And the Winner Is...
Read it how you will: as the triumph of swing jazz over pop/rock; as the triumph of English over Mandarin; as the triumph of spirited performance over mere singing.
It could be the novelty of old-school crooning in a time when strained, anguished vocals are fashionable. Or it could be that, for some reason I don't understand, many people think "Mack the Knife" is a notoriously difficult song to sing.
It certainly couldn't have been that I was the better vocalist, because one of my 11 competitors had a Grade 8 in classical singing. And she, as well as two others, made it quite far in last year's Singapore Idol, falling short of the top 30.
It couldn't have been that I was more popular, because whenever one of the business students took to the stage, the cheers were racuous (this competition was organised by the NUS Students' Business Club). And when it came to announcing the winner, someone else's name was screamed repeatedly.
But I don't really care. I'm just happy that I won the first prize in my category.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I haven't taken to the stage for a serious performance in quite a while, so it was nice being able to feel the adrenaline rush without the weeks of commitment it usually takes to get there. And as one of the oldest competitors, it was also interesting to see how nervous some of the others got backstage.
The prize? A modest $100 cash and $200 in kind from Guiding Stars, a talent management company. Depending on how much their courses actually cost, I may or may not use the vouchers.
And I just want to add, for posterity, that the emcee was a lame-joke class act. I particularly relished his crude literal translations of song titles that sound evocative in Mandarin. For the lovely duet "wu ding", sung by the couple pictured above, he said "here they are, with Roof". And for Jacky Cheung's "zuo you wei nan", he simply said, "ladies and gentlemen...Left Right Got Problem".
It could be the novelty of old-school crooning in a time when strained, anguished vocals are fashionable. Or it could be that, for some reason I don't understand, many people think "Mack the Knife" is a notoriously difficult song to sing.
It certainly couldn't have been that I was the better vocalist, because one of my 11 competitors had a Grade 8 in classical singing. And she, as well as two others, made it quite far in last year's Singapore Idol, falling short of the top 30.
It couldn't have been that I was more popular, because whenever one of the business students took to the stage, the cheers were racuous (this competition was organised by the NUS Students' Business Club). And when it came to announcing the winner, someone else's name was screamed repeatedly.
But I don't really care. I'm just happy that I won the first prize in my category.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I haven't taken to the stage for a serious performance in quite a while, so it was nice being able to feel the adrenaline rush without the weeks of commitment it usually takes to get there. And as one of the oldest competitors, it was also interesting to see how nervous some of the others got backstage.
The prize? A modest $100 cash and $200 in kind from Guiding Stars, a talent management company. Depending on how much their courses actually cost, I may or may not use the vouchers.
And I just want to add, for posterity, that the emcee was a lame-joke class act. I particularly relished his crude literal translations of song titles that sound evocative in Mandarin. For the lovely duet "wu ding", sung by the couple pictured above, he said "here they are, with Roof". And for Jacky Cheung's "zuo you wei nan", he simply said, "ladies and gentlemen...Left Right Got Problem".
posted by The Empty Signifier @ 2/19/2005 03:53:00 pm
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