Asher Aw

6th of June, 2009. That’s the first day of the Singapore Idol Audition tryouts – the culling round.

Most people think this is the round where they see the judges but the truth is it’s only the round where people see the producers.

I believe they will only let people through based on 2 things: Singing Talent & Entertainment Value.

If a person who has okay singing talent but does not really provide much entertainment value, that person is culled. He’s in the “okay” area. And “okay” is not enough for the screen. You either got to be really bad or really good.

So… unfortunately, I happen to be in the “okay” area – which means I didn’t make it through. Nevertheless, it’s a good thing. My friend said “If I make it through, I’m not normal. If I don’t make it through, that’s normal!”.

Comforting words to a person who doesn’t like being normal, indeed.

Weather

The Singapore Idol culling auditions were brutal indeed, the first day was so hot! I was there pretty early at about 7AM and got to see the weather change from cool, to hot, to F#(!*&R#@ HOT!

Since the audition was held at the Cathay, the only shelter was either from the building or from the trees. And the unfortunate fact was the sun hovered over both – so the only people who had the shade were either waaaaaay back in the queue or waaaaaay in front of the queue. Everyone else was cooking.

The only comfort was delivered by umbrellas.

Once in a while, the sun would be blocked by the occasional cloud that decided to bless us with some shade. An audible sigh and an occasional woop could be heard when the first big patch of cloud was there.

Star Factor

While we were there cooking – the organizers tried to inject some “life” back into the queuing throng by having people like Jasmine Tai, Paul Twohill, Joachim Gomez, Hady Mirza talk to the people.

(Unfortunately, I was so wasted by the heat I forgot to take pictures of these people even though they were like… just a few meters away from me. CRAP!)

They tested some people there and got them to sing wherever they were in the queue. Most Singaporeans can sing (based on what I heard) but not everyone had performance singing style. A few of them sang really well and I think they can go far as long as they don’t stick around in Singapore (Singapore doesn’t appreciate its own talents).

The Next Day

Most people didn’t make it into the first day of auditions. So the organizers had to reschedule people into the next day.

There was again, another loud sigh of disappointment and some obvious discontent from the crowd when the announcement was made to come back the next day.

I was disappointed as well but hey, I get to go back and rest. I don’t think I would have been able to sing at all after all that heat!

Anyway, back to the next day, the crowd was… non-existant.

So, tip here… next time, come audition on the second day if you hate queuing. There’s almost nobody!

While I was there, I met Hady Mirza, Singapore Idol and Asia Idol. Had a nice little chat with him and took some pictures (Madeline! Hurry up! Send me the pictures! Oei! You made it through to the Judges round but don’t forget my picture hor~). Nice guy la, this dude.

Anyway, the audition crashed for me.

I didn’t make it but I’m still hopeful. My dreams aren’t dead. I’ll be finding some other way to make it big and famous!