Farewell, Superfunkies

It wasn’t that long ago that I first read *Kissnanna’s account of his Superfunkies recording experience in this blog. Like most viewers, I initially found the show trying to pack in too much content and lacking focus. Thankfully a revamp in format and switch of hosts later injected more identity and funky element into the show.

All too soon, Superfunkies came to an end last night. Appearing together for the last time in their signature white tops, the ten Superstar finalists reminisced about how the PSS contest had changed their lives. Seeing the Superstars teasing each other and talking about themselves were definitely more entertaining than the guests they invite to talk on the show in the previous weeks.

I will miss the chemistry and commaderie among the hosts – wacky Chanel, jovial Sugi, blur Ruth, goofy Leon, coy Candyce, earnest William, sweet Silver, affable Jason, articulate Sin Huey and "Huang Zi Jiao turned Ekin Cheng lookalike" Junyang (not I say one! haha). What a bunch of zany people!

Some of them will stick around to shoot the Superstar drama or take a stab at the entertainment industry. The rest will gradually fade away from the public eye and resume ordinary lives.

It was fitting their final performance together was the inspirational power ballad Cai Hong (Rainbow). Good luck, guys!

* M.I.A. blogmaster ;)

Overload

I’ve been seeing more online rantings on the Project Superstar recently. Non-fans and jaded fans of the contest gripe about the constant appearance of the Superstars on TV programmes, including awards and charity shows. They find the excessive exposure of the Superstars a turn-off. Ahh, you know how it is with MediaCorp. Yup! Make hay while the sun shines. Akan dating is the Superstar drama early next year. Oh no!

Another online comment (including a few from this blog) is that our dear Sin Huey has “expanded”. Sad, hor? A case of déjà vu… like seeing her back in the early rounds of the PSS contest. Will someone consider giving her a slimming endorsement this X'mas? :p

While watching the recent Star Awards on channel 8, I noticed the gals onstage were either slim or skinny or super thin... scary. The rare exceptions were Aiyoyo Chen Liping and Sin Huey. Surely the former is a few sizes of the latter... but I'm sure you get the drift :p



The post Star Awards show featured a performance by the Superstars singing and dancing to the catchy beat of Di Yi Tian. I have to say Sin Huey has a natural groove for dancing. Pity she doesn’t strut much of that stuff in her solo performances.

There was no dancing though by the Superstars at last Sunday’s Affairs of the Heart charity show. What we got was the sound of "music" from an assortment of vegetables. The vegetable orchestra didn’t quite pull it off, particularly the “wind instruments”, but good effort lah. Honestly, I thought it looked a little silly. Why not save the vegetables and put up an item they’re good at... singing (duh)! Like Weilian, who never fails to tug the heartstrings of the audience with his heartfelt singing.



Well, at least we get to see this adorable, blur side of Sin Huey :D

A Surprise Encounter

I had not expected to see Sin Huey last Saturday. The Lime Sonic Bang concert was playing at *scape while I had a movie date next door at Orchard Cineleisure. I reckoned the concert would be well over by the time the movie ended.

On my way out after the movie, I noticed a small crowd lingering around the Lime magazine billboard along the sidewalk. Curious, I headed in that direction and to my amazement, found myself facing the backs of Sin Huey and Kelly! *beams* Whoa... what a stroke of perfect timing! It was her boots that caught my eye first :P They were watching Weilian and Junyang penned their signatures on the board while waiting for their turns.



Two girls standing behind Sin Huey and Kelly called out to Sin Huey. Sin Huey turned her head and gave them an apologetic smile, signalling she could not pose for their camera. Her turn to sign was up next, after which all four Superstars posed in front of the board for a publicity shot. They looked like seasoned pros, flashing their Kodak smiles on demand for the photographer. Photoshoot over, they made the short walk to the stage at *scape, accompanied by their minders and security guards. The concert was still in full swing and local band Electrico was dishing out heart thumping music for the enthusiastic crowd.

Their turn was next, each performing an English song and a Mandarin song. They were somewhat off-colour that night, particularly Kelly. I held my breath when she strained to hit the high notes of Alanis Morissette’s “That I Would Be Good”. Sin Huey did not hide her nervousness when she confessed “Actually I’m quite nervous because there’re many powerful singers here” after belting Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby”. Huh? Isn’t she a powerful singer too? :D

Junyang crooned “When You Say Nothing At All” while Weilian sang “Only Love”. He must have been tired as he missed a few lines mid-way through the song, which is likely to be included in his upcoming album.

On a separate note, Channel U has come up with yet another music video of the Superstars singing a X’mas medley. Everyone looks so happy in the video. Like Sin Huey's cool hairstyle?






Merry X’mas!

舞出彩红 Live!

After numerous past appearances by the Superstars which involved only handshaking or autographing CDs, it was great to finally see Sin Huey, Kelly and Junyang sing live yesterday. They even sportingly obliged with a catwalk :D

The crowd turnout at the 舞出彩红 OST CD autograph session in the far flung Jurong Entertainment Centre (for "easterners" like me) was not as big as I had expected. As usual the red and yellow fanclubs turned up in force to scream for their idols. A visibly slimmer Kelly performed 青春 with Junyang, who certainly did a better job than Guo Yanfu. Junyang also performed his solo track 舞伴.

Is it just me who noticed that Sin Huey was not her usual confident self yesterday? The lacklustre vocal support from the crowd seemed to have demoralised her a little. I felt her rendition of 舞出彩红 could do with more hand or body gestures to convey the dramatic emotions of the song. Thankfully she made up for her lack of physical expression with superb live singing. Wow!!

Sin Huey conceded the low notes of 舞出彩红 were quite a challenge for her. 933 deejay Peifen commented it is a difficult song and praised Sin Huey’s CD version as well as her live performance. Coming from a deejay, her opinion cannot be biased right?! :p

I don’t know if Sin Huey’s dress and boots ensemble (argh!) yesterday was really meant to convey the retro look, as thought by Peifen.. haha. But she can surely do to jazz up her fashion style for a more hip and youthful image. By the way, I finally caught the elusive channel U promotional video. Kudos to the stylist for making her look damn glam, man :)

Rainbow Connection (舞出彩红) Soundtrack

Ever disliked a particular drama serial but loved the soundtrack? Yeah, I’m referring to 3/7 of the soundtrack of the dance drama 舞出彩红 currently showing on channel 8.

The title track 舞出彩红 performed by Sin Huey is probably the most technically difficult song on the soundtrack. Big on sound like a song from a Broadway musical, the theme song calls for a vocal range that puts Sin Huey’s vulnerable low registers to the test. While not technically faultless, she did well to evoke the aspirational emotions of the song with her soulful tone and powerful pipes.

The guitar-backed 看透 is an ethereal track that sees Sin Huey adopting a soothing, airy voice to give the song a whimsical, almost melancholy feel. Highly listenable, it is the ideal track to play when you’re alone in a reflective mood at night. This is my personal favourite on the soundtrack.

In the upbeat 遇见爱情, a duet with Junyang, Sin Huey employs her powerful, sultry vocals to good effect. She excels in this type of songs and carried off this one with panache. Alongside her, Junyang sounded quite feeble but he fared better on his own in the breezy 舞伴 which fits his smooth, mellow vocals.

Another duet, 青春, features Kelly with Guo Yanfu, one of the male leads in the drama. Kelly’s vocals are hardly stretched in this catchy number but appear mismatched with those of her partner, who acts better than he sings.

单人舞 is a slow number by Silver which she did reasonably well on the emoting but her technique is basically weak. The last duet 能爱就爱 is a fast tempo song with a mediocre tune and even more mediocre singing by Ruth and Jason, to put it mildly. How this song made the cut for the soundtrack is beyond me.

Overall Sin Huey’s polished and assured delivery on this soundtrack serves as a tantalising appetizer for the main course to come *slurps*

The soundtrack CD is available in music stores.

Project Multi-Star

I bet when Sin Huey joined thousands of other hopefuls in the Project Superstar contest just a few months ago, she never imagined she had a shot beyond singing stardom. Riding on the immense success of the contest, MediaCorp has packaged her and some of the Superstar alumni as potential “multi-stars”.


Coming on the heels of Sin Huey’s music recording deal was news that she will be playing one of lead roles in a 13-episode Superstar drama. The Channel U drama serial, due to begin shooting next month, will also have Weilian, Kelly and Junyang in the leading roles.

The unoriginal storyline sees Sin Huey shedding her nice gal image to play a somewhat b*tchy character. Bleah… who cares so long as one gets to see her on TV, nasty role or otherwise. I’m glad she’s not playing Kelly’s tragic character… can’t bear to see Sin Huey cry buckets. Remember the results show of the second qtr-final? ;)

One of the highlights of the drama will surely be the much-teased kissing scene between Sin Huey and Weilian. I wonder how many repeat takes will that scene require? :D And for crying out loud, Weilian, the “honour” is yours okay!

Even before Sin Huey makes her acting debut, she notched another personal first by singing the theme song of the new Channel 8 drama 舞出彩红. What a pleasant surprise! Her distinctive vocals in the opening theme song caught many fans off-guard. I’ve yet to get hold of the OST CD, which features seven tracks including two solo and one duet (with Junyang) by Sin Huey. Having read some online comments on her new songs, they appear promising.

Sin Huey has proven she has the singing chops and credible hosting skills. Hmm.. can she act as well? 加油喔!

My Two Superstars

Hoooray! Woohooo! Phew! My Superstar Sin Huey finally inked her long awaited recording contract with local music label Play Music last week (18 Oct 05)! It’s been an agonizing wait but well worth it. Kudos to Play Music for having the foresight to invest in her talent and potential.

However I have some reservations with Play Music’s plans to train Sin Huey into the next 小A*Mei. Ditto for her new label mates Kelvin (Jacky Cheung) and Derrick (Korean hunk of the moment, Rain). I had expected Play Music to come up with a more creative marketing strategy to spice up interest in their new artistes. Oh well..


Ok, at least it wasn’t Jolin or some other idol singer with limited singing talent. We’re talking about 張惠妹, the Taiwanese pop icon with the powerhouse vocals and sizzling showmanship. That says quite a bit about Play Music’s confidence in Sin Huey’s singing and performing prowess.

Let me confess... I’m a big fan of A*Mei. So do excuse me for gushing over my favourite singing diva. I can’t sing for nuts, so being an A*Mei fan is probably the only thing I have in common with Sin Huey... haha. One is my 大Superstar and the other is my 小Superstar :D

Needless to say I got quite a kick out of Sin Huey performing 康定情歌, 哭不出來, 我恨我愛你 and doing justice to the songs. In some ways her live performances do bear some trademarks of A*Mei – the emotive delivery style, husky/sultry vocals, even the bodily gestures onstage. But how to make fair comparisons with the super charismatic A*Mei, who’s in a heavenly league of her own? Why not let Sin Huey develop into a shi li artiste in her own right, with her own distinctive singing style and identity?

Now that the recording contract is sealed, I look back with some satisfaction at how I have followed Sin Huey from her early days during the Superstar contest, watched her progress and affirmed my belief that this is a person worth supporting. Whether she will become hong or not lies in the creative hands of Play Music and her own diligence, plus a huge dose of luck.

If all goes well, Sin Huey’s debut album is slated for release next February. Yay! I can’t wait!