June Semifinals Round 2
As per round 1, this round was just as exciting!! One of the youngest contestant so far, Jessica chose a matured song 回家 by Shunza and showed us the maturity in her. We must say she carried it off pretty well, given her age.
Another surprise came in the form of 自弹自唱 by Stanley. A first in Hark Music’s Live 比一比, he chose to play the piano and sing all by himself!! Well done Stanley!!
And the finalists are Jessica, Stanley and Leonard
June Semifinals Round 1
We have made yet another improvement to the place… with a backdrop that brings more colors to the exciting “Live 比一比” event!! Check out the photo!!
Tonight’s semi final round saw, as per usual, the café packed full with supporters of the contestants! However, the results of the votes spoke otherwise. The top scorer only managed a positive 16, while the second was a 2 pointer (What a big gap!!) The rest of the contestants all got negative votes!! What happened to generosity here?
Votes aside, comments from the judges and “fans” are also getting more and more creative, sometimes even better and wittier (we think) than those of Singapore Idols/ Superband/ shows alike:
We have comments like "Czech Republic vs Ghana, Disappointing!"… “Like Stephanie” etc.
One also said,”很 enjoy himself!”, but he put a cross to the contestant!!
Amos was also in a good performing mood tonight, and the audience is constantly tickled to a good laugh with his spontaneous ideas and witty comments.
Anyway, the results are as such (We have another 4+1 this time):
Confirmed places in Grand Finals this Sunday Max, Charlotte, Jeff and Patrick
And in the nomination list, we have Kok Leong, who’s fate will depend on the results of the contestants in semi finals 2!!Stay tuned!!
Sunday 俱乐部
Yap, Sunday is (as per the title) a night for all Hark Members to enjoy their very last few hours of the weekend, and what better way to do it than to spend a night in the cafe, where all members enjoy a One for One deal for all drinks, ALL NIGHT LONG!!
There was also a host of programs that were lined up:
6 - 8 pm: Hark Student's Performances
8 - 9 pm: Hark Instructors performances by Eddie, Philip etc.
9pm onwards: 想说就说, a variety show where hot topics are discussed and audiences get to voice out their opinions (e.g. Why are more females more interested in watching soccer compared to the past?, Do men spend more, or women?)
Last night, we saw many of our members coming to relax and enjoy the show. Among them was a group from our Live! Workshop who were here to practice what they have learnt in the workshop in preparance for their maiden performance in July prime time (Fri, Sat)!! They sure looked like they enjoyed every single minute of their time here!!
Doris did a number (First Day) from Stephanie Sun and guess what? 5 brave young men went up on stage with her to become her "background dancer", swaying and waving to her song... it sure sparked lots of fun and energy into our show!! Well done dancers :P
After them, another group of 3 girls also went up on stage to do May Day's heart thumping 恋爱ING!!
What a way to end the weekend and energize yourself for the week ahead!!
Last qualifying round in June 06
Contestants of singing contestants are really getting more and more "stary" recently... Imagine them having a fan club to support them in their competitions!!
Yes, for the first time in Hark Music Cafe, we saw banners lifted, names shouted and contestants cheered thunderously upon by their fans!!
Check out what they wrote in support of their "idol"!!
With his quick wittedness, Amos even played along with June and role-played as a show host introducing a new recording artist to promote her debut album!!
While June and Jin Bao got fans, other contestants also have some stunts up their sleeves.
Leanard for example, sang 海啸 in R&B style!! What style he exuded!!
Though interesting, the judges commented that he looked (and sang) too cheerful in a heart wrenching song and that sort of altered the mood of the song.
Anyway, you'll be seeing the below people in the semi finals this week:
June - 超快感, Zhi Xiang - 我还能爱谁, Doreen - Fly Away, Leonard - 海啸
Well done to the 4 of them!! And to the Fans too!! Seeya at the Semis.
Live 比一比 - Jun 06, 3rd Qualifying Round
Tonight's competition was yet another one of High standards!!
All of the audience and staffs were simply blown away by the songs belted out by the contestants.
Jessica (probably the youngest contestant ever) at 16 years of age, brought us FIR's Lydia.
With much stage performing experience on her belt(e.g. Warner's FIR singing contest, Top Fun 模仿大赛), she delivered her performance smoothly and confidently.
Another contestant, Stanley also surprised everyone when he read out 子曰 out as an introduction during his 30 sec of hosting stint. Everyone was quite puzzled at first, till Amos ingeniously started the electronic drum and the true rap started!! Though the stunt lacked a little more body language, everyone was tickled nonetheless.
So after a fierce round of performance, the qualifiers are:
Jessica - Lydia
Oliver - 中箭
Rion - 翅膀
Stanley - 会有那么一天
Another improvement by Hark Music!!
Here’s another add on to your pleasure in our Garden of Music!! New LCD screens!! Now you won’t have to strain your neck to view what’s going on up on stage… the newly installed screens are there for you to watch all the happenings comfortably from your seat. 3 cheers to the management!!
One of our patrons said, “I can even see the expressions of the performers on stage!! Cool!!”Another exclaimed, “I won’t have to worry about being blocked by people sitting in the seats in front anymore. I can now catch all the happenings live on stage!! Yuppy!!”
World Cup Fever Begins......
Yup, the world cup fever has begun tonight and everyone's flocking to pubs and coffeeshops to watch the matches live...
It was, for Hark Music Cafe Bar, quite a different weekend as the crowd were mostly outside cheering for their teams... really made us feel like "holiday mood"......
On the bright side though, weekend crooners had a rare chance to be able to go up on stage 2 to 3 times to sing their dedications....
So why not install TVs and show the matches live in Hark Music Cafe Bar... some suggested. Well, we feel that Hark Music should still be a musical place for music lovers to enjoy... and this "soccer influenza" is only lasting for a month (once in 4 years)....
Anyway, another highlight of tonight's performance was Patrick's rendition of a Thai song, with altered chinese lyrics (courtesy of Philip), 只是拥抱. Though it was the first time we heard the song, it was quite a hit!! Great job guys!!
Let's Challenge June 2nd Qualifying Round
In tonight’s qualifying round, we have a challenge between 7 star-wannabes… and each brought out their best to woo the judges and the audience to vote for them to qualify for the semi finals… and the 3 of them who are voted in are:
Patrick Chua – 男人不该让女人流泪
Stanley Wong – 不如这样
Charlotte Loh – The Moment
Last month’s champion, Jason was also present tonight to support his friend who was a contestant this month…. But the audience just couldn’t let him get away without bringing us any songs, right? So, though he was down with flu and cough, he humbly obliged to sing 被爱的女人. Due to his condition, he had to sing in a lower key (compared to the time he sang it in the finals), but still managed to complete the song… great spirit Jason! Way to go!!
Hang on a moment, did we just mention that only 3 of them qualified for the semi finals? What about the 4th, you might be asking….. well, remember the nomination list from the previous week? Yap, the judges felt that the last place should be given to one of them instead!!Congratulations to Angela!!
六六大顺
Yap, it was 6th June 06 today. To some, it spelt bad luck as it was a “not so divine” number. For others, however, it was a good day for many events, and as the news reported, the registry of marriage recorded a new high of 310 couples registering their marriage on this day…. Maybe to these people, it spelt 六六大顺, which means that everything will go smoothly… or maybe it was just an easy date to remember.
Chee Siong and Elmi were also among the 310 couples who did exactly that (register their marriage), and where better to commemorate their special day than here in our garden of music!! Before the arrival of their 70 over guests, they were here earlier to add balloons to the decorations to make it even sweeter than ever…… Take a look at the photos!! They even took Polaroid of their guests to keep as memento!!
During the event itself, they had also gotten their friends to be their wedding singers. The Jazz band sounded so great some of our staffs working in the school above thought it was played from an audio CD!! Great job, people!!
The couple and their friends must have enjoyed themselves thoroughly in our venue. They even stayed back after the solemnization event for our ladies night (hosted by Brenda), where they crooned and sang and enjoyed themselves further on stage!!
And that’s not all. Knowing it was their special day, other guests also dedicated their songs to the couple to offer their blessings and well wishes. The atmosphere was really sweet and romantic.
Even when they were leaving at around ten, one of our Hark Friend, Jian Ming, personally approached Chee Siong and Elmi to ask them to stay back for his own dedication, 把你宠坏 to them!! Super sweet!!
And talking about dedications and being sweet, one of our guests also mustered up his courage to dedicate 可爱女人to a girl from a neighboring table!! And while he was at it (singing on stage), his gaze was fixated on her…… must have been really mesmerized……
Well done on all the dedications folks!!
“师生练"?
As part of our consistent efforts to improve ourselves, Hark is currently planning several major changes to our programme lineups. We aim to further improve on what we are already doing well, and at the same time incorporate more exciting elements into our shows to raise the quality of the overall experience for our customers. Talking about last night, our popular Monday program "你练我唱", while unchanged, has been renamed to "师生练".
As usual... whoever goes up on stage will be the Student. Our experienced instructor dispenses tips and advice on your singing after every song. Our in-house instructors are Eddie and Philip, two accomplished vocalists in their own right!
Our instructor on duty for the day was Philip... And the highlight of the night belongs to this particular duo who took the stage halfway through the show. It was a guy and a girl, but one wouldn’t be able to tell, because the guy sang the whole song with his high-pitched girl’s voice throughout effortlessly! The whole café was truly stunned – we saw a guy and a girl on stage, but what we heard were two female voices singing. Absolutely amazing! In fact, all our staff, me included, were all so stunned that none of us can actually recall what song they sang, other than it was an S.H.E song. “Superstar”, perhaps? We would like to see you on stage again!
Also, we had a birthday celebration on one of our tables last night. Thus here we give our best wishes to Peter, who brought his whole family, kids included, down for the occasion! Since it was Peter’s special day, our resident live band, all of whom happened to be present on Monday, went up impromptu-style to perform a surprise “Happy Birthday” song for him on stage. Customers were surprised to see the live band too! Yup customers, it was totally impromptu, and we are more than happy to make your day, Peter!
Before the “Happy Birthday” song, the band brought three popular songs on stage. First it was instructor Philip who belted out “你要的不是我”. After that Eddie, who’s one of our most popular performers, came on stage to sing “零”, much to the delight of the crowd. The band’s short performance ended with Amos performing the energetic rock song “恋爱ING”.
After that, all our staff and performers at Hark got a share of Peter’s birthday cake too. (what a big cake it must have been, yeah?) Thank you Peter, and once again, Happy Birthday to you!
A new voting system, and a new pianist!
For weekend regulars, you will be familiar with the voting system for our “开唱一小时” segment – a daring attempt for customers to voice out their comments for the singers on stage. Such a setup is also a great opportunity for our singers to seek improvement from too.
Starting from last weekend, we launched a new-and-improved voting system. This new version allows our customers – i.e. you – to evaluate the stage singers based on a rating format. We have already received positive feedback from some customers who feel that the new system allows for more “accuracy” in voting!
For those who have not experienced voting from your seats in Hark, here’s how the system goes. On our new “Audience Feedback” slip, there will be 5 options for you to choose from:
5 – Very Good. The best I’ve ever heard!
4 – Good, you have the standard to be on stage.
3 – Normal. Just alright.
2 – Bad. Need more practice.
1 – Terrible. Don’t ever want to see you again!
Of course, additional comments can be written at the “Comments/Feedback about the performance” column on your feedback slip.
As it was, the first two singers who faced this new challenge were Brenda on Friday and Mandy on Saturday. Each singer brought us 5 songs on stage.
A little known fact: Being very particular about her performance, Brenda actually took a half-day leave from her work for the preparation of her mini concert! Such professionalism (in singing, not in her day job) is indeed noteworthy. Way to go Brenda!
But of course, facing a large crowd, nervousness still crept in… We noticed some tensions in the first few songs that Brenda sang. Nevertheless, she regained her composure and the audience obviously enjoyed the show and her singing, judging by the results. Both Mandy and Brenda received a commendable 70% aggregate score for their performances!
Under our criteria, a singer with an aggregate score of 80% is considered a Class A 一级歌手. Thus with their scores, they both fall under the Class B 二级歌手.
In case Brenda and Mandy are despaired, don’t! Just work harder. Focus on engaging the crowd as well as your singing techniques, and you will improve. We look forward to welcoming you back again, improved and matured!
In other news, we’ve got an additional member to our stable of performing musicians!
As of now, an overwhelming majority of our live musicians are male. Thus to witness Priscilla, our new female pianist, taking the stage for her maiden performance last Saturday was very exciting for all of us at Hark!
Playing along with countless songs, as well as unexpected live requests from our customers in our Live Band Karaoke segment is indeed a daunting task even for experienced musicians. Other than technique, versatility and the ability to improvise on the spot are absolutely necessary requirements to succeed as a musician on our stage. We think Priscilla has done fairly well, given that this is the very first time she was exposed to anything like this. With more experience, she can sure do even better. Keep it up!
Finally, it’s once again the “My Day @ Hark” time!
We distribute feedback slips to our customers regularly and invite them to pen down their thoughts so that we can post it up here on our blog. Here are some of the comments we received over the past weekend:
Ronald (3/6/2006): “The atmosphere here at Hark Music Café is good and definitely a nice place for listening/singing songs. Will introduce more friends to this place! Keep it up, Hark!
Nicole (3/6/2006): “I really like it here… Never knew such a fantastic place actually existed! Thanks for e great service. One Question, what does Buang Hark mean?
Jonathan Khoo (2/6/2006): “Is an interesting place to hang around with a group of friends and a good chance for yourself to be a ‘Superstar’ to perform!!
Goliath (2/6/2006): First time at harkmusic Café, found it to be a really refreshing experience where I can just chill and relax. Keep up the good work :)
April Tan (3/6/2006): “Great Place! Great Drinks! Great Food! Great Place to chill out! HARK MUSIC!”
Dear Nicole, we have no idea what Buang Hark means too. But we will check with our hosts of the night to hopefully answer your question! To all: thank you for your continuous support. See all of you again soon!
Let’s Challenge – Jun 06 first qualifying round!!
What a night it was for the first qualifying round for the competition!! The contestants (3 females and 6 males) for this round have really raised the bar for the ones to come in the following weeks…. Some of us even felt that the standard was even better than last Sunday’s Grand Finals (May 06)… so much so the judges had a hard time deciding which 4 of them should qualify for the semi finals… and so much so that one of them set a new record for the highest positive votes (+50 vs +46 for the last record holder)!!
So, after a long awaited meeting among the judges, they finally decided to let 4+2 person qualify for the semi finals. This means that 4 of them had confirmed places in the semi finals, while the other 2 will be placed on a nomination list. If (just in case) the standards of the subsequent rounds were to be lower than this, the nomination list will be activated and the 2 of them will then get their shot in the semi finals….
And the results?
Confirmed semi finalists:
^ Melvin
^ Max
^ Jeff
^ Phersal
Nomination List:
^ Angela
^ Kok Loong
Be sure to stay tuned for their fate in the competition!!
May Grand Finals!
Sunday was the grand finals of our ‘Let’s Challenge’ competition for May 2006. Having went through both the preliminary and semi-final stages of the competition, each of the 6 finalists were already stars in their own right. Thus, to test their true mastery of the art of performing, we decided to spring a little surprise on them!
Each of the 6 finalists was informed at the very last minute that they would have to sing a song of the opposite gender for Round 2. Our criteria were strict too: if any of the songs had been sung by a singer of their own gender, then our judges would not accept the song! This meant that popular cross-gender choices such as “祝我生日快乐”, “倒带” and “勇气” could not be used.
As it turned out, contestants faced numerous rejections of songs by our panel before finally settling down on their individual choices for Round 2 barely an hour before the competition itself.
Maybe the strong crowd and sudden change played into the contestants’ minds, resulting in none of them performing well in Round 1. They sang songs which they already prepared well in advance, but as no one really stood out, the judges were left in a dilemma. Our live musicians were visibly disappointed too, and the overall mood was low.
Luckily, every contestant performed much better in Round 2! Faced with negative comments they received in the previous round, all of them took the challenge and delivered a much better performance in this impromptu round. Maybe our contestants all have hidden talents in singing opposite gender songs on the spot! The audience were delighted and so were the judges, and everybody could feel the joyous mood returning again.
Here were the songs our contestants sang for Round 1 and Round 2 respectively:
1. Angie: Fly Away, 一场游戏一场梦
2. Clarence: 远走高飞, 我不难过
3. Tobias: 找自己, 超快感
4. Jason: 凌晨三点钟, 被爱的女人
5. Adrian: 如果你还爱我, 遗失的美好
6. Jianming: 普通朋友, 你要得爱
Stanley originally made it to our grand finals; unfortunately his last-minute work commitments meant he could not grace the event. Thus Jianming, the highest scorer in our semi-finals outside of the top 6, got his chance to rejoin the competition as a finalist. And he certainly did not disappoint, especially with his Round 2 performance which drew some of the loudest cheers of the night!
Here are the results:
Champions: Jason Sim
1st Runner: Adrian Neo
2nd Runner: She Jianming
Best Vocal Tone: Tobias Low
Best Hosting: Angie Lek
Best Star Appeal: Clarence Lau
<- Winners podium!!
We would like to thank everybody who has made this show a continuous success! See you next month!
