VietNamNet Bridge – In an unexpected victory that caught even the winner by surprise, Singapore's Hady Mirza was crowned the first Asian Idol in Jakarta on Sunday.
A dark horse in the singing competition, the 26-year-old winner of the second season of Singapore Idol beat five other contestants, including favourites Mike Mohede, 24, from Indonesia, and Jaclyn Victor, 29, from Malaysia.
The other contestants were India's Abhijeet Sawant, 26, Philippines' Mau Marcelo, 27, and Vietnam's Phuong Vy, 20.
All six contestants sang two songs each on the performance show last Saturday night.
Hady lost his composure when his name was announced as the winner just after midnight at the end of a two-hour-long results show telecast on Channel 5.
The Singaporean singer dropped to his knees and covered his face with his hands for a full minute before being hoisted up by his fellow contestants.
To a 5,000-strong live audience at Jakarta's Mega Glodok Kemayoran convention hall and millions more television viewers around Asia, Hady sang-U2's Beautiful Day and Berserah (Surrender), originally sung by first. Singapore Idol Taufik Batisah, last Saturday.
Hady racked up the highest votes via SMS voting.
Viewers could vote as many times as they wanted - but they had to vote for two contestants.
This ruling ensured a level playing field for countries with smaller populations.
Hady sent an SMS to The Straits Times soon after his win.
It said: "I'd like to thank everyone and my fans for voting for me. Without them, I wouldn't be where I am now. I love you... see you all back in Singapore!"
His win caught many by surprise. Singapore Idol judge Ken Lim, who was also on the judging panel for Asian Idol, gave him a 50-50 chance at best before the competition.
He told The Straits Times in an SMS after the results were announced: "I have been waiting for a long time to prove that Singapore should be proud of its home-grown talents, and this win has finally made Singapore Asia's best."
Hady's friends were also shocked.
"I am shocked but happy for him. It was unexpected as he was up against strong competition," said his friend of eight years Shahfii Ali. The -28-year-old is from hip-hop group Triple Noize and has performed with Hady since the late 1990s in the independent hip-hop and R&B scene.
0 comments:
Post a Comment