MiLu Bing is through to the Semi-Finals!

Kwok Kar Peng

Congratulations to the boyish threesome for winning the Comeback Show 2! In the episode telecast last night, they beat notable competitors AMBER, QI:NOBE, Juz-B and Summer Breeze to join Lucify, SOUL, BRODS, Mantou and J3 in the Semi-Finals 1 next week where each band will perform one fast song and one slow song. Comments for the band from the judges were favourable. Xu Huanliang said that even though MiLu Bing has only three band members, they were able to exploit to the fullest their strengths, which no doubt refers to their youthful vibrancy and many ‘patterns’ on stage.

In the Result Show shown at 11.30pm yesterday, AMBER was the first to leave the stage. Drummer Shawn said on behalf of the band, “We are not surprised of the elimination. We were ecstatic to learn of this revival round not because we thought we still stand a chance, but because we were given one last opportunity to perform for the crowd. We are happy that the public is now familiar with AMBER and her music.”

Next to go was one of the hot favourites QI:NOBE. Frontman and the only Chinese in the band, Samuel, thanked the fans who voted for them in their 11 performances and was grateful that he has grown closer to his family and the band members during this period. Five-member group Summer Breeze became the next casualty. Mandy thanked not only their supporters, family, hair stylists and fashion designers, but also everyone who had criticized them before, for that had allowed them to mature.

Then the stage was empty except for Juz-B, the all-Malay a capella group and MiLu Bing. All nine musicians were locked in an impassioned tight embrace when the results were announced. MiLu Bing fans off-stage teared up at the news while QI:NOBE, AMBER and Summer Breeze gave Juz-B a rowdy applause as they walked off the stage. The smiles on their faces were evident that they had no animosity whatsoever of their elimination. The love and respect each musician had for each other was palpable; before band leader Afwan gave his final speech, he asked everyone in the audience to give a cheer to the winner. “You’re back! Jia You!” he shouted emotionally to MiLu Bing. Turning to the audience, he continued in a mixture of English and Mandarin, “We (Juz-B) gave the best that we could ever give. You enjoyed it and we enjoyed it. Thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to perform up to this point; it was amazing! Thank you, xie xie ni men! Wo ai ni!”

With the band still looking slightly in disbelief, Sam of MiLu Bing expressed his gratitude to everyone who had voted for them. “To the eliminated SuperBand contestants, we love them very much and hope that they will continue to strive hard.” Nic added, “We will miss them (the rest of the bands) very much. We spent many happy moments with them backstage and we thank them for the precious moments.” Sam attributed their success large to their youth and energy which set them apart from the other bands. As the SuperBand theme song blared out of the speakers, all the bands, eliminated and the Semi-Finalists, hugged each other and partied like there was no tomorrow.

You can catch the repeat telecast of the Comeback Show 2 and Result Show this Saturday July 8 at 10am.

Keep your eyes peeled to the Channel U webpage for the Semi-Finals 1 list of songs!

Click here to read our exclusive Comeback Show 2 story SuperBand: Revive and Reveal and here for our expansive Comeback Show 2 Photo Gallery!

SuperBand Grand Finals will be held at Singapore Expo on Sun August 5, 2006.