Judges
Judges always played a rather important role in talent shows especially American Idol where ultra-cynic Simon Cowell seems to be influential in determining how things goes around in terms of the contestant's fate throughout the competition. However can we say the same with both Malaysian Idol and One in a million ?
Malaysian Idol again, harping on the immensely popular Idol franchaise follows strictly to the judges selection and they did comeout close -> against American Idol.
Let us take a closer look:
->Randy Jackson - Roslan Aziz [both very famous producers in their own market]
->Paula Abdul - Fauziah Latiff [both golden girl of the industry during their heydays]
->Simon Cowell - Paul Moss [One is a well known figure in the entertainment industry and the other ? well a
guitarist of a NZ band which has its short days back in the 80's (to be precised
Aishah and the Fan Club)]
If we take a little closer at the judges, Roslan Aziz for me is a man who dares to speaks his mind though at times does not make sense but we hv to give him credit for that. However we cannot deny that his way of commenting on the judges is more towards of a producers view and therefore at time could be excusable.
Fauziah Latiff or Gee, one might say that she is a singer who has sweet little voice but not a powerful diva and therefore her suitabilty to comment as a judge is questionable. However good sweet little Kak Gee is as sweet as ever, very often if not always she would post positive comments and her only usage of criticism in terms of singing is "pitching problem". However having said that, we have to admit that she is one of the most beautiful lady ever to grace the local music industry for 2 decades.
Paul Moss oh Paul Moss, always the Cowell wannabe. At times I wonder whether he actually got instructed by the producers to actually mimic Cowell moves. Eg: Remember the times Cowell left the audition ? And our friend Paul Moss did the same .. coincident or mere copycat. Anyways, Paul Moss position as the judge is to stand in as a honest, critical and most of all influential judges of the 3. Well, at times he did that quite well but at the other end his preference towards pretty girls makes people loath. Unlike Simon, Paul Moss focuses on the performance of the contestants without digging in to the micro level of the contestants ... like the feeling of the song etc. ..
To sum up, Malaysian Idol judges is just a blind carbon copy of the American Idol judges. Though I respect their status in the industry but at times their views are questionable.
One of the biggest accomplishment before One in a million even started is that they managed to rope in Syafinaz as one of the judges [having featured influentially in AF series as guest judge]. And guess whos back to partner her ? YES PAUL MOSS !
Syafinaz the UITM music lecturer has always been strict and technical in terms of judging contestants and she did very well whislt featured as guest judge in AF2,AF3. Her judging credibilty is dearly needed for one in a million in order to bolster the image of the show in bringing out The Next Big Thing. However I am quite worried in the initial stages of the competitions esp in Central Eliminations where Syafinaz did not showcase her sharp criticism towards the contestatns in terms of technical aspects. But we do not need to wait long before Syafinaz was all herself again. In the finals, her sharp criticism towards the singing techniques of the contestants is straight to the point and sharp as ever. This is what we need as in a judge, able to comment and pinpoint a contestant's weakness to the details of levels so that they can reflect on this after the show and put on a better one in the future. We do not need a judge to thrash out the contestant with vulgar and ultranegative comments just to make them feel bad and not knowign where gone wrong ? Kudos SyafinazOn the other hand, Paul Moss is back as the judge for one in a million ... geez are we surprised. His criticism did not wane either .... but again like what I said earlier ... we need constructive comments ... not "You are pathetic" , "THis is rubbish" .. etc. We have to admit that these contestants are still raw ... they need guidance and not mere condemnation. I would strongly suggest Paul to reflect on this one. If not, the contestants would just feel bad not knowing where they done wrong .... or maybe Paul cant see where is wrong .. he just knows its wrong ... FULL STOP .. this is very unfair to the contestants themselves. Paul, u gotta learn from Syafinaz ...
Another thing which I believe most of us can realize that there seems to be a rift between Paul and Syafinaz. Somehow I think most of us can see that Paul Moss has been rudely intercepting whenver Syafinaz voices her opinion. Izit because after 2 years of "monopoly-ing" the judge's table somehow Paul Moss got intimidated by Syafinaz sensical comments ?
Competition Format
Malaysian Idol format follows closely in line with the already successful Idol phenomenon franchise. Its very simple -> Audition -> Central Eliminations -> Top 24 -> Top 10 and after that each week the lowest contestants who garnered the lowest number of votes gets the boot. Its as simple as that.
One in a million IMHO tries to take its shape out of the shell of Malaysian Idol ... again not wanting to be closely associated with MI. Instead of those simple format mentioned above for MI, One in a million tries to add some so called "added flavor" which for me more confusing, unfair and at times STUPID.
One in a million started out with auditions -> Central Eliminations -> Head To Head competition [Top 20]-> Second Chance -> Top 12.
Central Eliminations is the joke for the competition, why ? ... Though most part of the central elimination is acceptable but at times I am disturbed by the gimmicks from the producers
i) Male - Female group elimination -> unfair
Heres the rule, there will be 9 person in a group whereby each will try to outsing each other and the top 4 from each group progresses to the next round. It does not take long for the fans to notice how unfair this system goes because there are weak groups and there are strong groups. At times, not even the best of the weak teams can match those of the contestant from the strongerteams that could not make the cut... this is so unfair for the contestants who have better package ... if they are to do this . they should at least have to group the contestants equally ... I am tottaly against such idea which is unfair to deserving contestants.
ii) BLIND TEST-> STUPID
Of all the gimmicks, this one is the biggest joke. Well at first its sounded as a good idea. The contestants will sing behind a closed area where the judges can only evaluate the contestants voice quality instead of their physical appearance[Pity u Paul]. But then again ... the timing of the blind test is done at a very late stage of the elimination that I wonder whether it makes any difference or not. I mean by this time, the judges already know whom they are listening to because they are so used to the contestant by now. At times you can even see that the judges tries to act dumb as all they do not know the identity of the singers ... at the end of the day ... the blind test started out as a good idea but the timing of when it is done is simly stupid.
However, having said that One in a million did have something that is rather interesting in terms of its competition format. Blind test is actually a good idea in only it can be done in a stage whereby the judges does not have the time to "know" who are who. Another catchy idea is the personality test, I like the idea where each contestants personality is put to test. The entertainment industry nowadays professes alot on the packaging of an artist themselves. Whats the point of one having all the talent in the world but cant be packaged into a "sellable" figure. However the one that I love most is the head-to-head battle whereby the Top20 would be ranked first. Then the top10 got to choose whom they want to sing against. The one which outperform the other will be chosen as the top10 while the loser will get another chance to perform once more to strive for another 2 places to make it Final Top12. You will be surprised that the lower ranked contestants at times outperformed those whom the were pitched against. But then this shows that as a contestants you can never let your guards down because it can cost you ... DEAR !
VS
One in A Million, a relatively new "Talent Reality Show" braces Malaysian airwaves recently. Up for grabs is a million ringgit [well not so after u kena taxed by IRB] which would be invested into the development of the winner's label in terms of getting the best in album production such as song composition, marketing etc... [1 million enuff ?]. But why "One In A Million"?. After 2 successful season [yes, we can still say season 2 is a success] with Malaysian Idol, why not continue doing it? Maybe because the "Idol" franchise is too expensive ? Therefore a locally produced talent show fits the "budget" ? [Or the buy British goods last campaign still continues?]. But is the RM 1 million catch really worth it ? After a few episoded of One In A Million, I can see some rationale in giving this show a shot ...
So lets get a head to head comparison:
i) Contestants quality
Both talent show focused on giving a birth to the next Malaysia's Big Thing after Siti Nurhaliza [or maybe Mawi]. The very first incarnation of Malaysian Idol nearly did that, Jac possess the quality of international class. Flawless vocals, she has most of Malaysian regardless of race and religion backing her up all the way to crown her as Malaysia's very first IDOL.
Malaysian Idol, a franchaise from the "Idol" phenomenon globally has to follow the rules of acceptance in terms of contestant's participation. A person who is 16 -29 years old who is a Malaysian and WIHTOUT a PROFESIONAL SINGING CONTRACT will find themselves eligible to participate in this competition. If we are to reopen history books, except for Jac [who herself courted some controversies with her own published album] none of the other Malaysian Idol Top 10 contestants really lived up to the high standards that Malaysia's Next Big Thing needs to have. Not even the winner of Malaysian Idol2 Daniel Lee [though he is starting to make waves in Taiwan]. No not even both runner ups Dina nor Nita ... So one might question, are we the proud owner of the "Boleh-land" does not have talents out there and Jac is just one of those tiny handfuls of "real" and undiscovered talent out there ? But then what about other talent competition like AF, Asto talents search, Vaanavil talent search ... the likes of Mawi AF3 [the new phenomenon of Malaysian local music industry], Bob AF2 [for what his voice power has been discounted by his rather "incommercial" physical appearance, or what about Zhang Dong Liang [ the winner of Astro talent quest who made it huge in Taiwan]. What we are finding is a STAR which can appeal to most of Malaysians .. not one ethnic group
One in a Million, tries to tackle the weakness of or rather the limitation of the Idol show. Instead of all those singing contract limitations, now all Malaysians who are 16 - 30 years old can participate in this talent show regardless whethere they earlier signed any recording contract or not. This means that even recording artists have the chance to participate in this competition and before you realize, many recording artiste who did not make it big time takes this opportunity to give their singing career another shot. However havign said that these people have to gamble on ONE thing ... their most precious FAME, the one they have been working on for years. One fine example is the participation of Dayang Nurfaizah [Dayang]. A lot of people has been crying foul over the unfair advantage that she has over the other contestants since she has been pro for quite some time. But then many would also agree that she faces the risk of paying the MOTHER OF ALL RISKs, she needs to prove week in week out that she is way above the rest else her credibility would be heavily criticized and so is the pressure she has to face. But we have to agree that these bunch of top10 that we have in One in a million is one of the most talented lot that ever graced local talent shows lately. For the first time, I have more than 3 favourites to look forward to week in week out (Dayang,Zai, Faizal, Azfar [at times, coz i like Zainal Abidin and his performance reminds me of Zainal Abidin] , Aliff and Suki [coz shes from Seremban]) ... something which I only have the luxury on American Idol ...
One in a milion 1
Malaysian Idol 0
