S-POP万岁!】之创作大赛12强已经诞生

【S-POP万岁!】之创作大赛12强已经诞生。

谁可以进入半决赛？投票活动即将开始，锁定这一页，为你所支持的作品投票！

S-POP Hurray! Song-Writing Competition: Top 12

Who will make it to the semi-finals? You will have a hand in deciding that. Bookmark this page and come back to support your favourite composer; when online voting starts.

12强 TOP 12

作品 Song: 谢谢你的好
建议歌手 Proposed Singer: 陈铿百 Nat Tan
创作人 Song Writer: 曾文雅 Wendy Tjen 年龄 Age: 27

作品 Song: Love is Forever
建议歌手 Proposed Singers: 阮诗凯 Keely 曾裕淑 Maxilian 许政宁 Zhengning
创作人 Song Writer: 黄倍仪 Wong Bei Yi 年龄 Age:18

作品 Song: 沙漠
建议歌手 Proposed Singers: 陈迪雅 Diya
创作人 Song Writer: 陈环 Chen Huan 年龄 Age: 23

作品 Song: 蚊子咬咬
建议歌手 Proposed Singers: 谢子伟 Jeff Teay 官镜瀚 Jeremy Kwan
创作人 Song Writer: 梁卓生 Leung Churk Seng, Jae 年龄 Age: 22

作品 Song: 雨伞
建议歌手 Proposed Singer: 曾咏霖 Teresa
创作人 Song Writer: 陈明娴 Tan Meng Sian Dione 年龄 Age: 27

作品 Song: Sunday Evening
建议歌手 Proposed Singer: 杨佳盈 Carrie
创作人 Song Writer: 陈杏圆 Tan Sin Guan 年龄 Age: 20

作品 Song:男人香水
建议歌手 Proposed Singer: 林昱志 Leon
创作人 Song Writer: 童亮 Jacky 年龄 Age: 24

作品 Song: 婚礼
建议歌手 Proposed Singers: 杜蕙甹 Candyce 张乐声 Lesheng
创作人 Song Writer: 蓝智峰 Lum Chih Foong 年龄 Age: 29

作品 Song: 不再
建议歌手 Proposed Singer: 孙文海 Wenhai
创作人 Song Writer: 沈劭泓 Edwin Sim 年龄 Age: 26

作品 Song: 不再怀念
建议歌手 Proposed Singers: 卓轩正 Shawn 范平庚 Benjamin 黄俊辉 Adriano 洪裕阳 Yuyang
创作人 Song Writers: 谢雪莉 Chia Xue Li, Shirley 年龄 Age: 23
吳雪儀 Shawna Wu 年龄 Age: 22

作品 Song: 发烧
建议歌手 Proposed Singer: 汤灵伊 Tang Lingyi
创作人 Song Writer: 王天安 Ong Thean Aun 年龄 Age: 29

作品 Song: 我死了怎么办
建议歌手 Proposed Singers: 潘嗣敬 Sugianto 田铭耀 Mingyao
创作人 Song Writer: 邹智源 Chow Chee Yen Nelson 年龄 Age: 25

(Source: SPOP Website)

961123 超級星光大道 林健輝 VS 曾沛慈

LK, a singing enthusiast, sent me the following Youtube videos, asking me to comment on their performance and judge which is the better singer.

I reserve my comments until the end of this blog post and before I say anything, why don't all you singing enthusiasts reading my blog view their performances first before seeing what I have to say about the two of them?

林健輝 is a very stable singer indeed. All his techniques are well-executed and he exudes great confidence in whatever songs he is singing. However, some of his endnotes sounded abrupt or uncompleted and I did noticed how during his Lee Hom song, his falsetto was not completely smooth and flexible enough to bring out the flavour behind that song.

曾沛慈 is very good in emoting her songs. She knows when to inject force at the appropriate notes to make the songs her own. However, some of her notes are weak and sounded hoarse and like 林健輝, she could not complete some of her endnotes properly. Her facial expressions were also overly-pained and enjoyment of her performances consequently dropped.

After intently listening to their performances, my personal choice for the winner is 曾沛慈.

The reasons are because although she cannot match up to the vocal lushness of Sandy Lam or the R&B feel of Landy Wen, she manages to inject her own style and emotions into those two songs. 林健輝, on the other hand, though was great in his techniques, lacked the kind of emoting necessary to touch me when I was listening to his singing. He seems to intently mirror the original singers' styles, and this is very evident in his Westlife song. I quote from 张宇's comment： "扣人心弦”is the missing element in 林健輝's singing.

I saw all the comments from the above three videos. No doubt that techniques are a big big plus in such competitions, but packaging and singer's sensitivity to the songs and the ability to reach out to the listeners using the songs are important determiners to par excellent performances too.

That is my personal choice and analysis. Hope everyone enjoys their performances and feel free to voice your opinions as well. Speak your mind. =)

My condolences to the five Singapore dragon boaters and their families

Singaporeans found dead after Cambodia boat accident: police
Posted: 25 November 2007 1318 hrs

PHNOM PENH - Rescue workers have recovered the bodies of five Singaporean men who were killed in a dragon boat accident during Cambodia's annual water festival, police said Sunday.

The boat carrying 22 men capsized late Friday as it tried to dock on Phnom Penh's Tonle Sap river after competing in a race during the water festival.

More than 200 Cambodian navy sailors and fishermen, joined by seven divers and a medic from Singapore, scoured the river over the weekend searching for the five that remained missing.

"All the missing Singaporeans were found, and now the mission has ended," police chief Touch Naruth told reporters on Sunday.

--- Rest in peace. At least they gave their lives for something they loved doing.

Eyewitness account of Singapore dragon boat accident in CambodiaBy Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia
Posted: 25 November 2007 1043 hrs

Mr Paraiso recounted what he saw.

He said: ''What I witnessed was the Singaporean team had already finished the race and was starting back to the point......for them to disembark.

"Unfortunately, during the time team players (were) getting off from the boat, the boat suddenly shook off and overturned. It happened so quickly."

He added: "The remaining players, the Singapore rowers, one by one floated and saved themselves and there were some railings that they were able to hold on.....

"All the players, I guess, were a little over-fatigued so they were not able to swim normally, so they just looked for something to hang on and the current was a bit strong.

"All the rescued players were able to meet on the platform and to account for those missing."

"All the people watching that incident were shocked, so (there was) a little commotion and panic all around the area," he added.

Kboxing with The Pouting Apple, Movie Review: Hero 2007

Kboxing with The Pouting Apple:

I met up with an anonymous singing enthusiast whom I decided to name as The Pouting Apple. The reason for the name is because she pouted alot when she sang out of tune for a couple of the songs even though those were such superficial mistakes in the overall quality of performance in her singing. Hahaha....

We met at Cineleisure Kbox level 8 for the Kbox Lunch package (which costs around 25 bucks) but it was a very enjoyable kboxing session. For nearly three solid hours, we sang as many songs as we could and although I am not very familiar with some of her songs, I tried to put as many of them as I can down here so all of you readers can get a rough idea of how the kboxing session sounded.

一眼瞬间 张惠妹/萧敬腾
爱情任务 蔡依林
不痛 张韶涵
你是爱我的 张惠妹
藉口 S.H.E
欧若拉 张韶涵
Open Your Eyes 张惠妹
真的 张韶涵
Super Star S.H.E
如果你也听说 张惠妹
珊瑚海 周杰伦/Lara

远走高飞 李圣杰
触摸 陈伟联
男佣 吴克群
最近 李圣杰
彩虹天堂 刘耕宏
我只是想要 陈伟联
心碎的冰咖啡 熊天平
流沙 陶喆
if 陈晓东
旋律 林宇中

When The Pouting Apple knew I would be blogging about the session with her, she insisted that I pointed out as many of her singing mistakes in my blog post so that she could learn from them. She was very determined singing enthusiast and went into deep thought just to reflect how she had sung immediately after our kboxing session at the basement foodcourt. Frankly speaking, she sang very well and there are only a very small handful of things that she needs a little bit brushing up on. Other than those, The Pouting Apple is definitely ready to take on the live singing stage. Since she is expecting my tips, so here they are:

1) Less Frowning: The Pouting Apple tends to frown too much whenever she tries to emote songs and I pointed it out to her earlier in the session. She is a quick learner and that wrinkling frown between her eyes disappeared for the rest of the session. The trick now is to remember that one can still close one's eyes to emote without having to frown so much.

2) Endnotes can be steadier : The Pouting Apple doesn't seem to be able to end her notes cleanly. She either ends too early and a little bit too suddenly. Perhaps she will need to know how to fade off her notes more steadily. Listen more carefully to how each line ends in songs.

3) Facial and Body Expression: Yes. Kboxing is about sitting down or standing up but The Pouting Apple has the potential and the enthusiasm to go on live stage and I did notice that she seemed rather rigid during singing, with only two expressions on her face for all the songs. Try to sing in front of a mirror to see how you perform. Gesticulation is very important and is to be coordinated with body posturing.

4) Exercise the stomach muscles: The Pouting Apple hopes to extend her singing breath and stamina but refuses to exercise. Well, exercise, especially for the stomach and chest muscles are very important because these provide the foundation for exertion of voice whenever difficult songs come along or when extended singing is done.

That's all. A couple of simple photos are taken today. Hope The Pouting Apple enjoyed herself today too!

The lunch tasted alright. Probably because I was very hungry then. Anyway, this is the lemon fish set with rice slightly sprinkled with pork floss, lemon fish (upper right hand corner), some fish sushi wrapped in seaweed and white sauce (lower left hand corner), cream puffs (middle left) and unknown vegetables in sour sauce (upper left hand corner). Oh yes, the place doesnt seem to have hot honey lemon, which sort of disappointed me.

The Pouting Apple loves to sing Amei's songs for kboxing and she is very good with them, nailing all of them with good precision and her highnotes were very impressive and sustainable even for hours of intense singing. I was more busy listening to her sing than take photos. Hahaha...

Movie Review: Hero 2007

After the kboxing session with The Pouting Apple, I had to rush off the attend a school alumni event, which offered a movie ticket at the price of 5 bucks. I have heard from The Holy Bitch that it is quite a good movie and morever, I get to meet some of my ex-classmates again so I went for it.

Takuya Kimura, the lead actor, was very good in depicting a highly-determined public prosecutor who was assigned to find out the truth behind a manslaughter case. It turned out far more complicated because the people involved in the case were also implicated in a high-profile corruption scandal with a top politician in the country. Faced against a distinguished defense counsel, mounting political pressure, and difficult and tight-lipped suspects, Kimura must find the key loopholes to win the case and at the same time juggle an elusive romance with his legal aide. Although there was very little action to speak of, the crime thriller kept me on the edge enough not to miss a single portion of the plot as I was just as keen to find out how to case would turn out.

After the movie, I quickly met up with two of my ex-classmates and their spouses before rushing off again to the library because I needed to prepare some notes for some of my lessons in the coming week. Looks like it's going to be instant noodles for dinner for me tonight. Boohoohoo...

Well, at least I have some instant noodles for dinner. The poor but super fluffly cat below (from Facebook Human Pets profiles) somehow lost its cheeseburger. Sad but so cute right? Haha..

Baldur's Game: Dark Alliance 2

Interesting (but disturbing) conversation:

I was teaching a student today and one of the conversations went on like this:

Me: "So it's important to keep good relationships with people around you."

Him: "Not everyone. I don't like my sister."

Me: "Why? She is your sister and part of your family."

Him: "She is a total tyrant in the house but I always show her who is boss. I punched her real hard the other time."

Me: "Punched her? Why? She is like four years younger than you. Is that such a need to use force on her?"

Him: "I have to. Because being vicious and cruel is the only way to survive in this world."

Me: "Huh? What makes you think that being vicious is necessary to do so?"

Him: "I saw on television and during computer games that if one is nice, one will be bullied and taken advantage of, so it's better to be vicious."

Me: "But TV and computer games are only a small fraction of what is possible in the real world. I hope you don't form such an early judgment of the world with so little exposure to the real things."

Him: "..... But that is what I believe in."

Me: "Of course. I am not trying to dictate how your perception of the world should be. But I am just trying to tell you to postpone any judgement of this world until you have seen enough for yourself. Such an early judgement may close up your mind about things and people and you won't really see everything as what they may have be. That includes your treatment of your sister."

Him: "......"

Facebook Human Pets:

There is an application within Facebook where one buys, sells and keeps profile pictures and associated pet images and competition between users within that application are mighty stiff. Even though I am not some sinister human slaver of pets, I keep my fair share of pets because I think some of them have very beautiful profile pictures on their Facebook accounts.

The following are a few of my favourite Human pets and I treat them well - petting them often and bringing them treats and trips, using "points" accumulated in that application. Some of them are really expensive as they are fought hard over against very competitive players but I suppose I am their owner (for now at least). Just feel like sharing their pictures with my blog readers. Pretty hor?





Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2

Yesterday, I was invited by The Married Soldier for a homecooked dinner and a round of Playstation 2 gaming at his house so I accepted the invitation happily. It's been so long since I was there.

I was tasting the home cooking of The Married Soldier's wife for the first time and it was really delicious. We had omelette with ham, cabbages with onions, pork in black sauce and beefballs soup. The soup was exceptionally delicious because the soup was thick and the beefballs were juicy and fresh.

The Playstation 2 gaming was, however, with lots of glitches. Firstly, The Married Soldier accidentally deleted a saved game file due to a faulty game controller, causing a loss of 6 hours of gameplay that we had together in a previous gaming session. Secondly, we had to drive around the neighbourhood for nearly 2 hours to secure another working game controller. Yet, despite all of these, the session was just as fun because we had cleared the quests before so both of us had a much better idea of how to complete them more efficiently. Of course, our complacency did land us into a couple of messy battles. Thankfully, there is a "Load Game" function. Heehee.

Oh yes, in that game, I chosed a female Dark Elf character called Vhaidra Uowiir whose class is a monk (actually The Married Soldier said my character should be called a nun and I was like -_-). Anyway, my character, Vhaidra, is very cool with her kung-fu style of fighting. The good thing is that she can move quickly to the flank or back of any opponent and drop a series of rapid punches, which will bring them down faster than they can scream out. The bad thing is that she is quite helpless against magical ranged attackers but that is where The Married Soldier comes into play - he is a Moon Elf magician. =) We have just gotten to Act III but I think our combination will do well to finish the game, that is, when we eventually meet up again.

S-POP Hurray Concert Part I Songlist 26 November 2007

Okay, I really can't find all the Singapore composed songs on haoting.com so I will do my best to look through again at as many music and song search engines as I can.

Some of these songs are composed very, very far back, stretching even before some of my blog readers were born but that doesn't mean they are not nice. Some of you will find them unfamiliar and even outlandish in some ways but don't forget, those songs during those times were amongst the best and were widely accepted by listeners then so listen with an open heart because if one wants to sing well, a little history of Singapore pop music will do no harm but benefit but increasing one's knowledge of how music has evolved.

For those songs not found on haoting.com but through other music/song engines, please kindly click on the individual songs instead in the list below in red.

For those songs not found yet, I have highlighted in blue in the list below.

For those songs which I have found, please click HERE for the music playlist. I hope everyone can enjoy these songs in their respective contexts and honour them accordingly.

Of course, I welcome all the readers of my blog to help out to complete the list of songs below as part of our microscopic contributions to Singapore pop music so that more people can know about these songs too!

JJ 林俊杰 - 流行主教、翅膀、西界、江南、不流泪的机场、木乃伊, 杀手

Kelly 潘嘉丽 - shakalaka Baby、一分钟的永远

迷路兵 - 泪

梦飞船 - 天天好心情、不值得

邓妙华 - 牵引、愫、温柔的夜

吴庆康 - 我的朋友我的同学

郑展伦 - 我用真心填满你的孤单

卓轩正、范平庚、李俊纬 - 有用的人

伍家辉、黄韵仁 - 一人一半

田铭耀、卓坊林 、Sugi - 阿Ben 阿Ben

汤灵伊、阮诗縚、谢慧娴、黄韵琴 - 我们这一班

巫启贤 - 星空下、故人的酒觞、鹰、唇边的笑意、悟、邂逅、走过年少、梦湖、你是我的唯一、红尘来去一场梦、太傻

黎沸挥、陈铿百、官镜瀚、谢子伟 - 只有你能完成我的歌、爱如潮水、等你等到我心痛, 说走就走

潘盈 - 让夜轻轻落下

洪劭轩 - 从你回眸那天开始

玖健 - 羞答答的玫瑰静悄悄地开

黄宏墨 + Alternative Band - 野人的梦、笨鸟的表白

蔡礼莲 - 关怀方式

王建復 - 最高点

杨佳盈、曾裕淑、许政宁、慧伶 - 胆小鬼

孙文海、张乐声 - 一千个伤心的理由

陈世维、陈迪雅 - 爱和承诺

陈世维 - 我等到花儿也谢了

陈伟联 - 城里的月光、走出黑暗的日子、细水长流, 小人物的心声, 触摸, 普通的人