Malaysian Idol 02-19, Airdate: 12/08/2005 – Spectaculars #3: And Then There Were 8

(Image courtesy of malaysianidol.bluehyppo.com)

It was a bit strange going into a Spectacular after missing the result show last Sunday. I guess it felt like something was off having had skipped the normal rhythm of Spectaculars and Result shows last week. The theme for the show this week was “R&B Pop” which sounded indecisive on the producers part. Is it R&B or is it Pop? No one really knew I guess since even the contestants were confused about the theme for tonight. The contestants by the way were introduced this week in girl-boy pairs in away that reminded me of a debutant ball. There was just this prom date vibe going on as they came on stage tonight. Of course they ended up the silly segment with the normal group cluster and pointy poses at the end.

Before they start the show proper, we were treated to the normal filler segments while they setup the stage for the next contestants. The subject of this week’s filler segment was “Idols Playing Futsal”. They did the same thing last season but they had the Idols then trying to shoot each other silly in a paintball game. This season the Idols had to do their group activity indoor I guess owing to the haze this week. I don’t think that choice of having it indoors helped quite a lot because unless the camera they used during the taping of the segment had a very dirty lens, I think that they were playing futsal in a really hazy futsal sports center which incidentally was the same one near my apartment.

The guest judge for tonight’s Spectacular was Anuar Zain who I liked better when he had shorter hair and without the unfortunate tuft of facial hair. Speaking of hair, Jien’s looked in fine form with sufficient product to lift it off the forehead. Good boy!

Faizull – “Jangan Lafaskan” by KRU

The old school rocker of the group had to do something different for once tonight. I was looking forward to see how he adapted when he had to perform something other than what he was comfortable with since I was getting tired with the old thing that he does. Faizull started off a bit weak and although he had a fairly nice tone to his voice, it sounded like he just sucked on a bit of helium before he came out on stage. Comparing tonight’s performance with his other showings it was clear that he was not fully comfortable with his performance and that made for a stiff presentation. The performance itself was fairly subdued compared to his usual old school rocker shrieking and lack his usual punch. I don’t think that he choose the correct song since this particular ballad doesn’t lend itself easily to an arrangement that would be closer to his normal comfort zone. I think to move ahead in this competition, he need to learn how to select songs that he could put his own rocker twist to it and present it as something uniquely his.

Nick’s verdict: 7/10

Ash – “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” by Temptations

I thought that I heard the pseudo rocker growl coming back into is vocal stylings after being so good and sitting out during his performance on the last spectacular. He had the attitude down for the song but I felt that the performance lacked the punch to make the performance memorable. Vocally he does have an interesting voice but it was too uninvolved to connect with the audience. As a result the performance felt messy, unconnected and soulless. He could have done more by adding some power behind his vocals to solidify some notes without which just sounded like a weak and watered down of the original. It was one of the performances that just comes on and forgotten almost immediately after each note was sounded.

Nick’s verdict: 6/10

Adam – “Semua UntukMu” by Anuar Zain

Singing something by the guest judge took balls of titanium to pull off and most of the time it wouldn’t be a really good idea. For one, the guest judge judging you could easily take offence if you mangled his/her song on national TV. Thankfully for Adam, he managed to keep his head and deliver a competent but safe performance. I always liked the tone of his voice and with song we get to hear it clearly. There were some problems with the lower registers being a bit mumbled but he recovered nicely to finish with a good performance. The only problem that I had with his performance was that it felt like the same thing that we have been hearing in the past Spectaculars. He has not progressed fast enough from then compared to the other contestants in the show. However, I still thought that his was the best performance vocally of the night.

Nick’s verdict: 8/10

Farah – “Don’t Let Go” by EnVogue

Farah wisely decided to ditched the “Pink Princess Jasmine” image and embrace the inner diva in her in a performance that was miles better than the wreck she performed last week. She looked like she was playing the Lolita sex-kitten look to the hilt and was fairly confident in her performance this week. She did have the same clipped notes problem that dogged her performance last week but she recovered after them better this week. Unfortunately for her, she decided to take the easy way and not really commit to the performance by not attempting the power notes in the original song. By doing that, it made her performance just average when it could have easily be more memorable if she just committed herself more into the song.

Nick’s verdict: 6/10


Ejay – “All Around the World” by Lisa Stansfield

I’m continued to be impressed on how far Ejay has improved from the first time we saw her. Her diction and confidence were visibly improving week after week and this week’s performance was no exception. She still had the same problems she had each week with her lower registers but the rest of her vocals were fairly enjoyable to listen to. I hope that now that she had built her confidence up more, she would try out more challenging songs that would better showcase her vocals as to date I don’t think that we have had a chance to see her full vocal potential.

Nick’s verdict: 7/10

Daniel – “Obsession” by Frankie J

I don’t think that I have ever heard this song before so when Daniel came on stage mumbling the words so badly tonight I couldn’t help but getting distracted by trying to figure out what he was singing about. After his performance last week, he was back to mumbling the words to the song and oozing the boyband smaltz that his voting fans would unquestionably lap up like it was the best thing on Earth. I thought that the performance was a tuneless mess and fairly inconsistent which was a pity as I was expecting a better performance that the one he gave last week. There were more than a few pitch problems and there was little to no projection in his thin reedy voice. Without question his performance tonight was the worst out of the remaining 8 contestants.

Nick’s verdict: 5/10

Nita – “Snow On the Sahara” by Anggun

I was distracted by how stunning she looked in her off-white dress tonight to really pay attention to the beginning to her performance when she came up on stage tonight. Once I focused my attention back to her singing I felt disappointed that she didn’t invest a solid vocal backing to her performance on top of her stunning appearance tonight. She looked comfortable enough singing it but there were still the pitch problems that she has been having lately. I thought the first half of the performance was promising as she built towards what I expected to be a memorable ending but somewhere about the midpoint of the song her performance bizarrely shifted down gears and ended in a very different place than what the beginning of her performance indicated. Nita even had to indicate that she had finished her song at the end as it sounded like a very strange place to end the performance. It was a fairly bizarre performance that was disappointing since it could have easily ended correctly at a better place if only she was confident enough with her performance to see through it to the end.

Nick’s verdict: 6/10

Xerra – “Ain’t Nobody” by Chaka Khan

With sexy growls firmly in place, Xerra delivered a confident and comfortable performance. The intensity of her performance built up to a messy falsetto but she recovered nicely to finish fairly competently. Unlike Nita who came before her, Xerra delivered what she teased the audience throughout her performance. I would have like more solid backing in her vocals for this song as I found her voice fell a bit short of what I would have liked for a Chaka Khan song.

Nick’s verdict: 7/10

The bottom 3 this week would have to depend on who have the smaller fan base to vote for them since the show tonight doesn’t lend itself to showing us a clear winner of the group. My predictions would be Daniel, Ash & Nita as I thought that their performance were the worst of the bunch tonight but all three have big fan base rooting for them by now who at this very moment would be spending their mobile phone credits to save their favorite Idol. If this really happens then I worry for the other contestants like Adam and Farah who I feel have their votes split with the rest of the contestants. Regardless of the outcome, I’ll continue to document my own predictions as I see them.

Nick’s prediction:

Bottom three: Daniel, Ash & Nita
Out this week: Daniel