According to the Singapore Idol website, Hady Mirza's victory at the indoor stadium last night was a landslide "marked by 70 per cent of some one million votes." If you ask me, that's a pretty impressive statistic even when compared to season one's 62:38 percent win by Taufik Batisah against Sylvester Sim. I can volunteer a number of conjectures why the winning margin is that wide but I think I'll only mention the most plausible ones here... ;)
1) Most Sg-Idol viewers had finally recovered from the "tone-deaf" syndrome (remember those intolerable weeks when Joakim Gomez was still around??) and could distinguish good-quality singing from not-so-good quality singing. Although Jonathan Leong's deliveries have always been cool, steady and "epic" (as judge Jacintha had once commented) in style, his vocals simply cannot match Hady's superb range and amazing control. Hady is the better singer by a mile.
2) If you're choosing someone who could excel in the mainstream genres of pop and R&B (which are evidently the more popular and commercialised genres), then Hady Mirza is definitely the more qualified singer. He can pull-off maudlin ballads, groovy uptempo numbers and retro tunes with equal ease. Versatility -- I believe -- is a prereqisite to becoming a true Idol.
3) No matter how corny the Idol song is apt to be, we are doomed to hear it ceaselessly on local radio stations for the next few weeks or more, depending on how long Mediacorp is able to sustain the "idol fever". Despite Jon's competent renditions of Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars and Dreamz FM's Should I Stay (very suitable choices of song, for his limited vocals, I might add), his version of You Give Me Wings was predominantly shaky and uninspiring. Jon's lobbyists might counter that what he lacked in the vocal pyrotechnics department, he made up for it with oodles of emoting, sincerity and stage presence but if one was only listening to the song on radio, then oodles of emoting, sincerity and stage presence just won't cut it. With that said, I think Hady's flashy and awe-inspiring rendition (evoking R Kelly's I Believe I Can Fly, Michael Bolton's Go The Distance, Taufik's I Dream, and other similar mush-fests) is what eventually nailed his win for him.4) Finally, no Idol would be complete without his league of devoted and impassioned fans who die-die are determined to see their Idol win. Not only did Hady have the minority vote, he also had the support of thousands in Singapore who would rather not see a long-haired, skinny, rocker-wannabe become the nation's Idol representative (reminiscent of first season of SI, isn't it?). Oh, and have I mentioned that the Malay race, though not a very dependable bunch in general, can actually demonstrate an amazing sense of solidarity when they really put their minds to it?? =D
As a whole, I quite enjoyed the performance show on Sunday but the line-up of performances on Monday's results show was a disappointment. For one, it is NOT a thrill to watch the other ten finalists make a come-back by lip-synching through a medley of current radio hits. It was sooooo obvious lor...
After weeks of only hearing about Rahimah Rahim, the evergreen singer of yore, we finally got to see her 'live' on SI. However, her appearance I felt, was simply a token to off-set the very Cheena presence of Taiwanese boyband, Energy, whose merciless butchering of Stand By Me was alleviated only when Jon and Hady joined in the second half of the song. In addition, Tanya Chua's usual charisma seemed rather muted during her take of the thoroughly insipid Wake Me Up When September Ends.
Fortunately, the evening was saved by Electrico's highly-charged performance (they were awesome!), and Taufik's suave presence. He was definitely still in fine voice, proving once again that his Idol win a couple of years was a deserved one. Sadly however, there was no word about his new, upcoming album or current career developments. In fact, he hardly said anything at all! Very weird...
Well anyway, with the wrap up of SI, the next local reality series to look forward to would be The Dancefloor but goodness knows when they'll start airing it. So until then, I guess we'll just have to be content with re-runs of Happy Belly, Phua Chu Kang, Living With Lydia et al. How dull!
