While I don't claim to know everything about singing for competitions, I would still like to express my personal take on what I had observed and listened for today. So for the following groups of people, you may want to take a closer look at my commentary for today's singing.
For those contestants who made it to the qualifying round tomorrow, if you are interested in what I had to say about today's first 100 contestants' singing, please feel free to read my commentary in this blog.
For those contestants who did not make it to the qualifying round tomorrow, and want to know why you did badly, you can also read for experience and feedback.
For those who are friends of contestants who made it to the qualifying round tomorrow, why not pass this blog post to your friends? You never know what they might learn from here.
For those who think I am kaypoh and busybody and not qualified to criticise, you can just click the close window button and forget about what you have just read.
Here we go:
This was the queue at the registration table. The poor souls were baking in the hot afternoon sun and you could see some of them desperately shielding themselves to prevent their make-up from melting in the tropical sunlight. There were more contestants sitting around the waiting area though. An estimated of 300 contestants plus 200 onlookers were there between 1pm to 3pm.
Their objective - to be on this stage for around 40 seconds. 10 seconds to introduce oneself, and the song one was to perform and 30 seconds to give their best showing to the three judges there. Only a handful managed to sing the full 30 seconds. Most of them had the judges' bell rung on them within 15 seconds the moment they started singing. It was a most daunting experience for quite a few of them.
If you think the hot sun was torturous for the contestants, this area was even worse. All the contestants had to line up according to their contestant registration number and wait in this queue and watch the previous contestants sing onstage. Many were busying holding themselves together and asking for drinks from their friends outside this area because it was such a hot day.
This queue showed contestants numbering 001 to 150. As you could see, some of them were all decked out in their best clothes whilst others were as casual as everyday's attire. See the guy in the white cap on the left hand side of the photo? That's Huang Zhiyang from Campus Superstar Season One. He did not recognize me even though he looked me in the eye but he looked very collected and calm because he had prior experience of such waiting. Did he get into the qualifying round tomorrow? Read on.
This was contestant 001 and I gave him a place on my blog because the first contestant is usually the most stressful one because he would be setting the pace as to how the rest of the contestants' heartbeats would be. He crooned the best he could but his voice was too mundane to catch the attention and appeal of the judges. Sorry, dude.
This was one of the female contestants whom I think did a pretty okay job in handling her song. At least she put in effort to emote the songs because most of the contestants today just memorized the song and sang it mechanically as if they were doing the usual KTV singing. Unfortunately, the judges did not think so - so I think this girl did not make it through. Let me say this very clearly - Stage singing is NOT EQUAL to KTV singing. I will elaborate the differences later on.
This was another guy whom I think did relatively better than the rest of the contestants. He did show some tenacity in bringing out the flavour of the song he sang without sounding too much like the original singer. Most of the contestants were MIMICKING the original singers, which is a big NO-NO for such competition. Apparently, they did not read the requirements of the competition carefully. The judges were looking for unique flair and style in singing, not looking for parrot singers. Of the 100 contestants that I had heard, only 25 sang in their own styles.
This guy was a negative example of positive stage skills. Although his singing was passable, his body presentation was very bad. He looked constipated and had a way too painful expression than necessary for the song. In fact, many other contestants looked really gloomy onstage. Come on, it's about displaying your skill and passion in singing! The stage is for performance, not for execution! Stop looking as if you are going to face the hanging noose. -________-
Khim Ng was one of the Campus Superstars Season One who participated in the preliminary auditions round today and she was the MOST impressive contestant amongst the 100. Why? Volume was good, confidence was there, technique was polished and emoting was done well. Khim, if you are reading this, keep on singing like that and I will see you on TV in Taiwan. Of course, Khim made it amongst the 32 from the first 100 contestants to the qualifying round tomorrow.
Yvonne was another Campus Superstar Season I who went onstage to compete for a place to Taiwan. She had considerable experience in the Campus Superstar competition and one could tell straightaway that she had no fear of the stage and began to dance and sing very enthusiastically, catching quite a lot of attention from the otherwise very bland and timid performances. However, Yvonne, if you are reading this, be very careful of how you project your singing when you danced because it sounded undulating and almost folded inwards when you performed today. Might be done to the extra stamina needed. Anyway, congratulations to you getting to the second round too!
I could not remember the name of this Project Superstar 2 contestant who attempted the stage today. But he had a good foundation in singing and definitely knew what he was doing onstage. His voice was also fairly stable in his selection of the song and he was definitely above average in appearance too. All in all, nothing exceptionally bad about his performance and thus the judges gave him the green light to proceed to the next round too.
This girl did well enough even though her physical height was a handicap amongst some of the contestants who had model heights but she was calm and collected despite the noise downstage. I could not recall all the first 32 contestants who made the mark but I believe she made it through to the next qualifying round too. Good luck!
This guy seemed popular with some members of the contestants and onlookers. I believed he must be a student from some music school in Singapore because I could recognize a number of them onsite preparing for their performance items. He did not disappoint and belted out a convincing number to impress and made it through too.
Yes, she is Malay and she can sing Mandarin songs very well and she made it to the qualifying round too. This girl definitely practised really hard and had a good singing voice to match too. She was very humble but proved impressive enough to win rounds of applause for her pitch-perfect rendition. She put to shame all those contestants who could not even remember 30 seconds worth of Chinese lyrics! The judges shared my sentiments - if one could not even remember 30 seconds' worth of lyrics, one can forget about the rest of the competition where there would be impromptu performances.
On the first look, this contestants resembled somewhat like Teresa Tseng of Campus Superstar Season I but she was not. Although both of them sounded quite different, this girl managed to sing her heart's content and I think she made it through too. Where is the original Teresa then and why is she not inside this famous competition? Edited: Just found out that Teresa did manage to enter the competition anyway and made it to the top 100 as well. Thanks to Spicymac for the information =)
This is Zhiyang singing Zhang Hui Mei's Ji De. I was surprised by his selection because he could have easily sang David Tao's or Lee Hom's songs but he seemed to play it very safe. Technique-wise, I thought he fouled up abit by dipping too low for one of the lines in the chorus and I thought he would be knocked out for that obvious mistake but vocal wise, he was one of the more unique ones and the judges spared that error today. Yes, he made it through too.
Could not remember if this girl made it through but she impressed me enough to take a photo of her performance because she could hold her notes and sang audibly enough for people to enjoy the performance. Quite a number of the female contestants were simply too shy to raise their volume, thus dwarfing their performances amidst the noisy audience and of course subsequently dwarfing their chances. Some of the softer-sounding contestants were lucky to make it through; many others did not.
Presenting the shortlisted 32 contestants from the first 100 contestants at 2.50pm. Amongst the 32 of them, I could only accurately predict about 10 of them. I suppose the judges have their own reasons for picking the other 22. Perhaps I concentrated more on their vocal aspects whilst the judges could also calibrate their verdicts on appearances-wise.
A closer-up shot of some of them. Visible enough were Khim (front row, 3rd from right), Yvonne (back row, right of Khim). As you can see, a number of the contestants had very marketable appearances (which was rather puzzling) because most of the competition segments were more of a test of singing skills and techniques. But oh well, as I said, the judges must have their criteria somehow. Congratulations to all those who made it to the qualifying round tomorrow! I left the place at 3pm because I had to buy something in other part of Orchard Road without delay so hope the rest of the contestants did well too.Now, for my commentary for all those who are interested and open-minded enough to learn. If you are close-minded, then don't bother reading on.
1) KTV singing is NOT EQUAL to live stage singing
Most of the contestants made the mistake of thinking that they would sound exactly the same as they did during their KTV sessions. They forgot that KTV rooms have acoustic influences which would hide their singing flaws or gaps because of the background music. For those interested in singing live onstage but cannot afford a personal microphone, you can still practise, without the background music in KTV. You would be surprised that you sound a little different without the music accompaniment. Work from there onwards.
Most of the contestants made the mistake of thinking that they would sound exactly the same as they did during their KTV sessions. They forgot that KTV rooms have acoustic influences which would hide their singing flaws or gaps because of the background music. For those interested in singing live onstage but cannot afford a personal microphone, you can still practise, without the background music in KTV. You would be surprised that you sound a little different without the music accompaniment. Work from there onwards.
2) Emote the song with sincerity, not blind repetition from original renditions
A significant majority of the contestants who did not make the cut had committed the error of mimicking the original singers' renditions of the songs. They tried to sound exactly as the original singers, which is totally not what the judges wanted because they want to hear contestants' own rendition of the songs. Having good singing techniques is NOT EQUAL to mimicking original singers. Have your own style and be confident about it without worrying about whether it would rest well. As long as you are not deviating for the flavour of the song, you don't have to sound exactly like those singers in the industry at all.
3) Smile and be polite and confident onstage
Most contestants, including those who got in to the qualifying round, were way too solemn and serious onstage. For those who have observed Teresa Tseng who sang onstage, she treated each stage experience as an opportunity to showcase and share her passion of singing to everyone else, hoping that everyone would be enjoying the performance but accepting whatever that comes along afterwards. However, most of the contestants seemed to be more worried about how people would think and ended up full of unnecessary thoughts and worries, dwarfing their confidence, sounding really frail when introducing themselves, and looking really distracted when trying to emote their songs. There should be only one thing in mind for contestants - sing. What about everything else? Those should have already been resolved before one goes onstage....
4) Establish sincere eye contact and free yourself from self-induced fear
Quite a number of contestants chosed to close their eyes or look into the air above the audience during their performances. I personally think it is bad form because the song one sings is supposed to reach the real audience, not the imaginary audience in the head or the air molecules above the audience area. Eye contact is absolutely necessary for the transmission of song and most contestants would probably have the self-induced fear that everyone would wish them failure. That is incorrect - most music-lovers want, desire and crave good performances, even though it may be from their competitors because deep down inside, most people want to learn not just from oneself but from others as well. Give everyone the opportunity to learn from one another, not hide away out of fear.
Why was I there? Although I am too old to sing in such competitions and was never considered dashing or handsome, I wanted to learn too. Being there at such competitions continue to hone my listening and appraisal skills for quality singing and quality performances. Such skills do erode over time and these events continue to provide opportunities for me to practise them. What do I do with what I have? Share them with those who are open-minded to listen and learn too.
Once again, good luck to all those who will be singing for tomorrow's qualifying round! May the best contestant wins!
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