WAS he a default winner who merely got lucky due to tactical voting?
Barely a day after Singapore's Hady Mirza sent shockwaves throughout the region by clinching the Asian Idol title, netizens are already raining on his victory parade.
Their theory?
That the 27-year-old R&B crooner only won because voters from the other five participating countries had adopted a tactical plan which eventually backfired.
Here's how: With one SMS, voters must choose two different countries to ensure fairness and minimise any potential national bias - a system that inadvertently benefitted Hady.
According to many postings on the official Asian Idol forum and MediaCorp's forum, people might have cast the first vote for their home idol, and the second vote to the one who's the least threatening, most unlikely to win and from the smallest country - to avoid improving the chances of the closest rival.
Hence, Singapore's Hady.
One netizen who went by the name of Van Helsing wrote: 'Hady was mostly selected as the second choice. It could be due to either the voters really liking him (apart from their own home idol) or he is not a threat (to their own home idol).
'Either way, the voting system has certainly worked to Hady's advantage.'
Hady took the title on Sunday night when he defeated five other Idol winners from Indonesia (Mike Mohede), Malaysia (Jaclyn Victor), the Philippines (Mau Marcelo), Vietnam (Phuong Vy) and India (Abhijeet Sawant).
The regional singing competition was televised live from Jakarta.
Despite being considered one of the weaker singers and hardly the judges' favourite, Hady managed to garner the lion's share of the almost two million SMS votes cast.
And therein lies the ongoing debate about how he pipped outstanding powerhouse singers like Jaclyn, Mike and Mau.
Did he really have the most mass appeal? Or was it all a fluke?
Hady's supporters laud his charm, good looks, X-factor and marketability, insisting he possesses the 'total package' and is 'star material'.
On the other side of the spectrum, adjectives like 'unbelievable', 'disappointing', 'anti-climactic', 'weird' and even 'funny' cropped up to describe his win.
Disgruntled netizen look4realdeal suggested that if there's ever another Asian Idol, people should 'vote for talent and not out of fear your country will lose if you cast your second vote to (someone with) real talent'.
Others were more sarcastic, like Malaysian blogger KlubbKidd who claimed Asian Idol broke 'the Ten Commandments'.
He wrote: 'There goes the 'thou shalt not worship false idols' with the win (by Hady) and 'thou shalt not steal' with the robbing of the glory of three very much more worthy talents (in Mike, Jaclyn and Mau) who so deserved the title more than the pretty boy who tried to sing.'
But Mr Anthony Ong, president of Hady's fan club, prefers to believe his idol's triumph wasn't an accident.
Together with four other members, the 26-year-old multimedia producer flew to Jakarta to support Hady, casting 'a few hundred votes' each.
Mr Ong said: 'No one can be sure which theory is true or not. I'm sure some voted strategically, but I believe the rest voted on talent, appeal and likability.
'Anyway, Asians have already chosen Hady and they have to live with it. He shone the most, compared to the rest who may have amazing voices but can't sell.
'It's a big achievement for him and for all of us in Singapore. We are overjoyed.'
Asian Idol host Soo Kui Jien added: 'At the end of the day, whether he's deserving or not, he won fair and square. And nobody can take that away from him.'
When confronted with the theory, a fatigued Hady - who only got two hours of sleep early yesterday morning - shrugged the speculation off.
He told The New Paper over the phone from Jakarta: 'People can have their own opinions and theories.
'I was the underdog in the competition... I was prepared to hug whoever was going to win.
'But I still believe that in terms of sincerity and connecting with the audience, I did pretty well.'
Ken: Hady has Malay market advantage
KEN Lim, Singapore's rep on the Asian Idol judging panel, countered the controversial theory with his own.
Said the Hype Records director, who's also Hady Mirza's boss: 'You cannot 'get lucky' with six different territories.
'I don't think voters from the region think so much into it. They are the type who are not so concerned about strategy, but vote for whom they like enough to want to spend money on.'
He felt that strong vocalists like Jaclyn Victor, Mau Marcello, Mike Mohede and Phuong Vy ended up 'fighting among themselves', which paved the way for India's Abhijeet Sawant and Hady - who are 'a different sort of artiste' - to come from behind.
'Hady had the advantage of singing in Malay and reaching out to Indonesia and Malaysia, while Abhijeet was handicapped by language barrier and wrong choice of song,' he added.
Ken revealed that after watching the first round of performances - where Hady sang Taufik Batisah's Malay song Berserah - he sensed that 'this boy has a chance'.
He said: 'I realised that he had the best balance out of all of them. I'm a commercial person, and I was looking at how the Asian Idol must appeal to audiences across Asia, beyond a voice with power and range.'
So what does being the first-ever Asian Idol mean for Hady's hitherto tepid music career?
Ken, who is working on his protege's second album, said: 'It makes our work easier, now that he's more recognised.
'But competing in the commercial market against established acts is a different ball game altogether.'
The Electric New Paper, Singapore - The Electric New Paper Show
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