I am aware that some of the people following my blog, especially the CSS 2 series, are waiting for my performance reviews of the Grand Finals. I would like to thank them for their support of my humble blog series thus far but I will not be doing any detailed performance reviews for the four CSS 2 Grand Finalists.
The reason - it's already the Grand Finals and they are already champions of the competition. I want to give them and their supporters a break, especially since some of my performance reviews are sharp and without any sugar-coating.
However, in order not to disappoint these people completely, I'll just post my honest afterthoughts on the CSS 2 Grand Finals, which was held on 25 August 2007 Saturday from 7.30pm to 11.00pm.
It was in a word - disappointing.
Without naming specific contestants (because I don't feel like hurting the pride of these young singers), I saw some sharp declines in not just performance standards, but also the finalists' attitudes towards performances onstage. Although I have zero preferences over any of the four CSS 2 Grand Finalists, I personally had high hopes that they could have at least improved a bit since they have had garnered quite some experience through the various stages of the competition, listened to the judges' comments and even mulled over some of my singing tips and reviews throughout the entire competition (I have received confirmations that my humble blog entries on the competition actually reached some of the contestants - which fulfilled my objective of outreach to help aspiring young singers).
Yet, what I saw during the CSS 2 Grand Finals on Saturday night were mostly disappointing performances. It felt as if some of the contestants did not put in visible nor significant effort in giving their best on such an important night for local singing and that in itself, to me personally, is a form of disdain and disrespect for all the judges, audience and viewers who probably would want to see the birth of genuinely talented Superstars, because it was something that these people would want to be proud of to witness.
Instead, it was a night of superficial emoting, listless expressions, forgetting of lyrics, poor dancing routines and rude chuckling whenever judges were commenting. I won't name names here because I believe the contestants know who they are and what terrible mistakes that they had committed that night.
I know some of the people reading this will start to think - who is this arrogant Sean Ho to comment on their godly idols of Campus Superstar 2? I'll answer that question here as plainly as I can - Who I am and what I am capable of is not important but why I am admonishing these Grand Finalists (in as polite a way I can manage with my English) is.
There is simply no compromise when it comes to good singing, sincere performance standards and respectful conduct whilst onstage.
If some of the CSS 2 Grand Finalists have had demonstrated these, I would gladly compliment them. If they lacked these, I won't hesitate for even a heartbeat to bring these to their attention.
Why? Because they supposedly represent our best amongst the younger generations of aspiring singers in 2007. If they set poor examples of their performances and conduct now and then, it would lead to future assumptions that such standards are acceptable when they are otherwise.
Now that they are already champions in the official word- I would expect initiative of them to continue to improve themselves, should they re-appear onstage for post-competition events and performances. My advice to them, should they choose to listen: Be humble, listen more, learn more and keep striving for excellent singing and performances. It's not just about having respect for music, for others but also for themselves as well.
Good luck in their future endeavours! And long live good music!
"Music clears the mind, fills the heart, moves the soul."
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