American Idol!!

Kelly Clarkson won 2 Grammys last year. Carrie Underwood won 2 Grammys this year. Clay Aiken has the highest selling album for his 'Measure of a Man'. Fantasia Barrino has Grammy nominations. Chris Daughtry has the no 1 selling album and lastly, Jennifer Hudson won an Oscar!! What do these people have in common? Why, they are AI alumni!!

American Idol has become a stepping stone or a beginning of a huge career for those finalists. Yes, some of them did not win the coveted Idol trophy, however, they have achieved further success and earn their success in their own right. Americans may not vote for them during the Idol competition, however it's not the end of the road for them. The losers have no 1 selling albums, no 1 single hits, an Oscar to show for their achievement.

Now, the final 12 has been chosen by America. One has fallen last night, Brandon Rogers, has the lowest number of votes and been eliminated. Throughout the competition, he has not performed to his best of his ability. His audition was good that made Simon think that he will advance far in the competition. However, he has not produced the spectacular performance that he has done during the auditions. Good Luck to him...

As for the remaining contestants, the girls are performing way beyond better than the guys. My fav female contestants are Lakisha Jones and Melinda Dolittle with Jordin Sparks growing on me. As for the fav male contestants, I liked Blake Lewis and Chris Richardson...Chris Sleigh's performance is alright but his humour didn't feel right with me. However, they are all below par from the female contestants.

Lastly, one of my fav performances from the movie 'Dreamgirls'. Jennifer Hudson truly deserved her Oscar. Her getting an Oscar is like payback to her American Idol competition as she deserved to win the Idol. Too bad, America didn't vote for her and she was eliminated. Now, three years later, she has acted in her first movie role in 'Dreamgirls' and critics praised her performance. Her role as Effie White was truly amazing. She managed to capture the essence of her character, her mannerisms, her character's stubbornness. She has shine along side with Beyonce Knowles and Jamie Fox in her role and didn't even overdo it. Her performance in this video clip was probably the best and the climax of the movie which probably got her an Oscar. As for her acting, she can further improve it so that she could be a seasoned actress as well as a singer. Compare with Lakisha Jones' performance, I really dunno who to choose....both of them were phenomenal in their performance. I hoped that Lakisha Jones would go far in the competition and not lose like Jennifer Hudson when she was on the Idol. She really deserved to win this...

The End of S’pore Idol???

Monday was the end of the season (finally!!) for the S'pore Idol which ended to Hardy Mirza getting the honour of being the second & most probably the last Idol should the producers decided to end the series. Congrats to him for beating Jonathan in the finals. The season has been too much of the lows and a huge disappointment compared to the last season. The final 12 contestants as a whole were a joke. Though there were good singers like Matilda, Hady and Gayle, contestants like Joachim were obviously proven that he can't sing to save his life. Paul Twohill started out strong during the beginning but declined so much he butchered Boyzone 'Picture of You' Somehow as he admitted, he lost his identity as a emo rocker during the spectaculars. Also, Jasmine didn't even deserved to be in the final three as she was not consistent in her performances and sang a Spice Girl song!! Which contestant would sing this song, man? She didn't really choose her songs properly. The one huge disappointment during the whole spectaculars was when Matilda got eliminated. She was clearly one of the few best singers in the competition and could really advanced further perhaps into the final three. Too bad, voters do not take up to her image and too many little girls voting for the cute guys resulting in Joachim and Paul staying.

It's a pity if S'pore Idol was to end. This is one show that Singaporeans from different races can have the opportunity to showcase their singing talents and pursue their dreams of being a singer. Some tweaks definitely should be made so that the next season can be more successful. Like the American Idol during the third season, ratings were going downhill and people were getting disinterested. However, with a few tweaks here and there, the next and fifth season proved to be a huge hit with the ratings. Similarly, there should be some tweaks made. One could be the introduction of guest singers to teach the Idols during the spectaculars and guest judges during the roadshow auditions and the finals.

I am looking forward to the next reality competition - the Dance Floor. The show looks promising and there is a wider age gap for participation which will ensure that that quality dancing esp from the older generation would be shown. I only hope that voting is free, unlike S'pore Idol so that different age groups, regardless of whether u are rich or poor, can vote w/o costing them a single cent. That way, then Singapore can truly decide.