts. If he had attempted to dance abit, the female audience would have screamed in delight but he just stood rooted there like a tree, with no facing, no audience interaction. A pity.
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I don't wish to comment on Daren and Diya individually because I don't know their performances enough to critique on them. However, their duet was much better than their individual song items and I wondered if they followed the trends of better duet singing amongst all the PSS 2 Superstars. However, there was too much facing between themselves and not enough audience interaction to a supposedly happy and interactive duet song selection. Diya, especially, was always looking for Daren's cues onstage, making the duet performance a little one-sided and too bland performance-wise, even though the vocal aspects were much better coordinated.
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I would be turning up again tomorrow for the female auditions, primarily because Teresa will be performing and I have promised a detailed performance report to the rest of the fanclub of Teresa.I can only pray that the female CSS 2 contestants learn from the mistakes of the guys today and avoid them altogether because today's auditions' standards were not enjoyable at all. Jia you~~
Music clears the mind, fills the heart, moves the soul."
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