Putting Sly to Shame: Campus Superstar Finale

The Campus Superstar Grand Finale on Sunday turned out to be possibly the best of the big local reality talent-search finales. The quality of the performances was high, in particular during the second half, the judges were entertaining, there was drama and tension aplenty and even the filler acts by eliminated contestants were enjoyable.

In contrast:

Singapore Idol: The atmosphere was electric and the formula is tried and tested. There was a great Dick Lee number, "Idol Paradise" but as a competition, this was a washout. Sylvester Sim was singing so below par, the judges were resorting to highly creative critiques to keep the tone positive. Uneven.

Project Superstar: Kelvin Tan was beset with nerves that night, making for uneven performances. There was also a lack of drama because he was going to win, even if he croaked out all his songs in broken Swahili. Predictable.

Superhost: Apart from Lee Teng, the other finalists were not having particularly stellar nights. Eventual winner, Charlyn Lin recovered some of her usual eloquence towards the end but had a relatively lacklustre night by her standards. Disappointing.

Star Idol: Oh, don't even get me started. Both the finalists, Leo and Bryan, are not much in the way of actors. The roles they were assigned to play were stereotypical, and if one was truly paranoid, designed to boost Bryan's likeability factor while downplaying Leo's. Mark Lee was a campy delight but could not salvage the wreckage of overacting going on around him. Awful.

Campus Superstar, on the other hand, made for most enjoyable viewing for all 3.5 hours of its duration. The quality of singing was not consistently high during the first part of the night, but all four finalists were trying hard and even the failed performances were oddly compelling. The two grand finalists are genuinely good singers and it was just so pleasant to listen to them. There was also something rather charming about these teenaged kids doing their thing on that stage, with that particular brand of enthusiasm that only the very young possess.

Thoughts on the finalists:

• Renfred Ng: Weeks ago, after the 2nd time I heard him sing, I dubbed him "that non-singer". I know the boy is young and it's unkind to be overly critical, but I did think he was very out of place in this finale. His fans would have done him a favour by not putting him in the position of having to sing "Kiss Goodbye". This was just painful; he manfully soldiered through the song and kept on pitch most of the time, but it was so effortful that I feared he would collapse from exhaustion. He is a good dancer, but not so good that it makes up for his vocal shortcomings.
• Geraldine See: Good old "Dean" has an interesting voice and manages to be both edgy and approachable. It's too bad that the extreme ends of her range are so unstable and her vibrato pretty much uncontrolled. There is a very appealing sincerity about her when she performs and when she is on form, she is vocally arresting. I don't know if it's a question of training or talent, but she's young enough to have time to find out.
• Teresa Tseng: This girl is in the mould of the old-school nightingales with her pure, crystalline soprano (think Teresa Teng). She has my favourite voice of the whole bunch of them. However, she does have a tendency to be too much of a choir soloist with her text-book phrasing and over-emphasis on producing pure notes. As long as she opens her mouth, she will sing prettily because she has been gifted with a pretty voice. But for all I know, she could have been singing about her grandmother's garden during her solo performances on Sunday. Girl needs to learn the Maria Callas creed of singing ugly in order to invest her performances with individuality and character. She's a good singer but as yet, a poor performer.
• Ng Chee Yang: The boy is obviously musical and for one so young, almost alarmingly assured in his technique. I am not the biggest fan of this sort of counter-tenorish male voice, but this kid knows how to make very pleasing sounds. When he gave his lower register a workout in his duet with Chew Sin Huey, I thought it sounded rather good and wished he had used it more often throughout the competition. I thought he was a deserving overall champion. While one might argue that Teresa is the better singer (maybe, maybe not) or has a better voice (I do prefer hers to his), he is definitely by far and away the better performer and interpreter of music. His performance of "Kiss Goodbye" was a real highlight, not just of this finale, but of any of the local singing competitions (like Taufik Batisah's "Me and Mrs Jones", a defining performance).

Other thoughts from the finals:

• So nice to hear Hong Junyang singing again. Watching him week in and week out as co- host of Campus Superstar, I had forgotten what a very appealing voice he has. He is perfectly eloquent and professional host, but when he sings, he really comes alive and projects star quality. His duet with Teresa was manna to the ears. His vocal tone (which is light and clean) was a perfect match to hers.
• Chew Sin Huey's voice sounded really rough, which is saying something given her usual huskiness. Disappointingly, she had a few sour notes during her duet with Chee Yang. I kept thinking that the duet would have sounded better had he sung with someone else and that is sad, because I really thought Sin Huey should have been the ladies' champion in last year's Project Superstar. At first I thought that the song had been pitched too low for her but her solo bits did sound like they were smack in the middle of her comfort zone. Besides, Chee Yang's range is so vast, he could comfortably have accommodated almost any female singer he duets with. I think perhaps Sin Huey was just having a slightly off night. Her ragged vocals were also an odd fit with Chee Yang's smoother sound.
• Kelvin Tan minus competition nerves is a much better proposition than Kelvin Tan in last year's PSS finale. I liked the simplicity of the two songs he sang, with the unfussy guitar self-accompaniment. He still has a nasal quality to his high notes that I think would be rather grating if one listened to an entire album of it. Somewhere in his middle register, there are a few truly lovely vocal tones, but he does not seem to use that voice very much.
• The judging after Teresa sang with Junyang was the comedic highlight of the night for me. The poor girl must have been mortified as judge after judge kept pointing out her seeming infatuation with Junyang during the song. I don't know if it was just an act, but she showed more animation during those 3 minutes beside Junyang than she has all season. Something in the way she laughed and smiled at the judges' comments suggested that she might have a bit of a star-struck crush on the guy. Who knows? I was just glad that she offered up such comedic fodder for the judges! She even roused Lee Sisong to crack something like a joke.
• The eliminated contestants were just great during their group songs, so infectiously fun and "hang loose" about the whole endeavour. If anything, it was the older Kenneth Lim who looked rather self-conscious and awkward.
• Lee Weisong and Lee Sisong: identical twins who manage to look exactly alike and completely different at the same time. What a contrast in personalities and presentation.