Malaysian Idol 02 – Extra : Pre Finale Analysis

(Image courtesy of malaysianidol.bluehyppo.com)

After about 4 months of competition, the finale of Malaysian Idol Season 2 is now finally just a few days away. While it is not really the finale that I really wanted, I’m still excited and looking forward to watch it at least for one of the remaining contestants. Frequent readers of my MI recaps would definitely know who I am referring to so I just wanted to lay it out there so that I can try to be as objective as possible for this analysis.

Assuming that the finale format will follow the finale show last season, both contestants will have 3 songs to perform on Friday’s finale are the Arena of Stars, Genting Highlands. The 3 songs would be picked from the list songs that the finalist have sung before in the previous rounds of competition. One will be picked by the judges as their choice of the best song performed so far by each contestant. Another will be picked by the contestants themselves as their best song for the competition. The final song for each contestant would be a new original song selected as the winner’s first single that has been written specifically for the finale.

One other assumption that I’m making in this analysis is that there would be an English and Bahasa Malaysia song each for each contestants excluding the winner’s single which I’m fairly certain will be in Bahasa Malaysia. As such, I will try to pick the probably songs with that supposition in mind.

Daniel

Song list :

"Special Kind Of Something" by Kavana (5/10)
"True" by Ryan Cabera (5/10)
"Over The Rainbow" by Judy Garland (7/10)
"Obsession" by Frankie J (5/10)
"Kini Bebas" by Camellia & Anuar Zain (7/10)
"In The Shadows" by Rasmus (6/10)
"Save The Last Dance" by Drifters (5/10)
"Angin Malam" by Broery Marantika (7/10)
"Heaven Knows" by Rick Price (7/10)
"Mungkin Nanti" by Peter Pan (6/10)
"Ooh! La! La!" by KRU (5/10)
"Can You Feel The Love Tonight" by Elton John (5/10)

Looking at Daniel’s list, it is fairly apparent that he favors one style of song more than others. Given his restricted vocal range, the song that he would need to pick would need to be simple melodically and fairly straight forward in terms of delivery demands. I don’t think that he will be risking the big glory notes as he simply does not have the solid vocal backing to power and build towards them properly.

For the judges pick, I would expect that the judges would pick “Angin Malam” by Broery Marantika for him. Out of the songs that he performed in the competition, this was the one song that was uniquely adapted from the original to suit his vocal style. We saw a little spark of brilliance in the arrangement of this song when it was last performed in the 6th Spectaculars show. The judges were very receptive of this song and I would venture to say that this is surely their favorite of all of Daniel’s performances.

As for the contestant’s choice, I would assume that Daniel would have to pick an English for the competition. While he may run into problems with his diction singing an English song, I would say that his best bet would be to pick “Heaven Knows” by Rick Price. His performance of this song in Spectacular show #7 was definitely one of his better English song performances. He was confident and comfortable singing it and it came through in his performance of that song then. It was also the type of songs that his fan would able to rally behind of regardless how it sounded.

One of the problems that Daniel might find himself in for the finale is how to differentiate these 2 performances. All of the songs that he has performed in this competition basically sounds very similar to each other and he might not have sufficient variety on his song list to make them interesting. Sadly this might not have that much impact to his fanatic hordes of voters how would vote for him even if he was standing on stage doing a spoken word rendition of “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”.

Nick’s song picks predictions :

Judges pick : “Angin Malam” by Broery Marantika
Contestant’s pick : “Heaven Knows” by Rick Price


Nita

Song list :

"Get Here" by Oleta Adams (8/10)
"Left Outside Alone" by Anastascia (7/10)
"Tenda Biru" by Dessy Ratnasari (6/10)
"Snow On The Sahara" by Anggun (6/10)
"Hati Ini Telah Dilukai" by Kris Dayanti (7/10)
"Bring Me To Life" by Evanescence (5/10)
"Engkau Laksana Bulan" by P Ramlee (6/10)
"Big Spender" by Shirley Bessey (8/10)
"Berhenti Mengharap" by Sheila on 7 (8/10)
"Hand In My Pocket" by Alanis Morissette (7/10)
"Love Is A Crime" by Anastascia (8/10)
"Asmaradana" by Tiara Jacquelina (7/10)

Nita has a wider and more interesting selection to choose from for the two songs thanks to her versatile vocal range. She could easily select to polish 2 of the songs that she already performed and make them individually memorable when she performs them. Unlike Daniel, she needs to select song that would allow her vocals to soar in the higher registers where her vocal strengths are. She must at all cost avoid safe songs that she doesn’t need to challenge herself to sing.

For Nita, I see the judges pick "Big Spender" by Shirley Bessey from Spectacular 6 as the song they choose for her. Out of all her performances, this must be the most memorable one and the one that she looked the most confident delivering. It was a clear fan favorite when it was first performed and it would really let Nita strut her stuff on stage to the fullest. A cabaret style performance of this song would be fun to listen to and would sure be something that her fans would love to see her perform again.

For her second pick, I would say that she should pick "Berhenti Mengharap" by Sheila on 7 that she performed in the 7th Spectacular. This song would be different enough from the other song that we would be able to see her vocal abilities and performance versatility. What was more, this song has the soaring chorus and power notes that favors Nita well. If she manages to stay focus and really give her all to this performance, it might return a big pay-off in the end.

Nita needs to have all 3 of her performances as perfect as she can to really show how much better vocally she is in the finale. She has to watch out for the pitching problems that has been plaguing her through out the competition. If she manage to keep her focus and commit fully to the song that she will be singing, she could no doubt sing rings around Daniel given her superior vocal range. She would need to cross all T’s and dot all I’s in her performances to get the sway and anti-Daniel voters to send votes her way after the finale.

Nick’s song picks predictions :

Judges pick : "Big Spender" by Shirley Bessey
Contestant’s pick : "Berhenti Mengharap" by Sheila on 7

Winner’s Single

The title of this year’s winner’s single is “Mimpi” (Dream) written by Pot Amir of the local R&B group, Innuendo. For the moment, I do not have any clear indication of how this song will sound like but I do hope that it would sound as grand as the winner’s single from last year’s finale, “Gemilang” sounded. I’m really looking forward to hear it this Friday.

Nita might have an upper hand in the performance of the winner’s single as her vocal range could potentially help her if the song falls into the type that would require soaring vocals and power notes. Daniel on the other hand would have to really hope that the song fits into his narrower vocal stylings.

Both contestants coming into the finale have their own strengths. Nita comes in with powerful vocals and versatility while Daniel comes in with his horde of fanatical power voters and the cutesy factor that kept them voting for him. In the end there will only be one person with the bragging rights as the second Malaysian Idol. I hope that the person chosen on Saturday as the Malaysian Idol would be the one most deserving after his/her performances in the finale on Friday.

(updated 22/9 after the MI Diary show when I realised the better Bahasa Malaysia song choice for Nita)