Live the Dream Finale or How I Learnt to Stop Griping and Admire Ken Lim

Tonight sealed it. Ken Lim has won me over with his acerbic jibes and his ability to drip with disdain without being rude.

He is still a manipulative, miserable old SOB most of the time, but I have to give him huge props for being manipulative and miserable with style. It's no mean feat!

Peformance Show:

Victor Tang: He sounds better this week than he did two weeks ago. That's not necessarily saying a lot, but it is a marked improvement. The first song was pitchier than a cricket training ground. The 2nd was much better in terms of pitch but had about as much oomph as flat beer. He has nice enough vocal tone when he manages to keep in key, but why does he sing everything in that simpering manner?

Fendi: He's sticking to his R&B comfort zone and all the better for it. The first song (Change the World) was very nice indeed with the semi-scatting and a cool, relaxed vibe. He went for ultra high difficulty levels on the second song (Isn't She Lovely). Seriously, we are talking the equivalent of coloratura fireworks here. He came very close to pulling off all the vocal tricks. There were a few flat spots but in the face of such impressive vocal pyrotechnics, it seems churlish to nitpick.

By Definition: They are so very entertaining and dynamic, never a dull moment on stage. The first song was typical By Definition - dramatic, musically tight and fun. The second song (Elvis Presley's A Little Less Conversation) was a complete blast! The energy level was off the charts! I think it's possibly the best performance I have seen on this show. This is a band in the best sense where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Catsine Cradle: I really like the way they sound. And the lead singer is in great voice tonight. He is definitely among the best singers, if not THE best singer, in the competition, in both categories. The first song was authentic classic acoustic rock - cleanly sung, aurally a pleasure. The second song was more of the same - great singing. It was Jeff's (the lead-singer) show and the two guitarists could have been a minus-one track for all we knew.

Judges: Well, it is all about Ken Lim, isn't it? He is more entertaining than most of the contestants. Next to By Definition's 2nd song, the most entertaining segments of the show were Ken's critiques of Victor Tang. The second critique was a thing of beauty, with its underhanded "compliments", references to politicians and veiled suggestions of ruthlessness, insincerity and possibly corruption. The crack about Victor having "qualities lacking in Singapore's opposition parties" was classic! I hope someone uploads this to Youtube, because it's worth hearing again. And he also cleverly slipped in a jibe at Victor when he was commenting on Fendi. It takes real style to pull this off. Definitely not for amateurs.

The judges were totally unsubtle about whom they want to win. Once Dick started the ball rolling by telling Fendi out right, "We knew you would win", the guest judges similarly showed no compunction in declaring their favourites.


Result Show:

Victor Tang is SO very out of his league. When the top four finalists performed together, his vocal shortcomings were showcased and amplified several times over. Not good.

I must say that Taufik Batisah has taken very well to musical Idol-dom. He has always been a good singer and a very cool, confident performer. Nowadays, he is exuding star power while retaining his hometown-boy charm. Mediacorp pulled out the stops for his performance, giving him a full complement of back-up dancers and special lighting effects.

The Top 10 finalists were trotted out to perform a medley of songs. First the top 5 soloists. Boy oh boy oh boy. Victor Tang was so outclassed by the other 4 soloists. The contrast in quality was painful. Olynn and Robert Tsunga were probably the best two singers in the solo category and were naturally the first two eliminated. Olynn was especially impressive to me. Shauna Simon looked very nice despite wearing horizontal stripes and sang well too.

In the group category, Catsine Cradle kicked things off with a really lovely performance of a song that I know but cannot remember the title of (this was just beautiful, they should have done this in competition). The Sugarettes sounded pleasant, Revelina was adorable as usual and By Definition put on another one of their signature roof-raising performances. Sadly, After the Rain brings everything crashing down around our ears with a weirdly screamy and off-key performance.

The Papaya Sisters sang that old standard about the beautiful roses, but I was hopelessly distracted by their costumes.

The Click Five came on and sang a couple of songs, including one where the finalists joined in. Theirs is not the kind of music I usually listen to, but it is very listenable. And they are rather pleasant on the eye, though I do not approve of the hair.

Results time:

Fendi wins the solo category!! Utt then asked Ken the most rhetorical question ever - "Did the right person win?". Hahaha, Ken was scoffing and even asked if it was meant to be a trick question. He then proceeded to congratulate Fendi and make a crack about Shrek 2.

And it's By Definition winning the group category! Wow, the judges get the winners that they want. Dick got the honour of telling Utt that yes, Singapore got it right.

More Scattered Thoughts: "Live Blogging" Live the Dream: Top 6

Round 1: Party!! Contestants' Choice.

Missed Shauna Simon's first song.

Fendi is his usual competent self. He definitely can sing, although I don't usually like his song choices, no difference this time.

Oooh, Ken Lim really wants Fendi in the finals - he's basically saying that it was not a great performance, but he's a better singer than the other two!

Victor Tang is SO mellow, he's practically comatose.

Yup, Dick has it right - "mild" is the right word for this performance.

Aww, Kuo Po is trying to be nice, I think.

Ken Lim! That's probably the best of his weekly zingers directed at poor Victor. He managed to insult Victor Tang by calling his competitors' fans "cheapskate". Very good psychological manipulation there - he knows he can't do anything about the people who vote for Victor, regardless of how he sings, so he's lighting a fire under Fendi's and Shauna's fans.

By Definition is a right old rock band. Lots of energy and attitude.

Judges uniformly love them. Wow, both Dick and Ken are saying they should win. No, no, no! That makes their fans complacent! Have they not learnt anything from AI and SI?

Revelina are singing well as usual, but are not at all comfortable singing this party, disco genre.

Wow, Dick is almost tearing apart, but doing it regretfully. I think he likes them, but could really not get into the performance at all.

At least Kuo Po recognises that it was well sung.

Ken Lim's references to Harry Potter when he talks about Revelina are getting nonsensical. The theme is supposed to be party, so it was not as if they had much choice - whatever they sing, it is always going to be "This is what happens when Harry Potter tries to do ...".

Catsine Cradle sound like just about any other guitar-strumming band out there. The singing is pretty good but the performance is not particularly exciting.

I agree with the judges! Good soloist, but non-existent presence as a band.

I don't know why I have this impression, but the lead singer of Catsine Cradle seems to be a bit of a brown-noser. Overly eager to thank the judges and keen to spin all criticism as positive.

Round 2: Judges' Choice

Shauna: The song is too rangy for her, a few noticeable problems with register changes. On the whole, it's a valiant effort and a good performance for her. It was effortful but she pulled it off.

Dick's comments about "wanting it" are so subjective. I think he's just vibing off Shauna's overly careful performance, which was more to do with her technical problems than any real lack of desire.

Oh, at least Kuo Po gives her props for putting on a good show!

Ken Lim really, really wants Victor Tang gone! He's challenging Shauna's fans to vote.

Fendi: The judges give him Josh Groban! Wow, talk about challenging the contestants. I can't wait to see what they saddle Victor Tang with! A song very far out of his comfort zone and I think he's doing very well.

Dick is in a bad mood tonight.

Ken Lim now pulls out the old standby: "let's judge a contestant over his body of work. In other words, please vote for Fendi and kick out Victor Tang!

Victor: They gave him a party song! What??? Dick was just going on earlier about how party songs may not be his strong suit.

I am not sure what Dick is going on about. Pop songs with clean simple melodies suit Victor Tang, but he lacks energy for pop songs? So, basically, NOTHING suits him?

Kuo Po brings some sanity to the proceedings by saying that Victor is basically a balladeer (well, not a very good one, really, and it's not so much that he is a balladeer but that he prefers to sing ballads badly, rather than singing other types of songs just as badly). More sense being made as she mentions the monotony of the performance.

Ken Lim is really the most enjoyable thing about this show. He managed to get in a really mean insult about Victor "lacking in substance" then graciously backtracks into faux-civility by calling him a nice guy and wishing him all the best in the result show. It's amazing how Ken does not trip over his own contortions! He really, really wants Victor gone! But the judges were the ones who brought him back for the Wild Card show, which gave him the chance to be in the final rounds!

By Definition: Oooh, they are given Santana to sing!! I must say, they really are MUCH better than Superband. This is a true band performance, not just a soloist backed by anonymous musicians. Like something we would have seen on Rockstar: Some_Band.

All three judges just want them to win! Ken asks them to vote for themselves by taking an advance on the $60K prize money. Okay, Ken Lim, props to you for that pretty clever piece of advice.

Revelina: A slowish song from NSync. Lots of harmony. Sweet.

Dick likes them again. It was the costuming in their first number (white glasses and checkered outfits) that he didn't get.

Aww, Kuo Po is sweet and says she won't mind them winning either.

Ken Lim pulls the "likability" card on them this time around. He's clearly rooting for Harry Potter (Revelina) and the Sultans of Style (By Definition) to be in the finals. Hey, Catsine Cradle have not performed yet!!

Catsine Cradle: Singing Howie Day's Collide. They say upfront they are sticking to the original version. Ooh, are they going to get a "not taking risk" critique for this? I am getting that same sense of a typical acoustic band with a very good lead singer and invisible instrumentalists.

Dick likes it but seems a bit uninvolved, like he could not much care one way or the other. I think he just wish that the band is as good as the lead singer.

Kuo Po says the song was "too easy" for them. Is this her way of saying that they could have tried harder, ie the "not taking risk" critique?

Ken Lim praises the lead singer saying that he would have won the competition by now had he entered as a soloist. Aah, Ken Lim. In one fell swoop, he manages to subtly put down the band and not so subtly insult all the remaning contestants in the solo category as well.

Scattered thoughts: Live the Dream Top 3

What's the deal with making contestants sing in Asian languages that are not their mother tongues? Is this to give Dawn Yip something to do?

Dawn is judging this show in the exact same way she did on Campus Superstar! Lots of comments about "feel" and "performance quality". She's rather cool about this whole gig and is really getting into the spirit of things.

Ken Lim is determined to pigeon-hole the Revelina boys into the Harry Potter sweet geek box. As reality TV boxes goes, this is one of the weirder ones and perhaps the most limiting. Poor kids. Maybe poor Naza really wants to ditch the glasses but he's stuck with them now.

Wow, Dick Lee shows his bitchy side and tells off the Catsine Cradle guys for apparently not paying attention to him! So much for him being the Paula Abdul of this show! I like bitchy Dick.

Oy, butchered Mandarin is not fun to listen to! Neither is butchered Korean.

Ken Lim has a dig at Channel U's Superband! Hahaha! I love it! I am dying to know whether he thinks Revelina is better than Milubing, the winner of Superband, or if he just thinks Revelina is generally better than the typical group that competed in Superband. Either way, he's right, but I rather like to think that he is slyly knocking down the sweet but decidedly non-super Milubing kids.

And Ken has a second go at Superband! Even after lukewarm comments for By Definition, he says they are another group that is still better than Superband!

Suddenly, I am thinking how absolutely awesome Ken Lim would have been as a Superband judge. What wonderful and scathing put-downs would he have offered to the wannabe goth stylings of Lucify, the gimmicky cutesiness of Milubing, the emo warblings of Brods, the OTT theatrical tendencies of Qinobi? Boy, oh boy, how he would have taken apart the really bad ones whose names I cannot remember, like the all-girl group that could neither sing nor dance that well and the mixed-gender non-instrument playing group that got the lowest points ever.

Why are they devoting so many minutes of the results show to the two Project Superstar champs? One's a bit of a non-singer and the other is a bit of a non-performer (not saying who's which). We could wrap up the result show 5 minutes earlier without this bit of filler. Was this to give Darren a chance to shill the new staging of Beauty World? Dick Lee could have done it.

Aaaand ... they pull a"nobody goes home" gimmick ala American Idol during the self-congratulatory "Idol Gives Back" episode. Of course, this week's Live the Dream is tied to the President's Star Charity and you can't have someone being eliminated when votes are actually counting towards the PSC donations. Bleahhh, it's not even an original coup although the contestants did seem genuinely taken aback.

Live the Dream or the slightly older man's Singapore Idol

I finally watched one of Live the Delusional Dream's competition episodes last night. They have been at this for a few weeks now but I have only seen a couple of result show episodes before.

The theme was great - Remix and Rematch. Blake Lewis from the latest American Idol season would have absolutely killed this. This was breathtakingly original for a Singapore talent show.

The singing was less great. I had expected better after seeing the audition episode that aired on National Day. After all, aren't there actual professional singers competing? People who sing in clubs, lounges, cruise ships etc? Not glamorous by any means, but at least competent enough to make a living from keeping in tune? I was not expecting "pitchiness" to be a problem with this show, unlike Idol and the Superstar competitions. I can only imagine that the decent singers did not get the votes and were eliminated before these final rounds. Or that Ken Lim the judges pulled out the old "X factor" chestnut to prop up questionably gifted contestants. Or probably both.

On the whole, the soloists were better than the average Singapore Idol finalist, but not by much. Certainly, nobody was quite as scarily inept as the teen-brigade in SI2. We can all be thankful for that much but less so for the continued presence of Victor Tang and Shauna Simon. Shauna is a decent enough singer but not a particularly impressive performer. I think she should have tried out for Idol, since she's patently young enough (then I had the thought that maybe she did try out and was unsuccessful) and she's just taking up a spot that could have gone to someone over 30 years old, who could not have qualified for Idol. Victor Tang is reportedly a musician and I am sure he is good at what he does for a living. He is just not a singer. Nothing to be ashamed of; plenty of brilliant musicians cannot sing if their lives depended on it. I wish he had friends who told him to just stick to song writing and playing music. It would have spared him the embarrassment of a particularly stinging Ken Lim put-down. It would have spared us from the alarming prospect of seeing him as one of the potential Grand Finalists (looking ominously possible now, after Robert Tsunga's unceremonious and undeserved elimination).

I liked all the bands, even the ones that made cacophonous noises! I think the sound mixing and balance on this show is generally quite bad and that may explain some of the less than melodious sounds that we hear. Not that I am making excuses for the bands; there were some harmonies that missed the mark by miles, and After the Rain's instrumentalists were out of sync with each other. I still thought they sounded better than many of the bands that were on Channel U's "Superband" competition (the Grand Finals of that show was musically a disaster. Milu Ping played instruments much better than they sang and Soul was a band of dancers who should really, really, really stick to dancing. The only musically sound band in the Top 4 was J3 who sang a superb jazz rendition of Xiao Wei in the Finals, but sadly did not pull the needed votes).

Dick Lee seems to have taken on the mantle of the "nice" judge with something positive to say about almost everyone. Is he getting soft in his (physically non apparent) old age?

Ken Lim seems meaner on this show than on Idol. Maybe I did not give him enough credit on Idol. He was stingy with praise, but at least he never seemed downright nasty. Perhaps he was truly making an effort to be nice and appropriately treating the Idol youngsters with kids' gloves. On this show, he seems to be in a perpetual bad mood and barely able to be minimally civil to the contestants or the screaming audience. Actually, I rather enjoy this version of Ken Lim who has no obvious partiality for any of the contestants. He seems to have no time for the whole lot of them (barring perhaps By Definition) and his critiques are consequently unhampered by the usual need for subtle audience manipulation. It makes a nice change.