Performance Reviews of Campus Superstar 2 QF 1B

The following are my personal analysis and performance reviews of the 10 CSS 2 contestants for the Quarter-Finals 1B. Feel free to give any constructive comments if you want to. Have fun reading and mulling over their performances. =)


张宇璇 亲爱的你怎么不在我身边 原唱者：江美琪

Yuxuan's eyes were really not focused and her stage posture was very stiff. She was really nervous onstage and her starting was weak. She actually sang quite well but her overall stage presence took out a lot of marks for your performance. Li Fei Hui was correct to point out that CSS 2 performances are both an audio and a visual experience so Yuxuan must learn to impress the audience better visually. Her scores were 7.5+6.5+6.0=20.0. I would have given her a 6.25.

谢慧娴 真的 原唱者：张韶涵

Huixian's voice was a little shaky at parts and her facial expression was not really fully-coordinated with the song lyrics. She also sang the word "kong"(1) off-key a couple of times but her gesticulation and overall performance was quite impressive, considering the fact that she picked the most difficult female song for this round. Her scores were 8.0+7.5+6.0=21.5. I would have given her a 7.0.

杨丽莹 过敏 原唱者：杨丞琳

Liying's performance starting was also weak and she swallowed some of the end lyrics. She was also another nervous performer tonight. She looked very anxious with her eyes darting all over the audience and her posture was obviously lacking in self-confidence. She had a good voice as well but she has a lot of room for improvement with her stage presence and stage confidence. Her scores were 8.5+7.5+6.0=22.0. I would have given her a 6.75.

林佳君 一个像夏天一个像秋天 原唱者：范玮琪

Jiajun could not reach some of her lower notes and she was actually off-key at certain parts of the song but she was intelligent enough to capitalize on her mega-watt smile and that was sufficient to make her performance flaws seem relatively smaller. It would be a challenge to her, however, to continue to pick happy songs because that would severely limit her capability to sing the more serious-sounding ones due to her initial stage image unless she could make a convincing transformation during those serious song performances. Her scores were 7.5+7.0+7.0=21.5. I would have given her a 6.75.

黄意凌 大手拉小手 原唱者：梁静茹

Yiling's performance was, in my opinion, actually the best for the females tonight. Why? Other than some lyrics' mispronunciation and a slightly heavier breathing behind her singing, her performance was natural and entertaining for the eyes. The song was not the most difficult song but the fast number showcased her calmess with fast songs and her ability to handle them with confidence. Her stage presence was natural as well. Her scores were 8.0+8.0+7.5=23.5. I would have given her a 7.5.

绕梓杰 只因为你 原唱者：张栋梁

Zijie's performance started off weakly and he was chopping up the lyrics at the first few lines of the song. He sang off-key at some parts of the song and I was hearing more singing from his nose/throat than his stomach, giving the song a coarse feel. The judges were criticising on his facial expression but I was more disappointed with his seemingly coarse performance. His scores were 7.5+6.5+6.0=20.0. I would have given him a 5.75.

范平庚 原来 原唱者：林俊杰

Benjamin's endnotes were cut short and he sounded a little out of breath. He was off the beat for the starting of his first chorus and his stage posture was a little unnatural and jarring for the supposedly smooth performance. The judges were correct to point out that Benjamin sounded a little too much like JJ and that is not a good thing because he would not be able to showcase his individual style in singing and run into the danger of becoming a parrot-singer. His scores were 8.0+8.0+7.0=23.0. I would have given him a 7.0.

唐伟盛 着迷 原唱者：潘玮柏

Wilson was keen on impressing with his dance moves but he was breathless when he danced a bit and his rhythm with the music was a little off. His "baby" was sung off-key and his gesticulation was not really coordinated with the song. His eyes also failed to electrify the audience and "mesmerize" them as he was too concerned with his stage movements. His scores were 7.0+6.0+5.5=18.5. I would have given him a 5.5.

许国豪 男佣 原唱者：吴克群

Guohao was also chopping his lyrics at the initial start of his performance and he lacked the coordination to match the rhythm of the song. Sadly, there was little decent dance moves and he chose to entertain with funny stage antics instead - nothing wrong with the entertainment value that he opted for but it lowered the my acceptance level for a potential Campus Superstar. This is still a singing competition. His scores were 8.0+7.5+6.0=21.5. I would have given him a 5.25.

郑全威 Love Story 原唱者：范逸臣

Javin over-emoted the earlier portions of his performance so much so that when the chorus came in, there was little distinctive difference to mark the chorus, which was supposedly the important section to make the cut for this particular song. His stage posture was shaking so much that I had problems focusing on his stage presence and his facial expression was a little unnatural to the cameras. Given his matured look, I was hoping that he could nail the song with a loud and sincere release of energy for the chorus of the song but his voice lacked the impact. His scores were 8.0+6.5+6.0=20.5. I would have given him a 5.5.

Updates, Modifications and Notices On My Blog

Updated Music Playlist:

I have removed some of the older songs on my blog's music playlist and added a number of newer songs for the listening pleasure of all those who took time to visit my blog. Some of the songs aren't necessarily new but at least IMHO, good songs worth listening to.

18. 吴克群 - 男佣

31. 伍思凯 + 马玉芬 - 关于爱情 (One of the best timeless love duets)

33. 张信哲, Jeff - 太想爱你 (A classic masterfully sung by The Prince of Ballads)

36. 张韶涵 - 真的

37. 梦飞船 - 不值得 (Amazing harmonization of voices in this song)

Added New Blogs on Blogroll:

For those who are observant, I have added a number of new blogs for the curious visitors of my blog. The new additions are Huixian of CSS 2 and Shawn of CSS 2.

Answering To Comments About My Photographs:

Thanks but no. Moreover, without explicit permission from the people supporting me, it's not a good idea to drag their faces into this blog.

Whatever the case, I am hoping to attract readers with content and not with my face (which isn't much to look at anyway, haha). I am trying to secure a better camera phone and perhaps in the near future, readers can see how my photoshooting skills of food and scenery are.

Blog Posts In The Making:

a) Movie Review of Shrek 3

b) Visit To Chinatown & Hindu Temple

I am still busy with the upcoming Campus Superstar QF 1B post-performance analysis blog post so be patient okay? Will generate the abovementioned two posts as soon as I can.

Announcement To Supporters of Teresa Tseng:
Teresa Tseng, the Overall Female Champion of Campus Superstar Season 1 will be making a special guest appearance at an event at East Point Mall near Simei MRT station on 16 June 2007 (Saturday) at around 1800hrs. For all those who have not seen Teresa's gracious Superstar aura onstage, please head down there and if we are lucky, get to hear her sing.

Campus Superstars 2 Quarter Finals 1B Song List

Alright, since I have done my song analysis for the first 10 contestants of CSS 2. It's fair that I continue with the remaining 10. One will never know how they may surprise us with new renditions of the songs but the following will be the kinds of things they'll need to pay attention to when they are performing those songs since they have committed themselves to the songs already. Feel free to right click on the song titles to hear what the original renditions are.


张宇璇 亲爱的你怎么不在我身边 原唱者：江美琪


Audience familiarity with song: ***1/2
Song & Performance difficulty: ***

This song is a challenging in its own way because it has a lot of lyrics to remember and emotional management of the song requires matured handling. Performer definitely needs to paint the images inside the song to allow the feel of the song to the audience. When the song progresses, it can become a bland song vocally as it slows down again so gesticulation is necessary to improve the visual effect of the performance.


谢慧娴 真的 原唱者：张韶涵

Audience familiarity with song: ****
Song & Performance difficulty: ***1/2

This song is a soulful ballad with very clear pronunciation of lyrics and will require the performer to have a good control over the high notes, particularly holding the endnotes in certain places. Performer must learn to control the build-up of the emotions leading all the way to the chorus. With less emphasis on gesticulation, placing the audio image of pessimism and resignation in the ears of the audience will be the key to a winning performance of this particular song.


杨丽莹 过敏 原唱者：杨丞琳

Audience familiarity with song: ****
Song & Performance difficulty: **1/2

This song is sung in a very gentle way with little variation. In short, it's quite a simple song, which is good because it is easy to perform and is bad because it will hard to impress. Things to note will be readiness of breath during the chorus portions where there are fewer opportunities to pause and rest. I suppose facial expression will be necessary instead of large gesticulation because of the gentleness of the song as the latter will make the performance jarring instead of comfortable listening.

林佳君 一个像夏天一个像秋天 原唱者：范玮琪

Audience familiarity with song: ***1/2
Song & Performance difficulty: ***


This song is another jovial sounding song so adequate emotional preparation to get into the mood of the song before heading off to the stage is important to make the performance realistically friendly and enjoyable. Gesticulation and audience interaction will be pivotal in giving a stellar performance. Performer should let go and learn to enjoy the fun behind the lyrics before she can affect the audience in the same way as intended by the songwriter.


黄意凌 大手拉小手 原唱者：梁静茹

Audience familiarity with song: ****
Song & Performance difficulty: **1/2

This song is also full of lyrics, which means many pitfalls if the performer did not clock enough practice on memorising the lyrics. It's actually quite a slow and dry song with little variation and opportunity to showcase much talent so most of the focus should be on whether the performer can hold the low notes properly and make the full use of those few lines of chorus to impress the audience. Gesticulation will be quite important to vary the performance since distinctive vocal showcasing is limted by the song itself.


绕梓杰 只因为你 原唱者：张栋梁

Audience familiarity with song: ****
Song & Performance difficulty: ***

This song requires emoting that is happy and carefree and one of the major pitfalls is keeping pace with the song because it’s has quite a jovial beat and getting the audience to feel the song with the performer will be a challenge. It’s quite a popular song so audience familiarity will most definitely mean comparing and contrasting with the original singer. Given the specific rhythm of the song, it will be difficult to try and sing this song in a radically different manner without losing the flavour of the song.


范平庚 原来 原唱者：林俊杰

Audience familiarity with song: ****
Song & Performance difficulty: ****

The song has a lot of lyrics and fast-moving lines, which makes it one of the most difficult songs to perform for the QF 1B round. The performer must be very familiar with the song lyrics and have excellent breath control to recover from the quick-moving lines. The most difficult part, however, is for the performer to NOT over-concentrate on the fast lines but remain focused on singing and engaging the audience with the content of the song, which is not as colourful or soulful as the other songs.

唐伟盛 着迷 原唱者：潘玮柏

Audience familiarity with song: ***
Song & Performance difficulty: ****1/2

This is obviously a dance track and thus requires even more performance variety to impress the audience. Breath control, dance moves, audience interaction, gesticulation and poses are the usual staple for dance track performances and there is a lot of end-lines variation to juggle with so the performer must be prepared to eunciate accordingly. Most performers I have seen are overly-engrossed in their dance moves in this song and forgot to sing the song.


许国豪 男佣 原唱者：吴克群

Audience familiarity with song: ***
Song & Performance difficulty: ****1/2

This song calls for a certain level of resignation and yet playfulness of the song persona and the performer must learn to portray such levels accurately throughout the song. The rhythmic beats within the songs are numerous and practice is a definite if one does not want to miss those beats and since it's a dance track, dance moves will be expected from the performer. A couple lines of lyrics are also not easy to remember within the song as they are pronunciated fast and in unconventional language.


郑全威 Love Story 原唱者：范逸臣

Audience familiarity with song: ****
Song & Performance difficulty: ***1/2

This song is deceptively difficult because although the song's lyrics are easy and the tune is not difficult to remember but the emotional build-up at the chorus can make or break the performance. It's that kind of release of emotions of the song persona that differentiates the song and the endnotes will require a good measure of control in order to bring the performance to a respectable ending.


In case of complaints, I must make it clear here that the analysis is deliberately kept at a simple level because too many complex comments about their song choices (if they choose to adjust themselves because of what I said) can ruin their individual styles in singing, especially at this late stage of performance preparations. Good luck to all the remaining contestants and I hope to see a round of good performances on the coming Monday night then!

Music Compositions By CSS 2 Judges

Why I am writing this blog post? For the following reasons:


1) These judges have respectable background in music and performing and thus celebrate their achievements somehow.


2) Let more people know about the music compositions by our very own talented Singaporeans.


3) Warn the CSS 2 contestants to seriously prepare for their future song choices if they are going to choose any of the following songs written by the CSS 2 judges.


I did my best to find as many of the songs links (right click on the song titles to listen to the songs in a new window) as possible given the short amount of time I have to write this post so I hope everyone can still have fun listening to the CSS 2 judges' beautiful music compositions. Music clears the mind, fills the heart, moves the soul.


Music compositions by CSS 2 Judge Jim Lim 林倛玉


张学友《原罪犯》

黄义达《部落格》

张惠妹《我要快乐》

梁静茹《接受》

孙燕姿《隐形人》

范逸臣 《信仰爱情》

许志安 《心灵相通》

梦飞船 《不值得》和《天天好心情》


Music compositions by CSS 2 Judge Jimmy Ye 叶良俊


张学友《想和你去吹吹风》和《三天两夜》

张国荣 《全世界只想你来爱我》

彭羚《小玩意》

张信哲《太想爱你》

梅艳芳《一生爱你千百回》

蔡依林《我知道你很难过》

苏永康《我不是爱过就算的人》

周惠《寂寞城市》


Music Compositions by CSS 2 Judge Roy Li 黎沸挥


伍思凯 / 马玉芬《关于爱情》

张信哲《爱如潮水》

巫启贤《等你等到我心痛》

陈晓东《像风一样的男子》

张学友《心如刀割》

刘德华《练习》

阿杜《下雪》

潘嘉丽《爱 · 无力》和《 Love Me Again 》

Performance Reviews of Campus Superstar 2 QF 1A

Alright, I have done a simple analysis of what was lingering in my mind for each of the ten contestants after watching their performances tonight. Pardon me if the analysis is brief because I have other things to rush for tonight. So here we go.

F1 卢慷倚 分手快乐 原唱者：梁静茹

Agnes' voice sounded a little flat at some notes and she was breathing too hard at some parts of the song. Lee Fei Hui was correct to point out that Agnes sounded too happy in some areas whilst singing the song. I also think that Agnes has a beautiful voice if she is able to hold the notes steady. Her scores were 7.5 + 7.0 + 6.0 = 20.5. I would have given her a 6.25.

F2 阮诗凯 了解 原唱者：孙燕姿

Keely's beat was a little off and a couple of her endnotes were off-key. Her gesticulation was too strong for the gentle song and I found that her neck was rather stiff, causing a weaker audience interaction and stage presence. Her facial expression was also rather "fierce" and thus inappropriate for the song itself. However, her husky voice remains one of the more unique ones around. Her scores were 8.0 + 7.0 + 6.0 = 21.0. I would have given her a 6.75.

F3 赖嘉琪 本来 原唱者：同恩

Jiaqi's gesticulation was on the other hand too bland and she was offkey for the "lai" word. Her facial expression was also stiff and her eyes were not focused enough. I found Jiaqi out of breath at certain parts of the song but her voice is actually quite powerful if projected well and with such a voice, I was impressed by the potentially strong performance if she has chosen another song. Her scores were 8.0 + 6.5 + 5.5 = 20.0. I would have given her a 6.50.

F4 张芮恩 街角的祝福 原唱者：戴佩妮

Rui En's facial expression was also bland and she started off quite weak but managed to gain a better footing in the song as the performance progressed. She was offkey at certain parts of the song and the judges were right to comment about how the small glitches in her performance affected the overall feel of the performance. Her scores were 7.5 + 6.5 + 5.0 = 19.0. I would have given her a 6.0.

F5 许政宁 睁一只眼 闭一只眼 原唱者：蔡依林

Zhengning's singing was a little drowned by the music and sounded rather weak. Although her dance moves at the initial start were impressive but they started to falter in energy at the end of the performance. Her singing was also not very balanced with her dance as I would tell she focused more on the dance portions. If I had closed my eyes and listened, it would be a rather bland performance like what one of the judges said. She must choose a better song to showcase her singing skills. Her scores were 7.5 + 7.0 + 7.0 = 21.5. I would have given her a 6.75.

M1 李俊纬 我可以 原唱者：蔡旻佑

Junwei's eyes were not focused enough and his body language onstage lacked coordination. His gesticulation was too exaggerated at some parts but he managed to get the feel of the song correctly. His endnotes were quite terrible and needed lots of improvement and he was off-key at those important falsetto moments. His scores were 8.0 + 7.5 + 5.5 = 21.0. I would have given him a 5.75.

M2 温俊杰 专属天使 原唱者：TANK

Junjie's voice was way too low for the song and it sounded very montonous to my ears. He must learn to project his voice properly instead of slurring at just the throat area. He also made sudden and inappropriate gestures, making the visual performance rather jarring. His ending was also marred by an off-beat note, most probably due to the fact that he swallowed at the wrong timing. His scores were 8.5 + 6.0 + 5.5 = 20.0. I would have given him a 6.0.

M3 吴福宽 勇气 原唱者：光良

Fu Kuan's eyes were also not focused, darting from place to place and he sort of chopped up his song with too many attempts to distinguish his voice from the others. Although he made a good attempt to sound different from the original singer, he was trying way too hard to make a good impression. If he had toned down his endnotes variation, it would have been a much enjoyable performance for me. His scores were 7.0 + 6.5 + 5.0 = 18.5. I would have given him a 5.75.

M4 徐彬 除此之外 原唱者：范逸臣

Xu Bin's starting was off-key and he had one of the stiffest stage presence tonight. His voice was not properly emoted at key portions of the song to make the song impressionable and it was a rather bland performance with little variation in emoting the song. He is easily one of the best-looking contestants around but he needs a lot of work on his singing to make the audience believe in him. His scores were 6.5 + 6.0 + 5.5 = 18.0. I would have given him 5.50.


M5 卓轩正 翅膀 原唱者：林俊杰

Xuan Zheng's eyes were also darting around and his gesticulations were not properly timed with the song lyrics. His emotional grasp of the song was good and his voice was easily one of the best for tonight's contestants. However, his singing was highly specialised in the use of certain parts of the voice-box and sounded too much like the original singer still, which may affect his performances if he chosed non-ballad or non-JJ songs in the future rounds. His scores were 9.0 + 7.5 + 7.5 = 24.0. I would have given him a 7.0.

That's all for now. I have tried to judge the contestants as objectively as I could. Hope those who are interested in singing can learn something fun out of all these.

(Image source: lynnc 21 July 2003, stock.xchng)

Movie Review: Pirates of The Carribean 3 - At World's End

I have watched the Pirates of The Carribean III: At World's End and I thought that the movie was a little below my expectations because it was trying to pack in too many subplots at the same time - the love story between Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner, the father-son relationship between Bootstrap and Will, the mytical relationship between Calypso and Davy Jones, the pirating of Jack Sparrow, the ambition of Lord Beckett and East India Company, the showdown between the Pirate Lords and the New World.

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However, I particularly liked the ending between Jack, Will, Elizabeth and Jones where Jack sacrificed his hopes of sailing as an immortal pirate to save the dying Will so that Will and Elizabeth can be together (even though only once every ten years). The epic naval battle between The Black Pearl and The Flying Dutchman in the middle of the whirlpool was also very captivating and exciting (as well as funny in some parts) and those two portions somehow made up for the lack of proper accountability for many of the poorly-explained subplots.

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Admiral Morrington and Sao Feng died rather unglorious deaths and I was actually hoping that Sao Feng (by Chow Yun Fatt) could have been involved in some serious action since he is still an A-lister on the actors' roll. A pity that the movie did not really make good use of his acting.

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Overall, it was a good enough ending for the main characters of the story, especially funny when Jack was left marooned in a port when Barbarossa stole away the Black Pearl but the latter screamed in frustration because Jack cut out the very valuable navigation map to a prized destination - The Fountain of Youth. The movie ends comically and yet cyclically with Jack rowing in a small one-man boat (just like how he first appeared in the first movie) into the distance.

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For those who missed the scene after the credits, there was a reunion between Will and Elizabeth ten years since the ending of the showdown between the Pirate Lords and the East India Company Armanda - with an new family member.

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And guess what I found out who attended the movie's gala premiere in Singapore when I was surfing the Internet for reviews of the movie?
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For faithful supporters of Teresa and Felicia Chin, I took the photographs of the two of them together from Felicia's personal blog page. I tried asking for permission but Felicia never replied so I took the liberty to put the two photos requested from her inside my blog first. Felicia, if you are unhappy about me doing so, feel free to email me and I will remove the two photos above. If not, I'll just leave them here for the happy viewing by faithful supporters from both your fanbase and Teresa's.

(Image source: http://sg.movies.yahoo.com/Pirates+of+the+Caribbean%3A+At+World's+End/movie/12261/)

(Image source: Felicia Chin, 26 May 2007, Her Blog)