Okay, I'm going out on a limb here and predict who will win the next Singapore Idol even though the latest singing contest has completed its auditions only last weekend and won't air until National Day.
Ready? Here goes: The next Singapore Idol is going to be... revealed after the commercial break.
Just kidding. It's going to be a Malay guy.
The two previous Singapore Idol winners, Taufik Batisah and Hady Mirza, are both Malay guys. So the odds are against anyone female and non-Malay winning.
A mere coincidence, you say. Two doesn't necessarily make it a pattern. I have just one word for you: Fendi.
No, not the overpriced handbag. Fendi was the winner of Live The Dream, MediaCorp Channel 5's 2007 attempt to recreate the success of Singapore Idol without having to fork out the hefty licensing fee to Fremantle, the company that owns the international rights to the Idol brand.
Apart from the similar but different-enough-to-avoid-a-lawsuit format, Live The Dream also retained two Idol judges, Dick Lee and Ken Lim.
The reason you've never heard of Fendi is probably because you never saw Live The Dream since the ratings were so abysmal, one former MediaCorp colleague working on the show referred to it bitterly as "Live The Nightmare".
Even though the second season of Singapore Idol rated lower than its first season, it remained the highest rated programme on Channel 5. Live The Dream, on the other hand, was among the lowest.
Is it any wonder MediaCorp eventually caved and paid through the nose to use the Idol name again?
Anyway, my point is Fendi is also a Malay guy.
So given that the winner has been a Malay guy in all three singing contests where the winner is voted by Channel 5 viewers, why should anyone who's not Malay or a guy even bother joining Singapore Idol?
Because you don't have to win to get showbiz career boost. First season finalist Olinda Cho became a slimming company spokesmodel. Maia Lee became Singapore's most infamous tattooed single mom. And Sylvester Sim appeared with Taufik in a promo for Triumph BeeDees girls' underwear. I don't know what happened to second season runner-up Jonathan Leong though.
Of course, there's always a chance the next Singapore Idol may not be a Malay guy.
Just as there's a chance the winner of Channel U's Idol rip-offs Project SuperStar and Campus SuperStar may not be a Chinese guy.
No, wait...
- Unpublished
UPDATE: Sezairi Sezali, a Malay guy, wins the third Singapore Idol
