And also the Suns and Jolins? Who ‘washed the toilet’ during audition and who were The Others? Get the highlights of the Project SuperStar Female Auditions here!
Kwok Kar Peng
| Girls are more kiasu than guys, as proven last Saturday at the Project SuperStar Female Audition at Toa Payoh HDB Hub. While the males began queuing from 3am the same day for their auditions two weeks ago, the girls ‘spoilt the market’ by forming queues as early as 9pm the night before! Spending a chilly and sleepless night on the cold hard ground was obviously not an issue of concern for these girls in their pursuit of stardom; after all, it was their parents and boyfriends who underwent the torture! One example is Catherine Zhuo, 18, a private ‘O’ Level student. Both her and her frail-looking mum came to the HDB Hub on Thursday but abandoned their plans when they realised no one was there. They returned on Friday afternoon; again not one singing wannabe was in sight. They finally laid their straw mats and what-nots on the ground 11pm on Friday night, just when the yellow metal dividers were being set up. “I went with my mum but she ushered me home because she wanted me to be fresh and energised for the audition. Although my mum was the first person there, I told her not to be the first at the queue because I would be nervous,” Catherine told us. Very luckily for mother and daughter, she became the first female to get pass this first round of audition! Catherine, in her haste to ‘change shift’ with her mother at 7am, came dressed in plain jeans, a jacket and slippers. Some of the other girls though, preened and primped themselves for this big event, like… |
Catherine Zhuo and self-sacrificing mum |
| The ‘Ayumi Hamasaki’ - Ong Kai Li, 17, Sales Assistant cum student at the City Harvest Education Centres The bleached blonde hair and the black hair roots… had they appeared on someone else, we’d be cringing even in our sleep, but on this petite teen, it was magic, though magic doesn’t come cheap. The outfit, pieced together by her boss at the clothing store she works in and inspired by current Japanese fashion trends, involves putting together at least two layers of clothing and mixing four or more different colours in the ensemble. The damage: $100 for her Japanese-made sequined boots; $79.90 for her Australian crystal-studded belt; $89.90 for her denim skirt; $25.90 for her camisole; $59.90 for her shirt and $29.90 for the polka-dot tie. |  |
| The Chinese hip-hop rocker - Yuki Long, 23, Student at Informatics I may not know of any famous mainland Chinese rockers, but I watch TV and Yuki here looks just like one of them! The big crazy hair (short and permed at the top and long and rebonded at the back) bleached blond and a mish-mash of whatever the owner fancies (even if it clashes horribly) as long as it’s a ‘personal identity’. For Yuki, it’s hip hop fatigue pants, a metal-studded belt, cutesy and glittery rings, pendants, bracelets and handphone accessories. Fortunately though, it’s a marked improvement from her ho-hum look at the Project SuperStar registration last year. |  |
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| Yuki at the PSS registration last year |
| The ‘Avril Lavignes’ - Wendy Tan (registration number 3290), 19, and Tan Shan Shan (registration number 3291), 19. Both students at Ngee Ann Polytechnic School of Media Studies (Film, Sound & Video) Shan Shan, the presumably cooler and thus reticent one with her no-nonsense black rock outfit and big dark shades, turned out to be a talkative sweetie instead who pulls no stops at ‘acting cute’ in front of the camera.! And when she got in to the next round, man, there’s no stopping the Hokkien slang and excited words tumbling out of her mouth at 100km/hour! Wendy on the other hand, is a cross between Jolin Tsai-sweetness and Avril Lavigne-punk. Heck, she even looks like a pubescent Jolin before the baby fats ‘disappeared’! Sadly though, it’s three times unlucky for Wendy, who failed to get the through Project SuperStar Season 1, SuperBand and Project SuperStar Season 2. |  |
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| Wendy at the PSS registration last year |
| The ‘Sun Ho’ - Michelle Soh, 32, Customer Relations Officer With her frilly lace dress, Guess handbag, accented English and a soft dignified presence, Michelle would be the best Project SuperStar The ‘Tai-Tai’ candidate if not for the fact that she earns her keep. And apart from her slight physical similarity to crooning sensation Sun Ho, Michelle also sings in church and, blimey, her voice even sounds like Sun! |  |
| The ‘Joi Chua’ - Ng Chew Yen, 23, Admin Assistant Almost like local songbird Joi who waited patiently for four years to record her second album, Chew Yen began choosing her audition song for Project SuperStar 2 since last year! And she started researching on what to wear since August, flipping through fashion magazines, consulting friends and relatives and even watching music videos to see how singers chose clothes to match their songs! Still, the long wait and thorough preparation came to naught when she was eliminated on Saturday. |  |
| The ‘Jolin Tsai’ - Hong Huiling, 35, Tuition teacher Auntie Jolin is back! After her failed attempt at dancing Jolin’s ‘Ai Qing 36 Ji’ at last year’s Project SuperStar audition, and also flunking SuperHost, Star Idol and Never Say Die, she returned prepared this year. She claimed she has learned proper dancing and singing techniques from community centers. She even sang a love song to Jeff Wang and demonstrated her newfound dancing skills in line dancing at the auditions. “Of course, she didn’t make it through,” Paul Chan, Vice-President (Branding & Promotions) of MediaCorp TV told us. |
Auntie Jolin at the PSS Audition last year |
| The ‘Others’ - Orlina Hu, 21, Part-time Mechanical Engineering student at Singapore Polytechnic I swear I would totally believe it if someone tells me Orlina is an actress planted into the auditions to take the mockery out of me. But it has already been 48 hours later and no one has told me I’m on Candid Camera, so it means Orlina is real. God help us. She was a real bag of confusion and contradictions, this Orlina. First, she shoved my colleague rudely and told her to “Zou kai, bu yao dang lü! (Go away, don’t block the way!)”, and when I questioned her about it later, she insisted that it was the security guard who did it. (A case of spirit possession?) After our interview, she lingered over me with sob stories of how worried she is over getting her exam results slip this week, how she has been rejected in every job interview she goes to, how bad her English is and she practically implored me to rephrase her broken-English interview into perfect English. (You mean like, writing “very long queue” instead of your “long very queue” and “I was so nervous that I asked the judges to give me one minute to wash my face in the toilet” instead of your “I was so nervous I wash the toilet”?) Okay, Orlina, your interview here is written in grammatically and linguistically error-free English. |  |
| - Estella Chow, 29, English teacher in a tuition centre Estella chose this stunning outfit (I was seriously stunned) because she thinks it’s very Fish Leong (she’s singing one of her songs Shou Shou De) and because she likes blue. And Barbie too, I can see, from the bright pink watch on her wrist. |   |
| - Koh Chien Wen, 20, Cashier This Malaysian girl chose this outfit because she wants people to notice her. Well, her wish was granted, I heard many people did. For what reason (is it her extremely short mini-skirt, her white fluffy rolled-down socks or her This Fashion-esque jacket), I’m not too sure. |  |
| - Don Li Yuan Jun, 24, Logistics Assistant Her/His English name is masculine, her/his given name is feminine (李媛君). S/he looks like a male, but s/he was in the Project SuperStar Female Auditions. S/he even signed up for the army! Ah these gender-bending days are so confusing… One thing for certain, Don insists on keeping his/her image: “I am who I am.” |  |
| Why is it always the guys who win these competitions? Taufik Batisah won Singapore Idol Season 1. Tan Wei Lian won Project SuperStar Season 1. Bryan Wong won Star Idol. Ng Chee Yang won Campus SuperStar. Tan Yong Meng won Never Say Die. MiLu Bing won SuperBand. Khairul Anuar won Anugerah in 2005. Shabir won Vasantham Star. The similarity between these 10 champs (MiLu Bing has three members) is that they all carry the Y chromosome. Are guys more talented than girls? Not so. Then why are guys sweeping away the trophies to all the local talent competitions, with the exception of SuperHost? Wei Lian shared his view with us: “I guess it has something to do with the fact that most of the voters are girls, so girls will vote for the opposite sex. The guys are too busy working and dating their girlfriends to vote for the female contestants hahah!” Is it unfair to female contestants then? “Winning is not the most important thing,” he continued. “I mean it doesn’t mean that you’ll be the most famous one if you are the champion. It’s all up to your own potential and what people see in you. If you are fated to be a singer, then you will become one.” |  |
| Chew Sin Huey, first female runner-up to Project SuperStar Season 1, agreed with Wei Lian. “I think guys attract girls easier and as a female myself, I realise I can really give my heart and soul and even money to vote for a guy I really admire. Guys are maybe more rational and egoistic to play the role of a besotted fan, so that’s why male contestants usually have the upper-hand.” Sin Huey has this piece of advice for female contestants: “Consider your motive for joining the competition. If your purpose is to perform to the public and have them acknowledge your talents, then you don’t need to re-package yourself to become well-liked by the majority. You can attract people with your talents and true self. But your purpose is to win, then you have to change your image to attract the young girls and boys.” Paul Chan, Vice-President (Branding & Promotions) of MediaCorp TV, concluded the issue when he said this, “Some guys probably think it’s not very macho to be voting. But I think as we do more and more of such competitions, it’ll become a very hip and ‘in’ thing for people to vote, so with time, guys will be more open to it.” |  |
Out of the 5,000 (2,800 males and 3,200 girls) who auditioned, only 200 passed the first round. They will next tackle the open audition at the Toa Payoh HDB Hub this weekend, where only 50 males and 50 females will be selected.
The Applicants
Reona Chan Teng Teng took up a free trial at a makeover studio just to send a nice photo of herself to the competition! Sixteen-year-old Chen Lu was sent away from the PSS registration last year because she didn't meet the minimum age requirement. She's back this year... But she didn't pass the first audition. The judges felt that both the competition and school will be too much for this Chinese national, who takes her PSLE exams this year, to handle. Chen Lu being consoled by host Quan Yifeng
Star Idol's Tan Mian Chieh has lost weight and looks fabulous but that didn't get her to the next audition. This applicant is one of the oldest at 34 years old. Two sisters came for the competition but only the younger one (right) got in. No one believed she's 16 years old until she whipped out her NRIC!
Nathan Hartono, winner of Teen Magazine's Teen Idol 2005
Juz-B and BRODS
SOUL
Campus SuperStar
Ng Chee Yang, Hong Yu Yang & Chen Yi Yuan
Teresa Tseng, Geraldine See & Ng Imm Khim
Campus SuperStar Duets
Tan Wei Lian, Chew Sin Huey & Derrick Hoh
Backstage madness!
Project SuperStar Hosts Quan Yifeng & Jeff Wang
Spot the difference! Yifeng's two-piece PSS outfit has four ways of wearing it!
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| Jeff mimicking a male applicant he met two weeks ago | Hosts of the auditions Lee Teng and Wu Luoyi learning dance steps from SOUL |
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