Culturally Preconditioned

Finally Malaysians got it right for the first time. After a few weeks being saved by pity votes, Nurul finally leaves the Akademi tonight. As noted by the brilliantly funny host, it seems as though Nurul seemed more cheerful leaving the show than being on it. Perhaps that can be said by most of us viewers too.

Nurul - Lucky
It’s ironic that Nurul is not so lucky tonight. After a few weeks hanging on to the competition by a thread, she had to pack her bags this week. Nurul’s got a decent stage presence, but what good is a stage presence if she’s weak vocal-wise. It was a good attempt, but her voice is arguably the weakest among everyone left in the competition. The boa is just not enough to save you this time, sweetie.

Unlucky Nurul’s not so Lucky tonight

Bob - Salam Terakhir
Aznil never fails to crack me up. His comments about the title of this song (about it being his swan song) was funny and almost prophetic (my gut told me that Nurul and Farah were going to be saved again with pity votes, and making Bob the victim). Bob has a powerful voice, but to me, he’s just not charismatic enough. I do admire his confidence though.

Linda - Akan Ku Tunggu
My favourite female contestant failed to impress me this week. Maybe it’s because I keep on comparing her rock performance to Nija’s final performance last year (nothing beats that still). Or maybe she was just overshadowed by the two great guitarists, Man Kidal and Sham (Kamikaze). Overall, it was just alright. That said, I think she could’ve performed much much better.

Kaer - Bunga Pujaan
Other than his cute, innocent, boyish good looks, I still fail to see what is so special about Kaer. His performance tonight was so lacklustre and it’s been deteriorating week by week. One of the judge mentioned that it seemed his heart was no longer in this competition, and I’m inclined to agree. I feel bad for him. Well, not really.

Farah - Jangan Kau Mimpi
Man, I hate hate HATE this song. It’s a weird frickin song. However, I’m beginning to like Farah’s voice. She was clearly out of breath during the song, but overall, it was a good performance. And the little snippet of her crying at the Akademi? My friend told me that she cried not because she missed her family, but it was because she gained like 3 kilos for the past couple of weeks. I hope that’s not true, cause if that was the real reason, that is just a sick message she’s sending out to teenage girls, and viewers everywhere.

Zahid - Cinta Sakti
Man, just give Zahid the trophy already. I loved it when the crowd cheered him like mad as he entered the stage. I’m not even going to go on saying how brilliant he was. I would like to, however, comment on the little surprise the Akademi had given him. The surprise home visit by Misha Omar did not only glee him to no end, but it was also one of the most interesting surprises by far to be enjoyed by the viewers as well. Bravo AF! And Zahid, keep on rocking!

Mas - Tamparan Wanita
When she was singing the lines “aku tak selemah yang kau sangka”, I was going “Oh but yes you are. Yes you are”. Mas is yet again, the most popular student in the Akademi. The thing is, I’m not even sure if her popularity has anything to do with her vocal talents. For me, personally, her novelty is wearing off. She sounded like crap for her past few performances. I’m placing half the blame on the song selections, and half on her for showing zero improvemnt for the past few weeks.

Adam - Smooth Criminal
Imitation - good. Dancing - goood. Singing - baaaaaad. Again, I would like to blame his paltry performance on a very bad song selection (what were the teachers smoking?). All I could make out of his singing was… well, nothing really… except for “Are you okay? Are you Okay?”.. No, I’m NOT okay, Adam. The rest of the song was inaudible. In between his thin rasps and Bob’s surprise dancing moves, I didn’t even know where to focus my attention to. I finally settled on going to the bathroom to pee.

Group Ensemble - Dua Insan & Kita Insan Biasa
I was quite impressed by the group performance. Mas even surprised me with her lines. I was then convinced the teachers were trying to fuck her up by giving her some really really bad songs for her vocal range. Mas could sing, after all. Everyone else (with the exception of Nurul, and to a ceratin extent Adam) delivered the song quite well.

Tonight’s show wasn’t all that great. Thank God the Queer Guys managed to salvage whatever’s left of my Saturday night in. Well, only 2 more bootees till we arrive at the Finale - the Top Five. At this point, my guess is that Bob and Farah will take their walk of shame before the Finale arrives.