Sunsilk Academy Fantasia Round 1

Sunsilk Academy Fantasia is a reality singing competition brought into Singapore by Sunsilk and Starhub. It first started out in Mexico and has been brought to Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, India and China. Now it's here in Singapore!

The 14 contestants who will battled it out for the top prize -  2year contract from Ocean Butterflies.

So yesterday, the 1st round was held at St James Powerhouse Station. It was the battle between the 7 girls and I must say it was pretty exciting. Before starting off, photos are taken from Glitz.

Vee started off 重伤 by sitting on a chair for the 1st verse and chorus before standing up for the remaining parts of the song. Her rendition was very different from the original and she sung it in her own style. Audience could sense the emotions she was trying to portray and if you watched her during rehearsals, many of the contestants cried while watching her sing too. Generally her performance was one of the best for the night.

Huixian started her performance of 不痛 by walking from off stage and did some emotive actions during the prelude before the 1st verse. The starting was quite stable and she brought it to a climax at the end. However, I felt that the climax was not as high as it could have been. While watching her during rehearsals, her voice had alot of 穿透力 but maybe because it was with the live band, it sounded less powerful. Many of you would know that she's actually my good friend but I will still have to say that her performance was the best for this round looking at all the factors from stability to emotions and stage presence.

Natalie take on 失落沙洲 was good during rehearsals but it was totally incorrect yesterday night. She was off beat during many parts of the song and while she kept on singing, she got less and less confident which made her sound like she was unsure of what she was performing. Hardly any stage presence could be seen and what audience saw was more of her nervousness. Generally, the night just wasn't good for her.

Fiona's decision to sing 最熟悉的陌生人 was made just less than 24 hours before the competition and the results showed that she had made a wrong choice. I managed to catch the whole story of how she was in a dilemma between her 1st song choice and this song -  How kenneth and phil gave her advice and how she practiced the 2 songs in the studio. Honestly, her rendition of this song during rehearsals actually took me by surprise. Her voice had alot of  穿透力 and it was very powerful. However, during the actual performance, the live band made her voice sound weak and if felt that she was trying very hard to hit the high notes. The ending was not to her advantage where she sang a note 1 octave lower than the original singer. Generally the performance sounded very stressful to audience's ears but it was a good try.

Celyn's performance of 你要的愛 was not too good. She seemed to lack confidence in her performance and did not bring out the climax of the song. It was quite a so-so performance where she didn't display her vocals well and lacked good stage presence. Her inability to follow the beats of the song was a major problem. Even during rehearsals, she couldn't seem to put up  a good rendition of this song. Also, She definitely have to continue training new techniques to compete with the rest.

Chloe chose 错的人 because she felt that it was a comfortable range and the lyrics were meaningful. She did a pretty good job bringing out this song with all the high notes in place. Thoughout the song, she was quite stable as well. However, I felt that it was a rather technical performance and she lacked the stage presence. As the judges mentioned, she did not have any stage movement but merely finished the song at the same spot she started out. During rehearsals, I thought she did a bad job and spoilt the song. But nevertheless, she managed to bring a rendition of her own during the actual performance which I feel, is one of the better ones for the night.

Jessie was the only contestant that took on a fast song for the night. 愛要坦蕩蕩 managed to hyped up the atmosphere that was rather tense and the judges seem to like it. As what Xu Huan Liang mentioned, her actions looked abit too over-rehearsed though. And despite her saying that her best factor is her voice, I feel otherwise. Her voice lacks the uniqueness and she does not have enough techniques to bring out highly emotive songs if she intend to do so for the next few rounds.


Overall, my favorite performances for the night are by Huixian and Vee. I like both their emotive and unique renditions as well as their stage presence. They were definitely the 2 best performances for the night and I am looking forward to Chloe's performance with more stage presence the next round.

For those of you who are interested to know more about the contestants, you can visit www.sunsilkacademyfantasia.com

Do catch the daily lives of these contestants on Starhub Channel 110 between 7am to 1am from Sunday to Friday and the concert competitions on Channel 111 every Saturday at 930pm! Also, do remember to vote for your favorite contestant! You can do so by sending AFSGXX <space> Name <space> Ic number to 146073300 during the concerts competition till 1159pm.