Reality TV & Glam Awards

Whenever I'm back in Malaysia, I seem to be glued to the TV... especially on the weekend.

If at Singapore you can ask me what's on TV and I'll answer - just some dust (ok, this joke can't be used much now as we all have flat screens). Of course, I do watch TV a bit in Singapore, but nothing like being back home, where I am really a couch potato.



So, last night, I flipped through the What's On TV and noticed that there were not 1 but 2 music events being aired on TV - and at the same time. Partly to keep updated on the entertainment news for my work, and partly for interests, I knew I had to watch them.

So, I was actually flipping in between the 2 channels to watch each program. Now that's non stop 3 hours of entertainment!

Reality TV continues
First off, there was the Project Superstar 3. I've never really followed this competition. In fact, I didn't even know that they were in Season 3 (no, I'm not in dinasour age! lol).

I only remembered the first season of Singapore's Project Superstar - won by the visually imparied singer Kelvin Tan Wei Lian beating Kelly Poon. At that time, reality competitions were at an all time high with both Singapore & Malaysian Idols! Anyway, 8TV has bought the franchise and Malaysia has already completed its 3rd season!


Back to the show. There were 2 finalists - Kay and Hau. On my personal opinion, Kay, has the star look and appeal. The only shortcoming, she was a lil uptight throughout the show... maybe she was nervous. On the other hand, Hau had more on-screen personality and seemed to be having more fun.

Overall, I thought both were quite alright, though they have slight pitching problems. It could be because they had to sing too many songs - if not wrong, about 6 songs or so each. That was actually what made the show a lil boring to an extend... it was a lil bit like a talentime contest instead - this is when too much is bad?

Michael Wong to the rescue
The draggy show became a lil bit of a torture (unless you are a fan of either singers). But, the producers did one thing right - they brought in Malaysia's popular singer known for his hit Fairytale (Tong Hua 童話), Michael Wong (Guang Liang 王光良).



I'm glad that while I was channel hopping I actually managed to see this segment. Michael really landed his star appeal to the show, and Kay & Hau sang well with him. Their performance here was like the best throughout. This segment of the show was even better than the results segment - who, btw, is the pretty Kay. I told you she had star appeal :)

Malaysia's Music Glam Night
Over on the other channel on NTV7, there is the Malaysia's Annual Music Awards (Anugerah Industri Muzik - AIM). I didn't catch all as I was flipping back and forth, but manged to get some interesting points:

1. Less Talk
I always find this show very draggy, but this year, they have made it much better whereby the winners only had a few seconds to say their thanks before the music is played. This helped a bit especially from those who like to hog the limelight.

2. When round is in
This night of glam sees all the big stars in one platform... including the 2 big hosts! Move over, Sean Kingston... the 2 hosts famous for their works in the entertainment industry are also huge in size! In fact, they've been a-round longer than Kingston! They are non other than funny woman-actress-singer Adibah Noor and director-producer-singer-comedian Afdlin Shauki.


Host Adibah Noor did a great job and in fact, she could have hosted alone and pull it off well - she apparently spoke a lil bit of Tamil as well (how correct, I don't know! haha).

3. Datuk Siti again
Like it or hate it, for the ninth time in a row now - the best female singer is once again Malaysia's pop princess, Datuk Siti Nurhaliza. Do you want to bet for next year's winner? :)

4. Where's Mawi?
If you are Malaysian, you most likely have heard his name - if there's Siti, there's Mawi. But apparently, Malaysia's currently most popular singer was not nominated in any category at all.

5. Truly Asia
On their 15th year, there is an introduction to some new special segments like Best Chinese Album & Best Indian Album as well. Now, that's a start to integrating music for Malaysia!

Karen Kong (famed for her Chinese style of singing in Malay - and her hit Cinta Hello Kitty) actually performed on stage and so did some other language acts.

5. Faizal Tahir - The Biggest Winner
If you thought Datuk Siti would be the biggest winner, you'll be surprised. It's in fact, reltively new singer & finalist for reality TV - One In A Million, Faizal Tahir. He won awards for Best New Singer, Best Male Singer and the most grand award - Best Album of The Year.


This must be a sweet moment for him who was banned on TV and there were even some politicians (holier than thou) condemning him for his taking-off-shirt episode during one of his performances. Now, that's a good way of revenge to his critics hey? (On a sidetrack, a rock singer taking off shirt can also cause so much hoo ha?)

So after 3 hours or so, I've gotten a fair bit of Malaysian music all into 1. It's great to see that Malaysia's music is moving one step ahead, slowly integrating and going bigger. And judging by the reality TV winners, reality TV competitions are here to stay.

Maybe in next year's AIM, Kay will be there up for an award?

This can only get better!

Full AIM results.