As I have suspected, the folks at Suriachannel never bothered to update their Anugerah website. Well, they DID manage to get it up and running in time for the first elimination round but had subsequently failed to maintain their website. And that was like, a month ago?? Maybe there aren't any capable malay-speaking web designers around.. or maybe they just couldnt afford web designers in the first place..?? This isnt the only reason why I'm displeased with the apparent lack of competency/efficiency in the malay media industry. Seriously, how will it ever gain credibility if the people who manage it continue to produce such slipshod work??
Case in point is the way the Anugerah competition is run. The judging system is so flawed, it makes me cringe just thinking about it. And it gives me a bad headache too. Oh well... isnt there a saying that goes something like "If you can't beat 'em, then join 'em??"
Last tuesday's anugerah episode was themed Lagu-lagu dari Penyanyi Malaysia (songs by Malaysian singers) and I thought this week's contestants would have a plethora of gems to choose from. Instead, most contestants were bogged down by poor song choice, resulting in renditions that either lacked that extra punch or sounded like a bad karaoke night-out. Only a few were outstanding (at least in my humble opinion)...
Dina Ardiana's rendition of Selagi Ada Cinta was strikingly different from the original yet still faithful to the melody of the song. Her tonal quality is quite good and I must say that if it werent for her unpopularity votes (which was highly likely due to her Indonesian background), I think she'd be a front-runner in this competition; Being the youngest in the competition is certainly not a disadvantage for Rashidah Jalil because she definitely possesses the vocal chops to outdo anyone much older than her. Her Aku Tetap Aku was a mite overdone but it was still spectacular, nevertheless; Initially, Zulyana Aziz may seem abit out of her depth singing a song originated by the reputable francesca peters, but she did manage to pull off Akulah Kekasihmu quite credibly in the end...
Besides those aforementioned, the other contestants who managed to escape elimination are tudung gerl Norazela, Siti nurhaliza-clone Nurulhuda and tight-black-leather-pants-guy Ahmad Syafii. Their performances were above-average at best but it remains to be seen whether they'd be able to take the quality of their performances a notch higher in the next qualifying round. I can't wait for next week's anugerah episode cuz' I'm rooting for Farah Wahidah; she may not know it yet, but I just found out recently that we're actually second cousins!!! hmmm.. that's abit weird huh?? LOL
