My stat counter showed a few visitors hovering around my blog. I suppose they must be anxious to see the photos. They ain't very well taken because I deliberately stayed further away from the stage so my ears won't get blown deaf by the speakers.
Nevertheless, to keep my readers from waiting, I will post the first 10 contestants' photos up first before the second group and then the grand final's second round of selection for seven contestants amongst the top 20. Commentaries will come later once I finish publishing all three parts of the competition.
I stood for a grand total of nearly 6 hours - from 2.30pm to 7.15pm but it was the most worthwhile singing competition I attended in the year of 2009 because the competition was so stiff and every contestant gave what they could to impress the judges and audience there. Even the One Million Star resident judge, 黄韵玲 had trouble choosing the final three contestants to go to Taiwan because everyone seemed so good to her!
I arrived at 2.30pm and finally got myself a place after scouting out the area. This spot seemed the best since my ears were not blasted by the side speakers and I did not have to angle my shots downwards since it's the ground level unobstructed by large cameramen.
Chua Ai Jia Rachel 蔡艾珈 sang 《你是爱我的》by 张惠妹 Amei and it was pretty obvious to me that she was pretty nervous as she was the first contestant. Everyone held with abated breath because the competition finally started after much waiting. There was already a crowd of more than two hundred.
Chua Ai Jia Rachel 蔡艾珈 began to loosen up abit after the song hit the first chorus but her overall body language was still quite stiff. I considered her to be one of the most experienced contestants out of the top 20 and if she was so nerve-wrecked herself, the rest of the 19 must have been biting off their fingers already.
Chua Ai Jia Rachel 蔡艾珈 received good comments after her performances from the judges. My standing angle prevents the photos of the judges because it would cost me my ears to be so close to the speakers at the side. Judges were surprised by her skills and said she had set a high bar for the remaining contestants already.
Sonia Yeo Ziying 杨紫盈 sang a song which I could not remember but she was really giving what she was worth onstage despite her looking quite frazzled by the bar set by Aijia.
Sonia Yeo Ziying 杨紫盈. I could not really complain because she really know how to sing but she was clearly overshadowed by Aijia's more experienced skills and I did not really think she would be standing a superbly high chance as there were also very powerful singers down the contestant line.
Sonia Yeo Ziying 杨紫盈. Judges comments were something along the line that she could not relate the story properly even though she had excellent vocals. Telling the story was the important part for some of the judges and quite a number of contestants made the same mistake - immersing themselves only portions of the songs that they were better in and neglecting other parts by using vocal power but not commitment to these portions.
Ng Chee Yang 黄智阳 sang a song by 张惠妹 Amei and he tried to put in as much of what he had learnt these couple of years into the song.
Ng Chee Yang 黄智阳. I liked the way he changed parts of the song to emphasize on his ability to sing high notes but he was looking really stiff and stressed onstage. Maybe the burden of him being a director of his own music school was really weighing down on him.
Ng Chee Yang 黄智阳. Judges commented that Zhiyang over-rehearsed his performance to the point that he was mechanically delivering the song rather than commitment his heart and soul to it. I thought that was pretty accurate - Zhiyang was overly-deliberate about deliverance and perfection that he forgot all about spontaneity and interaction with the immediate environment. His chances weighed low at this point because given his experience, the judges chided him for neglecting such an important aspect of sincere live singing.
Kenneth Lim Pei Rong 林沛榮 delivered a song which I could not remember. If the organizers revealed the songlist, I would update them all here but for then, I could only concentrate on taking photos and enjoying the performances rather than memorizing the song titles.
Kenneth Lim Pei Rong 林沛榮 looks much more matured and his singing was more polished than before during the CSS competition. He must have put in quite a lot of effort since then to make it so far to this competition. Kudos to him.
Kenneth Lim Pei Rong 林沛榮. Judges' comments were lost as some of the judges were way too soft-spoken on the microphones to hear anything intelligible. However, I thought although Kenneth improved tremendously, I was afraid his compendium of singing techniques and depth of skill management would not match up against the stronger contenders of the competition. There were only 3 tickets to Taiwan and there were more than six very strong singers.
Yeo Chia Ying 杨佳盈 sang one of the song from the 12 lotus album but she was so soft that I could not hear the title properly. She looked really confident and happy onstage and I thought that first impression scored quite alot of marks already.
Yeo Chia Ying 杨佳盈 put in all that she knew about the song into her performance and everyone, though not that familiar with the song, was keeping as quiet as they could as they were interested in her performance. She did a fantastic job - singing in form and in sincerity.
Yeo Chia Ying 杨佳盈. Judges had good things to say - she was already looking like a star onstage and I thought her chances then were pretty good. As long as she kept up with her top form, one of the three tickets were seriously hers to be given to. I would also like to compliment that she was one of the rare few contestants who could interact with the emcees onstage because most of the other top 20 were too shy and blushy to answer coherently. For Aijia, Zhiyang and Diya who now hold the tickets, emcee interaction would be a major factor as well if they were to impress audience and capture all those necessary camera screentime if they are to shine as stars for their PK trip there.
Tia Shi Ying Shirlene 鄭詩穎 , as far as I remembered, delivered quite a good performance with her vocals, apart from a few minor scratches from intonation and holding of notes, everything else seemed fine on my ears.
Tia Shi Ying Shirlene 鄭詩穎. However, fine was not enough for this competition's standard, apparently. Judges seemed hell-bent on sending the best and although Shirlene was trying very hard and her performance was applause-worthy, but her foundation strengths were comparatively slower than Aijia, Zhiyang and Carrie who had performed before her.
Tan Hwee Peng 陈慧苹 was one bubbly girl who seemed confident even though she was dubbed as the Kancheong Spider Queen (who regularly went around telling everyone how nervous she was). I thought her appearance was appealing onstage and her confidence was admirable.
Tan Hwee Peng 陈慧苹 tried to deliver 《你是爱我的》by 张惠妹 Amei but Aijia's rendition of the song was slightly superior to Huiping's and judges seemed to notice that. That ruled unfavourably against Huiping but I like to see sunny characters onstage to sing and I expected her to be onstage again very soon.
See Geraldine 史心莹 looked gloomy and moody when she stepped onstage. Although she always had that image of a cool rocker, but she did not pick a rock genre, much to my surprise and instead picked an Amei song. Her aura of rocker seemed very weak and I suspected she was not in form at all for that performance.
See Geraldine 史心莹 sang as well as she could manage but her singing tended to trail off weakly given the powerful speakers and some of the lines were barely audible.
See Geraldine 史心莹 revealed to the judges that she was feeling unwell and I supposed that accounted for the lackluster performance yesterday. That more or less decided her fate in the competition because her performance could not really matched up against the stronger contestants who were all in better form than she was.
Kueo Miao Ru 魏妙如 sang her own song composition and I thought the chorus was outstanding but the verses were not very attractive.
Kueo Miao Ru 魏妙如 had a beautiful range of vocals but no matter how she tried to shore up the song, the latter was dragging her on instead of her commandeering the song.
Kueo Miao Ru 魏妙如. Judges' comments were that she should not have picked her own composition for such an important competition because the song itself did not command enough attention and did not give credit to her vocals. Unfortunately, Miaoru picked the wrong song which obstructed instead of showcasing her strengths.
Ng Kaili Juliana 黄凯莉 entered the stage with a couple of wolf-whistles. Apparently, some of guys thought she was sexy I suppose. Could not remember her song title as well but she was doing what she could with it.
Ng Kaili Juliana 黄凯莉 seemed quite stiff onstage and I believed she was a victim of her nervousness and she was too afraid to commit herself totally to the song.
Ng Kaili Juliana 黄凯莉. Her relatively weaker performance did not escape the judges' ears but I agreed there was a lot of potential in many of these contestants who did not clear to the final seven and judges were already very impressed that so many came forward to challenge the competition and themselves. Kudos to their courage and love for singing! ^__^
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