a night to remember...

singapore idol... taufik batisah...
a night that talent came out victorious... and proved that it is not just a popularity contest...
its been 6mths... and boy did the show outdid everyone's expectations....
everyone was sceptical... but the capacity crowd at the indoor stadium proved that the show could work even in singapore...
it was phenomenal... from the crowd frenzy... screaming away everytime they caught a glimpse of their idol... to the crying sly fans... when the stadium was nearly empty save for the ushers and the attendents who had to clean up the mess... i was really glad to be a part of it... thanks to MY KOREAN BABE who managed to get tickets to watch the show live... and later got me passes to go for the post show party.... the night was meant to go down as one of my highlights for 2004...

of course at the indoor stadium it was really hard to make out who was the better singer that nite... frankly, sly didn't sound that bad at all... but the sound system really did not help the evaluation of their performance... so its no wonder that the judges gave pretty even comments... taufik delivered the songs so well that i had goosebumps when he sang I DREAM (someone should tell the composers to come up with more original sounding titles for IDOL songs...) while sly won the crowd over with his sincerity... of course ppl watching at home could probably hear a few bad notes... but the crowd at the stadium was enjoying the performances...

the race to garner more votes were probably not as close as everyone thought it was... sly fans spent too much time screaming their voices hoarse.. (really, the bunch of girls crying "sylvester is the real winner" at the end of it all sounded like boys hitting puberty) taufik was backed by a strong silent community... heh... while there at the stadium... everytime i heard sly fans scream louder than taufik's i picked up my phone.. to call 1900 112 1901... from my initial budget of 10 calls... i increased it to 20... i figured the 10bucks spent was well worth the performance he gave... and if anything... i wld support his first single too.. i mean he is as talented as GUY SEBASTION... no reason not to support just coz he is local..
and the strangest thing was that i talked to some people who said that they like sly... but are voting for taufik... wow, such rational behaviour... of course their reson being that sly will prob get a record deal anyway since the chinese pop market is larger... and if taufik didn't win, he might not be offered a deal.. since he is after all more SURIA than CH5

so when they finally announced the winner... the strong silent backing of the talented performer were jubilant.... i felt happy and shared the joy of a total stranger... well, i wld like to think that my 20votes made the difference..

at the post show party at hard rock... i finally got to meet taufik... got him to autograph my copy of 8days.. it was a wednesday.. and thank god he was on the cover.... (i got olinda to autograph a picture of her in the mag too... its a pity i wasn't quite prepared for the postshow event... i wld hv brought my back issue of 8days!)
after he signed on the mag, and two napkins for me to give to my friends.... i congratulated him, shook his hand and told him that "i voted for you!".... he gave a wide grin in shocked earnestness... and thanked me...

there he was... a boy younger than myself... realising his dreams... it really doesn't matter if there is no market... it really doesn't matter that album sales for local english albums have been dismal.... this guy made it... for that moment... he was a star...