Idol Gossip

Their faces were splashed all over the local papers these past 2 weeks. It really demonstrates the power of hype and buzz to sustain interest in people that you would otherwise not think twice about.

I am talking, of course, about the "secret" aborted marriage of Sylvester Sim and Maia Lee, finalists of the Singapore Idol series. It's been suitably filled with lies, retractions and contradictions. First, it's a hoax, a setup. Oh no, it's not, there's physical evidence from ROM in the form of an application for a marriage license, showing both person's names. Then, she says that they have broken up over the phone, and hilariously, she labels herself and Sly as "Romeo and Juliet". Two days later, he's abjectly apologising to the entire media community and saying that they are still together.

But as scandals go, it's really rather tame. No drugs, no stories of wild, decadent parties, no parental outrage over the single mother. Hell, not even a jealous fangirl Sly groupie on a murderous rampage to rid herself of the "competition". B - O - R - I - N - G.

These are just two kids who did not have enough maturity to think through the consequences of their actions. These kids are public figures, for better or worse. They project a public persona to us to support them and buy their albums. How much they choose to tell about themselves is up to them. By not choosing to maintain their personal lives as truly personal, they have invited speculation and analysis of their behaviour and their characters. I don't know them personally, but I don't feel bad about inferring character traits based on their public professions. Maia has said before that she does not care what people think about her, as we don't know her. I think that's fair enough. The point is this: I am not forming impressions of them as people, but of the public personas of Sly and Maia. This, they SHOULD care about. In an ideal world, we would buy music on the merits of the music and not the perceived personality of the musician. But it's not an ideal world. And the success of Idol has been largely due to engaging the audience to see the contestants as real people, and not just as voices. In the end, the fact that consumers don't buy purely on the basis of the music actually works to the benefit of the musician.

For me, Sly comes out of this as a not-too-bright boy who went too much with the flow, and heeded either his emotions or his libido (let's get real here) too much. The interviews with the media after his return from Taiwan have been earnest and apologetic. However much he claims that Artiste Networks had nothing to do with any of this, he sounds as if his minders have sat him down and given him a stern talking-to about the importance of image management to a new singer riding a wave of popularity based on potential rather than actual achievements. His naivete is almost touching, but signals how throughly unprepared he is for marriage and step-parenthood.

As for Maia, she just seems emotionally volatile and confused about the image she wants to project. On the one hand, she is edgy, tattooed to a T, performs like a uninhibited vamp and doesn't much care what other people think about her life choices. On the other hand, she protests that her pregnancy was planned, she was a school prefect and that she is quiet and serious. She "promoted" an ex-boyfriend to fiancee status during her run on Idol, presumably to project a more family-friendly image or to keep media snoops at bay. Despite Ken Lim's total hogwash about her having "life experience", I think she's still essentially a kid who grew up too fast in some ways, and has not grown up enough in many others.

Personally, I think neither are that special as performers and musicians. Or even as "stars".

Maia has a good, if slightly breathy, voice and is an accomplished stage performer, but despite the tattoos and the moves, she's not memorably different from what you may see in a Vegas floor show. On Idol, she had more show-womanship than any of the other female contestants but I sometimes thought there was something very self-conscious in her performances. It appeared as if she was reminding herself to have fun, rather than actually enjoying herself as she performed.

I cannot see any of the much vaunted X factor that Sly is supposedly blessed with, although I understand that it's a case of one man's meat and another's poison. To me, Sly's photoshoots for 8 Days and Lime show a bemused kid who is out of his element. I understand that part of his appeal is his "blur neighbourhood boy" persona, but could he be more unremarkable or ordinary? I grant that he may be musical and perhaps even a good song-writer. But unless he is John Lennon or Elton John, that isn't enough to overcome, for me, the complete lack of charisma and the poseur wannabe rock stylings. I think his "dirtied up" rock vocals are annoying and affected, and worst, highlight his vocal shortcomings (namely weak lower register and lack of support towards the end of long sustained lines). I liked him best when he was low-key and sincere and sung to his strengths. (By the way, for a taste of what a real Idol "rocker" is like, watch Bo Bice on American Idol 4. He puts Sly's forced sing-screaming into proper perspective.)
Basically, this "scandal" is a whole lot of hot-air about 2 people whom we will likely not remember in 10 years. But who knows, I may be wrong. Maybe 10 years from now, this will be a Trivia Pursuit question about Mandopop superstar Sylvester Sim and his rock-goddess ex-wife, Maia Lee.

PS. That said, I do wish them both well. I think their current fame is out of proportion to their talent and star-potential, but I could say that about many famous people in the pop music world. F4, anyone? The Spice Girls? Or for that matter, Ashlee Simpson? These 2 are certainly no worse than these luminaries of recent pop culture. I think they will both find success in music, at least for a while, through a combination of hard work, good luck and most importantly, clever marketing and wide-spread publicity. That's how Singapore Idol made them famous, in the first place. It's a proven formula, and whoever can milk it, all the more power to them.