This has been an episode that I personally have been waiting for. The Central Eliminations. Mainly because, I can get the opportunity to watch the contestants more closely and get to familiarize myself with them.. Ok here goes my disclaimer before I start this write up of mine.
“I am extremely horrible when it comes to remembering people’s names. The writer shall not be held liable for any mis-spelt names, or if any names are not mentioned. Seriously, I am a face person. I remember faces, and personality traits and not names so much so some of my distant friends are more fondly called by other names, that would not be appropriate to be mentioned here *wink wink*. You cannot blame me alright.. I was born with Name-nesia!!”
Haha ok. Now that’s done, let’s move on to the show.
Again this week, I wasn’t in at home during the show premier on 8tv, and had to settle for the better option (to me its better because I can fast forward through the advert! Haha)
www.8tv.com.my.
For some reason though, I felt that this week’s season were very much involved around Rina n Rini. The first part of the show at least. There was so much going on with those two especially that little interview they had, about some old school days when they switched classes and the moles.. Totally not funny. Period.
So from the auditions of two weeks back, we have a line up of the lucky Top 80 who was summoned in to the Central Eliminations (after two weeks of grace period given to prepare themselves). Their worst enemy yet.
The show took a twist with the contestants being sent in straight away to the back or through the curtain, or whatever you would want to call it, to face their “Surprise Test”, which we eventually discovered to be a Blind Test. Apparently, they usually do it in the middle of the process of the Central Eliminations (I’m not quite sure of this though… because I usually just sit in for the Top 12 lol), but this time, was used as the first challenge.
So one by one, they went in for their chance to impress Uncle and Syaf with just their voices, and nothing else. I will get back to my disagreement on this later. Let’s concentrate on some contestants who stole the spotlight.
There were snippets of contestants who sang, and 8tv literally flashed them through, maybe because of time? I don’t know. They would be the only people who know about it. Indra Putra 16, was a little too lost in there.. He was almost blank without knowing what to do, where to stand, where to face and it was a little hilarious.
Izhammuddin B. Hamdu, a 28 year old from KL (who was the only one who got through out of the 10 contestants I auditioned with during the Main Auditions @ Gardens), to me, personally, screwed it up big time. Dude, this is TOP EIGHTY! Not AUDITONS anymore! It is very wrong to go in there and sing, and screech, and re-sing, and screech again, and then say “NEXT SONG” and when Uncle shuts you off by saying “There’s not going to be another song”, YOU CONTINUE SINGING YOUR SECOND SONG! I.was.shocked.and.in.utter.amazement.and.disgust.period.
My argument:
1. They gave you FOURTEEN DAYS, TWO WEEKS to prepare yourself.
2. There are no place for excuses. You don’t screw it up and then say that “you prepared to sing with your guitar but then they suddenly said there was not gonna be any guitar and so, you couldn’t sing”
3. I will KILL to be there, exactly where you are. At this stage of the competition, there’s no room for mistakes, what more LAME excuses.
Dude, have u seen ONE singer here, or in the process of a competition, constantly hanging on to their guitar? The purpose they have these cuts and these challenges in the competition is to find the ultimate VOICE. VOICE u know… V.O.I.C.E. NOT how well u can sing WITH guitar..
I just don’t understand some people. Seriously. Gosh I’m so stressed out right now.
We were then treated to flash forwards of the other singers.. Who went to do the same thing.. I never really got their name though. Eventually everyone finished their turn at the Blind test.
Okay, back to my argument on the Blind Test.
“Made or done without sight of certain objects or knowledge of certain facts that could serve for guidance or cause bias.” Merriam-Webster online dictionary.
Having to stand in front of a screen with a light shining right through you that is sooooo visible in form of a silhouette is NOT a blind test.
Take for example, the pint-sized Aisyah. Wow, if I was seated at Uncle’s place, I sooo would not have guessed who was it across the other side, and I would not be bias in my decision making. Congratulations! That was Awesome. Really. I am very amazed. I would have been totally blind. OIAM blinded me! Haha!
So, once the “Blind” Test was over, there was the first cut of 20. From the Top 80 to the Top 60.
I am not going to get in to the details as to who was sent packing home, because, like mentioned in my disclaimer, I am bad with names.. Not forgetting that this was a super-compressed episode with 60 people leaving the competition in ONE hour. Yes. One hour saw the dreams of 60 hopefuls crushed to the core. Though I have to mention, one of the twins have already left with the first cut. Yeay for me!
The next challenge was a group performance. The contestants were put into groups to perform their next song. Time given : ONE hour.
First up saw the Come-back Aisyah, and the other twin (this just proved how horrible I am at remembering names) with a few others. They were given a song (the name is just not coming again.. See.. NAME!) which, was really not good in any way. I have to agree with Uncle and Syaf on this. This is something that I would hear when I go out on a karaoke outing with my friends. Really. You need to listen to it. I’m not being over judgmental, but at this stage of the competition, the judges, and writers, like myself, and the viewers out there (who might just happen to be some of the hopefuls) are just waiting to pry on anything that is not up to our expectations. Oh did I also mention that when given a remark of a horrible performance, the other twin, who was in agony of loosing her twin, stood up for the group and said “we don’t know this song”. Smart move girl. That should secure you a place in this competition alright. The essence of this leg of the competition, in my own prediction, is to see your teamwork in belting out a song (with the increasing number of combined artistes we are seeing at award shows), but more importantly, how good are you in learning a song, and belting it to your best ability. How can you convince the judges that you are worth a MILLION ringgit if you can tell them you don’t know the song? Let’s say you win this title somehow, and u are nominated at AIM, and you are requested to sing this one particular song in tribute to somebody, are you going to say you don’t know the song? On this, I have to.. Yes HAVE TO, agree with Syaf that a singer, cannot say that you don’t know the song. That is wrong in every way. End of argument.
The second team up saw Pija of Mentor and my personal favorite Esther, whose group belted out Cinta Yang di Akhir Garisan, followed by the next group with pint-sized Aisyah and Amylea. Not much comments on these two groups. They did fairly well. Amylea’s group precisely, had very good harmonizing and it sounded almost like a tribute on stage.
Next up was the group with Joni Lynn and “Orange”, which to me, had very good harmonizing as well. Then came the boys. They were okay. Most of them. My particular favorite was My Girl by Darren Ashley and Faviq’s group. Then came Aweera’s group who also belted out My Girl. But of course, with Aweera in the group, we could always expect some high-pitched, rock style, rocker tunes amidst the group singing. This is funny. I’m laughing even before I type it out. After Aweera’s group sang their song, Syaf, after the Aweera-dose, started going in a high pitched voice saying “yeaaaaaaaaaaa okaaaaaay” hahahahahaha gosh that was funny. I just watched it over and over and over and over again on repeat. Just that part. Im starting to have a tummy ache and my eyes are watering. For ONCE she was actually funny!! Hahaha!! And I have NEVER seen Uncle so happily laughing before.. Oh by the way, im still watching that part on repeat.. Hahaha
Another cut was made reducing the contestants to only forty. This time around, they were split into 2 groups of 20 and 20. The first 20 contestants were called out and the remaining 20 were seated. This 20 who were called out was Uncle and Syaf’s choice of Top 20. They were each given an MP3 player and were asked to choose from one of the remaining 20 to be their duet partner.
Task : To learn, and sing the song in the MP3 player as a duet with the person you choose.
Time: ONE hour.
First up was Pija and Fifi. Both were equally good at this. Though one was not part of the CHOSEN Top 20, both of them did a very good job in belting their song. If I was sitting on that chair, it would have been a very tough decision. Both got in the top 20.
Aweera never fails to impress us with this high-pitched rocker voice, which reminds me of Syaf. That was very hilarious. Best moment of OIAM S3 yet.. I hope she does it in the live shows too!
Then came Orange. Who couldn’t sing a malay song. In MALAYsia, a MALAY song is a must. If you cannot sing a malay song, you will be out of the music industry in no time. This is where the versatility of a contestant is put to test. We acknowledge that you are not very familiar, and it is not you. But, as a singer, someday, you will be required to sing malay songs. For example, Francessca Peter was famous for Sekadar di Pinggiran, then we have Jac, Daniel, Suki, and loads of singers whose mother tongue is not malay, but, has managed to create names in this industry, because they have proven that they can be versatile, and not just remain in their comfort zone. Unless you can step it up before the next cut to the top 12, I doubt you will stay.
One couple in particular that I found did fairly bad was Joni and Darren. This may come as a surprise to those of you who knows what a fan I am of Darren. The song they belted, Ceritera Cinta by Jac and Rio, was.. All over the place.. Really. A little bit of power, and strength in the voices would have done the trick. Comparatively though, I preferred Joni at this leg of the competition.
Then we had Amylea who was as good as always, outdoing her competitor, whose name I didn’t get either. Amylea made the cut, her competitor was sent home. Rubissa and Pint-Aisyah were quite okay actually. They did fairly well, but I guess compared to the rest of them they did have a bit of problems with pitch and voice. Both were sent home.
Last but not least were Timothy and Faviq. Timothy got in and Faviq was sent home. It is a little bit annoying at this stage, because after having this whole massive promo of Faviq during the audition, you didn’t let us hear him sing this time, did you? No. you didn’t. AND he was sent home. What a pity. I wonder what went wrong…
All in all this was a very very very compressed episode. I am not very fond of it though, but I hope when they are down to the top 20 now, we would have better coverage of the contestants singing, and not some random flash through. Initially, I expected it to be cut down by 20, every week, so in total, it would be 3 weeks to get to the top 20. I was proven wrong.
But I guess we have no choice, because we don’t run the show do we.. No we don’t..
*high pitched voice*
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA OKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA
I think I just died laughing.
CHEERS!
We’ll meet again next week when im all fired up again to blow me bazooka at them!!
Thank you for reading
