Singapore Idol

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Singapore Idol
Singapore Idol logo
Format	Interactive reality game show
Created by	Simon Fuller
Starring	Hosts Gurmit Singh (Season 1 - Present) Hady Mirza (Present - ) Daniel Ong (Season 2)
Judges	Dick Lee (Season 1 - Present) Florence Lian (Season 1 - Present) Ken Lim (Season 1 - Present) Jacintha Abisheganaden (Season 2) Douglas Oliverio (Season 1)
Country of origin	Singapore
Production
Location(s)	MediaCorp TV Theatre Singapore Indoor Stadium (finale)
Broadcast
Original channel	Channel 5
Original run	2004 – present
External links
Official website

Singapore Idol (Chinese: 新加坡偶像) is a television show on Channel 5 of MediaCorp TV. It is a competition among undiscovered singers in Singapore. Like others in the Idol series, it is modelled after Pop Idol. The judges are Dick Lee, Florence Lian, Douglas Oliverio (replaced by Jacintha Abisheganaden in season 2) and Ken Lim. The show is hosted by Gurmit Singh and Daniel Ong. The show is produced by MediaCorp Studios and FremantleMedia Operations BV. The show was defunct for a while after the second season and was replaced by another reality contest, Live The Dream, premiering on Singapore's National Day, exactly 3 years after the beginning of season 1. On the December 15th edition of the Today newspaper, Mediacorp announced that Singapore Idol Season 3 will arrive on television screens in 2009.

Singapore Idol Season 3 registration is opened from May 1. Registration details available on the official Singapore Idol 3 website at http://5.mediacorptv.sg/idol. Singapore Idol 3 is set to premier on MediaCorp TV Channel 5 on August 9, 2009, after the telecast of Singapore's National Day Parade.

[edit] Season 1 (2004)

Season 1 of Singapore Idol premiered on the National Day of Singapore (9 August) in 2004. This season produced a few memorable, albeit notorious, performers during the audition round. They included Skyy Sia aka Bananaman, who wore a mask of watermelon and bananas; Kelvin Sim, who accompanied his very bad rendition of Fool's Garden's "Lemon Tree" with a dance that rivalled that of William Hung; Patrick Khoo, who literally whispered George Michael's "Careless Whisper".

As with other shows in the Idol series, the viewers' votes decide who goes on to the next round. This has always produced controversial results, in every singing competition. It is considered a cheap way to earn money, and the results are always what it shouldn't be. In the third preliminary round, Jerry Ong, whose singing was described by judge Florence Lian as being "constipated" and "weak", was voted through to the finals, beating favourites Beverly Lim Morata and Nur Hasanah (Nana), both of whom were thought to be better singers. Candice Foo, who got in to the finals from the second week, withdrew from the contest at the last minute due to "financial difficulties". In a bigger upset, Jeassea K. Thyidor, considered by many to be a frontrunner in the competition, was eliminated in the very first round of the finals by a margin of 200 votes. Her premature exit was variously attributed to her guarded persona, complacency of her supporters and her nationality (she was originally from Canada). Many specualted that Jerry was the one to go due to his weak delivery, and this sparked a brief anti-Jerry campaign that lasted for the next 2 weeks until his elimination on October 15. On the final week of the Spectaculars, many speculated Olinda Cho, one of the more consistent performers, to go to the Grand Finals with Taufik Batisah, but Sylvester Sim, who had been in the Bottom 2/3 positions more than anyone else, made it through instead.

In the final showdown held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on 1 December 2004, Taufik Batisah beat Sylvester Sim with 62% of the votes to become the first Singapore Idol. The song both Taufik and Sylvester were required to sing was I Dream. Both received recording deals from Sony BMG on the same day. Taufik's album, Blessings, was released on 17 January 2005. Sylvester's album, Take Flight, was released in 8 April 2005. Another one of the finalists, Maia Lee, also released an album titled Emotionally Advised on 20 August 2005. Olinda and Daphne would also release their debut alums in years to come. Sylvester was granted a release from Hype Records in mid 2006 due to personal problems.

• Top 11 theme: Parents' Choice
• Top 9 theme: Rock 'n' Roll
• Top 8 theme: Live Disco
• Top 7 theme: Song by Favorite Singer
• Top 6 theme: Big Band
• Top 5 theme: R&B/Soul
• Top 4 theme: Asian Pop
• Top 3 theme: Movies and Musicals
• Top 2 theme: Judges' Choice, Own Choice and Winner's Single

[edit] Season 2 (2006)

Auditions for season 2 were held on 11 February 2006 at *Scape in Orchard Road and was extended twice due to overwhelming response - 12 February at the same location and 19 February in Toa Payoh. The season premiered on 21 May with clips of the auditions. Dick Lee, Florence Lian and Ken Lim return as judges while Douglas Oliverio was replaced by Jacintha Abisheganaden. After widespread criticism of his hosting abilities in season 1, Gurmit Singh was paired with Daniel Ong as co-hosts for season 2. Ex-contestant from Singapore Idol season 1 Daphne Khoo hosted Singapore Idol On Demand, an online subscription service that provided media downloads and exclusive footages of the show.

A day after the results for Piano Show #4 were announced, MediaCorp revealed that a computer glitch in the voting process had mistakenly sent Mathilda D'Silva into the top 12, instead of Nurul Maideen. Mathilda was placed in the wildcard show and was subsequently voted into the finals. Shortly after the technical glitch fiasco, wildcard contestant Meryl Joan Lee announced her withdrawal from the contest.

The final 12 contestants were housed in Hangout @ Mount Emily, a budget hotel, for as long as they remained in the competition. Once the contestant is ousted, he/she will head back to Mount Emily to pack up his/her belongings and head back home.

The Final Showdown for the title featured Jonathan Leong and Hady Mirza singing three songs each at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Due to the frequency jam that took place in the first season, the finals was held on 2 separate days; the performance show on the 24th of September, and the results show on the 25th of September. One of the songs which both contestants sang was "You Give Me Wings", which became the winner's first single. On September 25, 2006, 26-year-old Hady Mirza was declared the winner of Singapore Idol 2006 with about 70% of the votes cast. Hady's self-titled debut album was released in mid November 2006. Hady would then go on to compete in Asian Idol and become the first Asian Idol in December 2007.

• Top 12 theme: Parents' Choice
• Top 11 theme: #1 Hits from 1996-2006
• Top 10 theme: Classic Jazz
• Top 9 theme: Songs by British Singers/Bands
• Top 8 theme: Home, Family and Friends
• Top 7 theme: Rock n Roll
• Top 6 theme: Asian Pop
• Top 5 theme: R&B and Soul
• Top 4 theme: Judges' Choice
• Top 3 theme: Contestant's Favourites
• Top 2 theme: Contestant's Choice from Judges' List, Spectaculars Encore & Winner's Single

[edit] Bottom Group Breakdown

[edit] Season 1

• Piano Show 1 Qualifiers: David Yeo, Olinda Cho and Jeassea Thyidor
• Piano Show 2 Qualifiers: Christopher Michael Lee, Daphne Khoo and Candice Foo
• Piano Show 3 Qualifiers: Taufik Batisah, Leandra Rasiah and Jerry Ong
• Judges' Choice Wildcards: Maia Lee and Beverly Lim Morata
• People's Choice Wildcards: Sylvester Sim

[edit] Season 2

• Piano Show 1 Qualifiers: Paul Twohill and Jonathan Leong
• Piano Show 2 Qualifiers: Rahimah Rahim and Jasmine Tye
• Piano Show 3 Qualifiers: Hady Mirza and Joakim Gomez
• Piano Show 4 Qualifiers: Nurul Maideen and Emily Kang
• Judges' Choice Wildcards: Norman Then and Gayle Nerva
• People's Choice Wildcards: Mathilda D'Silva and Jay Lim

• Not all episodes were the contestants who were "in danger of elimination" necessarily in the bottom 3, merely the contestant to be eliminated together with whomever the producers wanted to choose. This applies to the first three episodes.

[edit] Season 3 (2009) and Live The Dream

On December 15, Mediacorp mentioned in its free-circulating-paper, Today, that Singapore Idol Season 3 is one of the new programmes that viewers can look out for in the coming year (2009). The third instalment comes three years after the previous and during this break, Mediacorp has produced a similar talentshow format, Live The Dream, which lasted from August to October 2007.

Unlike Singapore Idol which allows people aged between 16 to 28 to take part, Live The Dream focuses more on solo or group performers aged between 25 to 65, and it had Dick Lee and Ken Lim as the main judges, followed by a guest judge every week. Like Singapore Idol, the format for Live the Dream relied on 100% voting from the fans via SMS, though this was done in a span of only 30 minutes rather than one full day, due to the fact that the results show was aired half an hour after the performance show. The talent competition was met with harsh criticism and controversy when a weak and less competent singer, Victor Tang, outlasted many of the stronger performers and made it all the way to the Finals, which was held at the MediaCorp theater on the 24th October 2007. The winners for the solo and group categories were Affendi Sahid and By Definition respectively. The top prize was the opportunity for the winners of both categories to release an original single in a limited number of CDs, as well as an exclusive 1-hour Winners' Showcase which was held before the 2008 Countdown Party at VivoCity on 31 December 2007. Most of the finalists from the show (excluding Victor, Olynn and CatsinCradle) were present at the actual countdown, as were Singpore idol alumni Taufik and Joakim. Due to the huge amount of controversy and negativity surrounding the series, Live The Dream will not be returning for a second season.

Singapore Idol 3 Registration officially starts on 1 May 2009.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Singapore Idol Official Website
• Singapore Idol Fansite
• Unofficial Singapore Idol 3 website
• Singapore Idol 3 Forum
• Singapore Idol 1 (2004) at the Internet Movie Database

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