Snapshot from the JYPE & Alpha Audition, SG

ZZANG! it’s me, BB!

nope, you’ve not gone to the wrong blog, this IS tiffany’s kimchiland blog, just that tiffany’s gone off to see some snow (hopefully) and therefore, I’m standing in for her… yet again^^

now while tiffany is away, something major is happening in many people’s lives here in Singapore. why do i say that? coz the good peeps from JYP entertainment are in town and that mighty exciting audition was happening right in our little dot of an island! yea, am talking about the 2010 JYPE & ALPHA ASEAN REGION AUDITION that took place over three days on 8th (wed), 9th (thu) and 11th (sat) dec.

since tiff’s the official blogger for this audition event, I had the privilege of access into the audition room. made my way to the senja-cashew community club (aigoo, so far!!) on the second day of the audition (9th dec, thu) and spent practically the entire afternoon there.

lots of thoughts crossed through my mind that day and even afterwards. watching the aspiring stars march into the audition room group after group, i felt strangely touched. here are a group of young people daring to put themselves out there to audition for the opportunity of a lifetime.

be honest with me, or at least be honest with yourselves, how many of you out there too have or had a dream? and how many of you just stopped at dreaming, and not daring, not wanting to even try to make that dream come true? and how many of you simply thought to yourselves that it ain’t gonna happen to YOU and you just plain stopped dreaming?

seriously, if all of us think this way, there will be no progress, no innovation in this world, and there will be no heroes and no new stars in this world. i guess other than talents, the other thing that often stands in the way of breaking new ground is… whether you dare to try and make your dream come true.


anyway, let’s get back to the audition story on Thursday, shall we? reached there at around noon and the registration area was set up at the entrance of the community club. nothing that spectacular here… except that there’s the official poster being put up at the end of the tables.

and on the day of the audition, I believe most of the candidates had a bit of a taste of the life of a star, especially one who’s just debut and can’t quite act like a rock star yet… yes, the endless waiting!

now there’s the online registration and also the walk-in, and I understand that quite a number of the online registrants were notified to show up at 8am. that’s mighty early! when I walked past the registration area and got into the general common area, I saw loads more people just sitting or hanging around. yes, all young people hoping that the audition would change their lives^^

as i followed the signs leading to the audition room, I saw… FOOD!

whoa…!! didn’t know food’s provided! to be honest, they really didn’t need to do this, especially since there’s a cafeteria (with quite many stalls too! aigoo, i haven’t been to a CC for ages and didn’t know they now have such fab facilities!) and the candidates could easily have gotten food without going far. hmmm…. my impression of the organizers went up quite many notches, hehe!

I walked somemore to check things out, and saw a room with candidates having their hair styled by hairstylists! not bad, not bad at all…!

okie, then i walked somemore… saw more signages like this one!

hee, one practical lesson learnt from here is to just print the words without printing the arrow. yea, the next time you organize an event and need to put up directional signages, perhaps it’s best to just prepare the printout and save the arrows to be drawn on the paper on the actual day. just remember to bring your markers, keke! (okie, okie, i do realise this is totally random and beside the point…)

wanna check out the ‘setup’ of the audition room?

here, the ‘branded’ backdrop in the audition room where candidates were supposed to stand and strut their stuff. keke, doesn’t it sorta remind you of all these uber-glamorous award ceremonies where the stars would stop for photo opportunities in front of boards like this? I was sooooo… tempted to go take a pic of myself in front of the board!

basically, candidates were put into groups of 10 and each time, there’s a group of 10 upfront in the audition room taking turns to show the panel of judges what they’re made of. at the same time, there would also be another group of 10 sitting at the side waiting their turns. the panel of judges as well as some staff were also present inside the audition room, of course.

the judges were seated across the candidates, and there’s also a video camera set up on the spot to capture the auditioning candidate on-screen. i guess it goes without saying that if you wanna be a star, it helps a lot if the camera loves you, ya? in particular, the JYP guys were to be checking out the monitor fairly frequently. in fact one of them was also seen to be doing his own recording with his own handycam in some cases.

here’s a closer look at the monitor i was talking about…

each candidate was supposed to just present one audition item, be it singing, dancing, modelling, or hosting/VJ’ing. in most cases, it’s kindda easy to guess which candidate was gonna do what based on what they’re wearing. hee, do you wanna try guessing which candidate’s singing, dancing, modelling or hosting from the pic below?

and… I’d thought the pic below was really quite telling of the cross-section of candidates who turned up.

yup, definitely more gals than guys. i tried asking for the gender split, but the organizers have been really swamped (especially since they had sooooo many candidates today!), so they haven’t exactly collated the data yet.

and there’s the occasional aspiring child star here and there… and yes, even the clothes they wore for the audition’s quite representative… sadly! I saw lots of tees and shorts, tees and jeans, and yes, most were just way too nonchalantly and carelessly casual it’s kindda painful to watch… I mean, if the audition truly meant so much to you, wouldn’t you have put in more effort to make sure you looked your best? baffles me how some people turned up dressed in a way that I wouldn’t even be caught dead in when doing marketing or something! (and nope, I kid you not!)

did you know that survey has shown that the #1 fear of most people in the whole wide world is… public speaking?

yes, i’m fully aware of how most of us (yes, even the best of us) can be apprehensive about going up to the front to address people, let alone put up some performance item and being judged too! but but but… still, if you wanna be a star, surely you will have to find some way to overcome your fear or at least disguise it such that the tell-tale signs are minimal? and your nerves really shouldn’t get into the way of you putting up your best show.

during that afternoon, i saw quite a number of candidates forgetting their lyrics, and i even saw a couple of candidates singing whilst reading the lyrics in their hands!! i did try to be sympathetic, yes, I really did try, but mianehae, i wasn’t too successful. i still maintain that you can’t be TOO nervous if you’re trying to be a performer!

and… for those singing, though I’m nowhere near to being an expert, even i know you should maximize the opportunity to showcase your prowess during audition. this means that you should start singing at the part that demonstrates your singing ability best, instead of sticking to singing from the first line. you see, most songs start out slow and mellow, and the parts that will really demonstrate how well you sing are probably the parts that are mid-way, either the chorus or something.

so please, don’t be silly and start from the beginning. you might be stopped even before you reach the parts that will show the judges what your vocals can do. yes, go on ahead and start from the middle, if you want.


one more thing… i also think it’s best to stick to something that the judges understand when you pick a song. you may be more familiar and comfortable with a Chinese song, but seriously, i think an English or Korean (provided your diction’s clear and your pronunciation good) song might just be more appropriate. at least you’ll be singing something that the JYPE team understands.

yes, i do know that they said you could sing in any language that you want, but there’s also this thing about picking something that works best in your favour. and in this case, me thinks it works best if you’re singing something they can actually understand. for instance, i saw in one of the cases on Thursday, a particular candidate was doing her monologue/acting thingy, the judges were obviously interested and asked her if she could sing them something. she launched into a Chinese song… only to be asked if she knew another song, and then she chose to sing another Chinese song. then this time around, the judges came out right and asked if she could sing an English number. see what i mean by singing something they can actually understand…? (anyway, these are just my personal thoughts, and definitely do not represent the views of the kimchiland blog, nor the organizers, k?)

and here, check out some of the boys who turned up for audition that afternoon…

a few were not half-bad, but some were pretty bad. like if you don’t have an ‘attitood’, why then did you pick a song that clearly requires ‘attitood’ to perform? and why did you pick a happy, cute girl-group song to dance to, but keep to such a glum and sad face throughout the dance?

and oh, some of the diction was sooooo unclear it took me more than three lines before i could make out if the candidates were singing in korean or mandarin. please, people, please try and sing clearly…? start by enunciating your words as clearly as possible? why sing like some American-born-Chinese when you’re a 100% Singaporean, born, bred and educated here?

but but but, of course there’re still some potentially good ones! these tend to be fairly good-looking young people who can both sing and dance. one other thing you’ll notice about those who have been shortlisted is… they’re hungrier for the opportunity than the rest, and they work harder at ensuring they get themselves noticed.

like the twin sisters in the pics below…

and this sweet-looking young lady’s pretty good too!

and yes, although it’s been said previously that those shortlisted would be hearing from JYPE and/or alpha in January, some of the candidates actually got notification on the day of their audition or these few days that they’ve been shortlisted…. in fact, there’s already a photo-shoot and interview session being arranged today (11th Dec, sat).

seems like there’re close to 3,000 applications (I’ll have to double-check on the exact number later), with about 700 from 8th and 9th Dec respectively and over 1,000 for today (11th), and they’ve shortlisted about two dozens so far. and yes, ‘SHORTLISTED’ doesn’t mean they’re confirmed ‘IN’, no contracts have been offered yet. but hey, to be one of the selected ones out of the thousands of candidates, that’s still a fairly big deal, you know…?

before I go, I wanna leave you with some ‘interesting’ (at least to me, wakaka!) takeaways from my outing to senja-cashew CC on Thursday.

i’m no singer (and no worries, i know it myself, so you’ll be spared of any torture from having to hear me sing), so tell me, tell me… does it make you sing better if you hold your stomach like the candidates did in the pics below? *scratches head*

and… was some blogshop having a sale on tees with big letters like these…? if not, why’s every other person wearing a tee like this? aigoo, if i were from JYP, i’d be wondering what’s with the Singaporeans. why was everyone dressed in so alike a fashion? it’s either tees like these, or checkered shirts… and i’d lost count of the number of peeps in shorts and leggings (!) if you have to know, i belong to the camp that believes leggings are leggings and should not be worn in place of pants *shakes head*

next… this is almost too shameful to be posted!! so I decided to just flash the feet and crop away the faces (to protect the innocent)

many fashion critics have said that we Singaporeans are often dressed way too casually, and we don’t seem to grasp the concept of ‘dress code’. I’ve to say i totally agree with that statement, and we really don’t seem to understand the need to dress for the occasion. i mean, how else would you explain people wearing such footwear to an audition? did they just decide on the spur of the moment to go for the audition on their way to the wet market or something…?? or were they heading for the beach…?

to me, dressing right and appropriately for the occasion is not vanity. it’s respect. respect for the parties you’re meeting, respect for the occasion, and respect for yourself too.

other than tiff who’s been invited to be the official blogger, the mainstream media was there to cover the event too! i know straits times, OMY and razorTV was there.

what did i say about dreaming earlier…? that one should dare to dream, ya?

wanna add on that one can never be too old or too young to dream. just look at these wannabes! i know a couple of them are only nine years old…! hey, if the children dare to dream, don’t you all think that we adults need to live life a little more, and dream a little more?