Monday, February 23, 2009

Campus Superstars 3 Round 3 Part 2 of 2 Performance Commentaries

Blog post to be updated as soon as possible after the performances! Stay tune! ^__^

C1 黄慧婷 Joselin - 《我相信》 原唱者:楊培安
-肩, 现 notes were sounding weak at the end
- 乐园 was sung too careful, dragging the verse unnecessarily
- 发音不净 her notes at the chorus sounded strained
- 音散 the strained notes were not gathered or sustained properly
- judges' scores were 6.0+7.5+7.5+7.0= 28.0
- I would have given Joselin a 6.5 because even though I was aware that Joselin was sick, I wanted to be fair to other contestants who managed to protect their health during this competition round. Firstly, I applaud Joselin's immense courage for attempting what is generally regarded as one of the most difficult songs to perform during competitions because this song required tons of self-confidence and a solid technical foundation in singing because of the scaling techniques within. However, Joselin's illness is getting the better of her and she could not deliver that kind of vocal energy and vibrance necessarily to reach out to the audience. Yes, the stage-confidence was there and she did not fumble on the lyrics, but the overall feeble note delivery undermined the grades from my perspective and thus she did not move beyond a reasonably good grade.

C2 李奕贤 Jarod -《改变自己》 原唱者:王力宏
- notes did not reach out properly
- attempted accent warped most of his enunciation during all the verses
- microphone angle was still incorrect at certain portions
- chorus finally picked up significantly
- twisting his neck and slapping the microphone worsened enunciation problems
- judges' scores were 7.0+8.0+7.0+7.5= 29.5
- I would have given Jarod a 6.5 because even though I thought he made quite a mess of his enunciation during the performance, he did what was sorely pressing of him - moving away from sentimental love ballads just like Xiao Han Laoshi said and hence another 0.5 grade was awarded. I thought Jarod did try to give his best but he still did not really bring out his own rendition of the song. I kept feeling that he was trying to mimick Lee Hom's style of soft-rock but that parroting would reflect negatively. He also tried putting effort in his stage presentation of the song, which was quite a bright point in the performance but it was not properly coordinated and like Fei Hui Laoshi said, his facial expression was blankly compared to his bodily gesticulations.

C3 叶嘉敏 Jiamin - 《有你多好》 原唱者:蔡淳佳
- 原来 in the first verse was too low to be enunciated properly
- her heaving breaths were getting a little distracting
- very clear notes to deliver the chorus portions
- 2nd last verse 面 was broken off when it could be smoother
- judges' scores were 8.0+9.0+9.0+8.5= 34.5
- I would have given Jiamin a 8.0 because Jamin remains one of the most consistent performers in this competition so far. Her delivery was still the smoothest amongst all the contestants and thus has been able to garner both grades and votes to send her all the way till this stage of the competition. Unfortunately, Jiamin would not be able to move further if she is not going to show versatility onstage with more genres, more singing styles and more variation in emoting songs. Two of the judges seemed to think Jiamin had the glimmerings of a potential Superstar but I think she needs a breakthrough to truly impress the audience if she makes it through to the upcoming stages of the competition.

C4 丁文淞 Jeremy - 《专属天使》 原唱者:Tank
- 人间 was sung quite weakly
- verses and chorus did not have a clear emotional distinction
- 2nd chorus sounded choppy and thus wasted the potentially romantic tone
- judges' scores were 6.0+6.5+6.5+5.5= 24.5
- I would have given Jeremy a 6.0 because first, Jeremy did not manage to challenge himself with another genre of songs nor vary his singing style to show his versatility on the stage. Secondly, his rendition of the song seemed to lack that earnest feeling that necessitates the gist of the lyrics. I admit that he made very few mistakes in this song but the relative blandness of his rendition is costing him from my perspective. So many people are able to sing this song so I really expected him to deliver something superior than the masses' renditions but he fell short.

Good luck to all the contestants for the voting round tonight! By the way, take a leaf from Fish Leong's singing. For those who were observant enough or those who bothered to watch the repeated telecast, Fish's notes were enunciated clearly and with a kind of bounce that separates her from the mediocre singers. Learn how to treat each note with care and give that beautiful bounce whenever it was necessary. ^__^


2 comments:

Clarence said...

Hi! Sean Ho,
I'm YI FA. I believe Jia Min is capable of making a breakthrough in the semi-finals in her choice of songs & I tipped her to become the overall champion in CSS 2009 after watching her 1st 3 Quarter Final performances b'cos she's better compared with the other 11 CSS 3 contestants...

Clarence said...

I heard Rachel Chua mention that she's going to sing A-mei Zhang Hui Mei's 你是爱我的 on the Campus Star Quarter Final Episode 7 show; I don't know if U have received my previous comment but I believe people need to accept or listen to other people's comment to improve themselves... But hope U will not delete this 1 again...