A Star Is Born

This would the faceoff between two very outstanding individuals who had survived the many weeks of competition to be where they are today. Their pesistance and efforts into making sure that they go through every phase of the competition flawless in order to garner the votes of the public which would either bring them a step towards becoming the first Malaysian Idol or not. It was really interesting to watch the 12 finalist do battle on stage trying to outwit each other with a good performance. The atmosphere would certainly be a tense one yet despite the stiff competition between them, they seem to exuberate a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood. Those who left at the end of every week gave hope to those who stayed on to press on and give their very best. The contestants who remain in the competition encourage one another through their support, help and prayer. This have caused Malaysian Idol to be a truely professional event of amateur singers. It had also displayed a sense of unity between every one of the participants without any obvious rivalry.

The Final 10 (Nikki is the second from left in pink)

In a competition such as this, there would be obvious favourites. I learned that many people have different preferences of what an idol would be. Some go for good looks and attires, others go for good voice and performance. I chose the latter. My choice of an idol would be one who was able to deliver on a World's stage because that would be the ultimate goal for an idol. There were a few candidates that had impressed yet did not manage to make it through to the end. One such candidate would be Nikki who simply blew me away with her rich and soulful voice despite being at a tender age of 19. Her first appearance durng the audition in Sarawak stun the lights of everyone when she sang "Emotion" by Mariah Carey. Despite having an angelic voice, she needed to remain consistent every week. A lack of experience had a part to play in it as she did not manage to command a good stage presence although she had tried to express herself, both in body movement and facial expression. There were also many incidences of bad pitching and starting the song at the wrong note. I can see its not easy to stand infront an audience to perform and it takes a lot of confident to do that. She has the potentials to become a very good singer. All it takes is for someone to take her under their wings and nurture her.

The faceoff at Arena of the Stars, Genting Highlands on Friday would be the highlight of the four month journey for everyone involve in this production. A huge crowd of 6000 strong supporters gathered to support their favourite idol. I would be one the many millions of viewers who were glued to their television to witness the the last of the divas. It was predictable last two as both the contestants had improved greatly and managed to remain consistant to this very day. They were non other than, Dina and Jac.

The final 2, Dina & Jac

Dina appealed to me as one of those cool rocker kind of girl with pure "gilaness". Her impressive record to stay in this competition was really surprising. She manages to go through the auditions but had failed to make ti to the top 30. However, she was called back into the competition to make up the remaining three in the top 33 selection. She persevered through every week with so much improvement that even the judges were amazed by her effort. She had worked hard despite being a dark house in this compeition and surive through the compeition until this very day.

Jac was a familiar face for those who were updated with the local music industry. The first time I saw her was during one of the Malaysian Top 10 episodes on Hitz.TV on ASTRO where she was a guest on the program introducing her new single and album. Her participation in Malaysian Idol seem to baffled many people as people questioned her entry despite already being a singer and cutting an album. There was even a time when she was one of the two contestant with the lowest amount of votes and was at the brink of being voted out. However, she had manage to persevere through all this critism and circumstances, emerging as one of the strongest and favourite contestants in this competition.to be the first Malaysian Idol. Many were impress by her powerful voice, creative singing and a commanding stage presence that cause the audience to pay attention to her. I was at first adamant to fully support her as I did not feel her voice was as good as Nikki's. However, it make me realise that it does not take a person with a very good voice to be a singer.

You need other attributes to complement you as well. A contestant with an okay voice with an impressive stage presence that includes clearl spoken lyrics, movement around the stage, well dressed and connecting with the crowd through the presentation of the songs would be some of the qualities to go through this competition. This has proved evident in allowing Jac to be the very first Malaysian Idol with a comfortable 76% of the entire one million votes. Jac had gone through a live determined to be a singer one day despite her poor background. Her exposure in singing in pubs and her perseverance to seek for the best oppurtunity that were available to allow people to see her true talent proved worthwhile. The person who would be there to bring up this girl would be non other than her mother who had work odd jobs to make ends meet in order to provide for the family and also to support her daughters endeavour. I truly believe that Jac deserved this title more than anyone else as she had work very hard in the past to get to where she is now in life. This would be a true testimony of somoene who had work hard to achieve their dreams and it had taken a long time for her to finally realise it.

Malaysian First Idol, Jacklyn Joshua Victor @ Jac

Pictures courtesy from Malaysian Idol Official Website