24 posts from April 2008

AKADEMI FANTASIA 6 UPDATES - KONSERT KEENAM 26 APRIL 2007

Watching AF for six weeks now, some things are very consistent. Firstly, two female contestants stand out week after week, Stacy and Nadia. And a few are just painful to watch without fail, Stanly, Toi and Nubhan. And yet we see another contestant leaving before the three, and this time it's Rina. Although sufferring from the club-singer image which she could not erase no matter how, Rina could at least carry all her notes in tune. Try counting how many times in a song Toi or Nubhan sings out of tune each time, trust me you'll lose count!

MOVIE REVIEW : THE ORPHANAGE (Spanish)

Category : Foreign, Suspense/Thriller / Starring : Belen Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Roger Princep, Geraldine Chaplin

I am quite a fan of Guillermo Del Toro, especially after he achieved such brilliance in his work with Pan's Labyrinth. The Orphanage tells a story of a woman who purchased the orphanage she grew up in, planning to start a new home for disabled children. Strange things start to surface especially when her son starts to befriend 'someone' from the old mansion. Being the only one convinced she was not seeing things, she starts digging into the long-kept secrets of the place and unravels something that could threaten her own life.

Hmm..sounds pretty typical, right? As usual I won't give away too much about the movie, but it is a good movie to watch. Although it's a thriller/suspense, the movie is filmed more in a drama mode, which is good. And although it is filmed in a drama mode, it still contains a few scary moments here and there to keep you on the edge of your seats. And also because it is drama, you get a better ending for the final twist, unlike a typical horror/thriller movie.

Trailer of The Orphanage: 

Rating : B-

ANUGERAH PLANET MUZIK 2008 - FAIZAL TAHIR, ESTRANGED & GIGI BIG WINNERS

Coming out of the recent ban for his shirt-off incident, Faizal Tahir definitely could hold his head high as he took home two awards, Artis Lelaki Paling Popular and Artis Baru Terbaik (Lelaki). Joining him in double winning are Indonesian band Gigi, who won Lagu Terbaik for their song Nakal, and Duo/Berkumpulan Terbaik. Local band Estranged also won two awards, Kumpulan Paling Popular and Lagu Paling Popular for their song, Itu Kamu.

Here are the complete list of winners:

KATEGORI TERBAIK

1. Album Terbaik - Gigi (Peace, Love & Respect)
2. Lagu Terbaik - Nakal (Gigi)
3. Artis Wanita Terbaik - Kris Dayanti
4. Artis Lelaki Terbaik - Anuar Zain
5. Duo/ Berkumpulan Terbaik - Gigi
6. Dua/ Berkumpulan Baru Terbaik - Meet Uncle Hussain
7. Artis Baru Terbaik (Wanita) - Farah Asyikin
8. Artis Baru Terbaik (Lelaki) - Faizal Tahir
9. Album Terbaik (Singapura) - Ceritera Awan (Cradle)
10. Artis Singapura Terbaik (Solo/ Berkumpulan) - Taufik Batisah
11. Lagu Terbaik (Singapura) - Ayu (Cradle)

KATEGORI POPULAR

1. Artis Wanita Paling Popular - Dato’ Siti Nurhaliza
2. Artis Lelaki Paling Popular - Faizal Tahir
3. Kumpulan Paling Popular - Estranged
4. Lagu Paling Popular - Itu Kamu (Estranged)
5. Artis Singapura Paling Popular - Taufik Batisah, Kumpulan Sleeq & Hardi Mirza
6. Lagu Singapura Paling Popular - Berserah (Taufik Batisah), Sayang Sayang (Aliff Aziz) & Seribu Kenangan (Didi Caslin)

 

AMERICAN IDOL SPECIALS - FREE DOWNLOAD OF STUDIO VERSION TRACKS

Here are more studio version tracks from your idols:

David Cook Pack - Contains Always Be My Baby & Music Of The Night DOWNLOAD HERE

David Archuleta Pack - Contains When You Believe & Think Of Me DOWNLOAD HERE

Jason Castro Pack - Contains I Don't Wanna Cry & Memory DOWNLOAD HERE

Brooke White Pack - Contains Hero & You Must Love Me DOWNLOAD HERE

Syesha Mercado Pack - Contains Vanishing & One Rock N Roll Too Many DOWNLOAD HERE

Take note links for download are only available for 7 days from 25 April 2008

AMERICAN IDOL UPDATES : WEEK 21 APRIL 2008

This week the contestants get to sing songs composed by the highly successful British composer Andrew Llyod Webber. Definitely a challenging week, as his music is made for the musical theatre. My favourite two performances this week come from Syesha & Archuleta.

 

Syesha was full of confidence, charisma and attitude singing One Rock And Roll Too Many. It was her best performance in the competition so far. I was glad to see Archuleta doing something different this week. Previously when the other contestants were trying out different arrangements and showing off their creativity, Archuleta was pretty 'stagnant' going on with his mellow-ballad approach week after week. This week, when the contestants are not brave enough to change the music arrangements of Andrew Llyod Webber, Archuleta gave a pop-version of Think Of Me, and I was proud of his attempt. Believe it or not Simon did not like it, perhaps Simon wants to see the angelic Archuleta being the boy-next-door, just belting out predictable ballad after ballad, yawn...Simon.

 

David Cook took on the my favourite ballad from ALW, Music Of The Night. I agree with Simon, he made the best he could with that song, but it was not vocally astounding or anything.

Two performances which I didn't like were from Carly and Castro. As usual, Carly screamed her way through towards the 2nd half of Jesus Christ Superstar, and was to me screeching at many parts. This time Carly screamed her way out as she was announced as the bottom two together with Syesha, and later eliminated. No more of her screaming next week onwards LOL

 

 

ALBUM REVIEW : MARIAH CAREY - E=MC2 (English)

Mariah Carey has gone a long way trying to find herself, and in a way re-define herself in her music career. It wasn't an easy journey for sure, especially when she has initially carved such a good impression with her girl-next-door image during her debut album-Emotions-Music Box-Daydream days, and have spawned so many ballad & pop hits from those albums such as Hero, Without You, Dreamlover, Always Be My Baby, One Sweet Day, Someday and Vision Of Love. Many fans turned away when Mariah started to embrace her overtly sexier side and ventured into more hip-hop and R&B genre during her Butterfly-Rainbow-Charmbracelet period. Even I felt terribly disappointed with her at that point. Despite still having garnished a few number one hits from those albums like Honey, Thank God I Found You and My All, Mariah definitely developed a much negative reputation with her much sexier, flesh-revealing image. Her career dipped when she decided to act and produced the soundtrack Glitter.

Mariah finally earned her come-back with The Emancipation Of Mimi, and I for one liked it. Her hit single We Belong Together stayed at Billboard's number one for fourteen straight weeks. It also became 2005's best selling album in US, besides earning her 3 Grammies in the same year. 

E=MC2 becomes the most anticipated album of 2008 after such a huge success of The Emancipation Of Mimi. Verdict? I loved it. In fact, I liked it even more than TEOM. I suppose after the long journey of re-defining her music, Mariah has finally found the recipe that worked. Her hip-hop tunes finally sounded great, especially the track titled Bye Bye, which is my favourite in the album. Watch the video above for Mariah's superb performance of the song during American Idol. Other tracks that I like include I Stay In Love, For The Record, Thanx 4 Nothin', I'll Be Loving U Long Time, Last Kiss and I'm That Chick. Her first single Touch My Body has reached number one at the Billboard charts, giving Mariah her 18th number one, surpassing Elvis, and now only behind The Beatles for the most number one Billboard hits. The album currently sits at number one as well in the Billboard 200, giving her a tie with Madonna and Janet Jackson, at the 2nd place for having the most number one albums, just behind Barbara Streisand.   

Really happy with this album, Mariah Carey's back, and she's here to stay on!

Rating : A-

Download Mariah's Bye Bye here (link for download will only be available for 7 days from 25 April 2008)

AKADEMI FANTASIA 6 UPDATES - KONSERT MINGGU KELIMA (19 APRIL 2008)

I apologize if my updates on AF have not been very positive or comprehensive, the show just fails to earn my attention or praise so far. The quality of the contestants to me are one of the worse by far. This week is no different than any other week, where I felt only the two ladies Stacy and Nadia were giving us performances worth watching. I really liked Stacy this week, it was powerful, she danced well, and was full of attitude, she brought the house down.

Riz, although another crowd favourite so far, was to me ordinary and slightly self-absorbed. As usual, Stanly, Toi and Saida were painful to watch. Everytime I hear these three sing, I can't wait for them to finish.

This week it's Saida's turn to leave. Apparently word has it that Saida's a victim in the politics of this competition, as the only reason she was put in the competition, was the fact that she is one of the most renowned figures in the industry, Dato Siti Nurhaliza's sister, one of the ways to pull more viewers. True or not, I'm sure she was glad to leave too. I just don't see her fitting well at all in this industry, she's just to 'lembik' and we are not seeing any improvements at all after 5 weeks.

Another thing worth mentionining is, what's with the gimmicks used in the concert? I felt they were unnecessary, stupid and a waste of time. Getting an indian man called Sean Kanna (when Toi was singing Sean Kingston's Beautiful Girl) to clown around was irrelevant and completely silly. And having Korey prance around like the Matrix movie in a video clip, huh??? I can't stress enough, this is one of the worst seasons of AF so far. 

AMERICAN IDOL UPDATES - WEEK 14 APRIL 2008

I was definitely curious this week, looking forward to see how the idols sing Mariah Carey's songs. One thing's for sure, the idols have gotten smarter as time passes, this time we see many renditions with different music arrangements. This is very clever indeed. Change the arrangements, avoid having to hit those scary notes in Mariah's songs, and end up sounding quite nice and refreshing. After all, how good can a guy sound belting out Mariah's songs?

 

And true enough, the guys did that and they out-performed the ladies hands down. David Cook was always trying out different things, and this time he took on Always Be My Baby, and made it his own. Really impressed with the new arrangements. Was it vocally impressive? Not really, but we have to give it to him for creativity, taking the risk, and giving a breath of fresh air to that song. Jason Castro was another, he did a very good rendition of I Don't Wanna Cry, with the help of Mariah herself in changing the arrangements. The judges loved Archuleta's When You Believe as well, and Simon kept reminding everyone that he's the one to beat. But to me, it wasn't that great or original, except that Archuleta could carry the notes well throughout the song. After seeing refreshing performances like Cook and Castro, to me it made Archuleta's looked rather pale.

As for the ladies, not so good performances came from Carly and Brooke. Carly sang Without You and the song was just to big for her, despite her attempt to scream it out again (as usual). Brooke in fact sang a few notes out of tune in her song Hero. Hero to me was the easiest song to sing compared to the rest of the very challenging songs the other contestants chose that night.

Syesha was again choosing really bold choices, and this time she took on Vanishing, one really, really challenging song, and happened to be one of Mariah's personal favourites. She did not too bad, like Randy said, 'considering all things'. As for Kristy, she sang Forever, did just an OK job, and caused her an elimination this week. Again I can't help but think about Michael Johns, leaving before contestants like Carly, Brooke & Kristy? Hmm...real sad.

Pics courtesy of www.americanidol.com

AMERICAN IDOL SPECIALS - FREE DOWNLOAD OF STUDIO VERSION TRACKS

Here are some studio version tracks the idols performed in recent weeks which you can download for free. Take note the links for download will only be available for 7 days from 16 April 2008

David Archuleta Pack - Contains Angels, Smoky Mountain Memories, The Long And Winding Road & You're The Voice

David Cook Pack - Contains Day Tripper, Eleanor Rigby, Innocent & Little Sparrow

Brooke White Pack - Contains Every Breath You Take, Here Comes The Sun, Jolene, Let It Be & You've Got A Friend

Jason Castro Pack - Contains Travellin' Trhough, Over The Rainbow & If I Fell

Kristy Lee Cook Pack - Contains Anyway & God Bless The USA

And last but not least, of course a must have:

Michael Johns Pack - Contains Across The Universe, Dream On & It's All Wrong, But It's All Right  

CONCERT UPDATES : CELINE DION 2008 TAKING CHANCES TOUR IN MALAYSIA

Her initial date on 8th April was postponed to Sunday 13th April. Weather caused quite a worry for everyone as it was raining nearly everyday here at Kuala Lumpur, and by late afternoon that Sunday it started pouring cats and dogs. Fortunately by evening it stopped and the weather during the whole concert was pleasantly cooling and comfy that night.

 

These two pictures are not of hers during her concert in Malaysia, but those were the two costumes she wore on Sunday. Strangely she wore the first one throughout the whole night, and only changed to the yellow one for the last song during encore. Ths concert started off 1.5 hours late! Celine was not to blame, as usual we had to wait for the royalty/VVIP guests to arrive at their own leisure!

Celine sang most of her popular songs, including The Power Of Love, Because You Loved Me, I'm Alive, It's All Coming Back To Me Now, I Drove All Night, and lastly the must-sing Titanic song My Heart Will Go On. However I did not fancy her arrangments made on I'm Alive, and she did not sing another favourite of mine, That's The Way It Is. A superb vocal powerhouse, she did not disappoint all her fans, singing every low and high note effortlessly.

Choreography was a bit too ordinary, espcially when the stage deco and settings were not their prime focus. So to me visually it wasn't anything remarkable, it was a night for just enjoying Celine's beautiful vocals.