How to tell between SI 1 and 2

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO IAN LOON

Indeed I won a pair of tickets to the Singapore Idol Finals results show yesterday at the magazine booth at Wisma Atria!! Say say say YAPHOOOOOO!!! :-D
While I was chatting wif Farhan, Anthony, Sharifah and Idah abt Singapore Idol (minutes before the magazine booth opened), we couldn't help but point out the many similarities between SI 1 and SI 2...

1) First and foremost, The Careless Whisperer Patrick Khoo appeared in both auditions!! After his first appearance, he actually appeared in one of 6 Royston Tan's short films!! The second time round, we still couldnt hear what he's singing, and a very infuriated Ken yelled at Patrick to get out!

2) There is at least Chao Ah Lian in each season with a huge ego/attitude problem...
Season 1- Maia Lee (short, busty, tattooed, dropped out from school, a single mum)
Season 2- Geraldine Chua (tall, act-fake, best known for her quote of "shut up your mouth" during the bootcamp)
Winner: Maia. Not only was she chosen by the judges to advnace from the Wildcard to the Final 11, she actually made waves with her brief marriage to Sly, her short stint as a journalist from the New Paper, and the relaese of her debut album, which drew a measly 1000 copies. Lol, she even posed fro FHM in spite of her small build!! So Geraldine should count herself lucky not to have been chosen by the judges or the viewers to advance to the Spectaculars (thank God for that)... otherwise, she would haf ended up just like Maia.

3) There is one female contestant who pulled out halfway thru the competition...
Season 1- Candice Foo. Pulled out of the Spectaculars at the very last minute
Season 2- Meryl Joan Lee. Pulled out a few days before the Wildcard round.
Winner (in terms of redemption probability): Meryl, without a shadow of a doubt. At least there was a video explaining her decision to withdraw from the competition (she had to study for her A levels, tho there might be more than meets the eye), so she can be redeemed in the end (even if she deprived many others of a spot at the Wildcard round). As for Candice, it seems highly unlikely that her arednt supporters would be able to get over her decision to quit the competition hours before the crucial moment that is the very first Spectaculars. Altho she cited financial problems as the 'main reason', it was still very unclear as to why she would want to do that (til now, most fans kinda despised her for being a QUITTER and depriving the semi-finalists of a spot at the Spectaculars).

4) For each season, we had one judge whose comments make very little sense...
Season 1- Douglas Olivero (who lacks orginiality, often borrowing quotes from the other 3)
Season 2- Jacintha Abishegenaden (who comes off as too techinical or metamorphical)
Winner: No doubt it's gotta be Jacintha. More fun and more recognizable, she's known for her quotes like 'subtext', 'synthesis', 'poet' and the like (which resulted on Ken Lim saying rather bad things abt her). For weeks, the viewers couldnt get what the 'bimbo' is trying to say, but that's what makes Singapore Idol season 2 more interesting to watch. At least she doesnt come off as wishy washy as Douglas, who was being slammed for his rather insincere comments abt Sly during the last Finals and after that. And it does help that Ja used to be Dick Lee's wife.

5) There are a few cutie pies, both male and female...
Season 1: we had Chrissypooh, Daphne Khoo and Leandra
Season 2: we had Joakim, Jasmine, Nurul and Gayle.
Winner: A bit of a tie, but the cuties from Season 2 actually look a little better and more marketable. Lol, Jasmine and Daphne are too similar in almost every way!!

6) There is a crybaby in each season...
Season 1- Beverly Lim Morata
Season 2- Jay Lim
Winner: Jay Lim. His reasons for crying were understandable (tho a bit too exaggearating): he was too touched to have been selected as one of the Final 12, esp since he's the oldest guy in the Top 28. And he also cried whenever someone got eliminated... but he managed to hold his tears during his own elimination... breaking down only after he got to the end of "Solitaire" (and before he kissed his girlfriend). Beverly cried during the Piano show only after a few good comments from the judges, leading many to think that she's fake. But she didnt cry in the next few shows after that... not even when she got eliminated on the very first Spectaculars.

7) The strongest singers got ousted very early... way before their time!!
Season 1- Jeassea Thyidor
Season 2- Mathilda D'Silva
Winner: It's more like a tie, but Jeassea had it a lot worse, mostly bcos she's a non-Singaporean who had been living in Singapore for only 2 years, and she got eliminated in the very first Spectacular, 4 weeks after her Piano show performance (The song she sang? "Love Will Lead You Back"... a totally jinxed song, since the original singer quit from showbiz 2 weeks after that song). At least Mathilda, who was born and bred in Singapore for most of her life, got thru the Wildcard round and lasted for 6 Spectaculars... tho her exit sparked a huge wave of anger and protest) esp since she did very well wif Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer").

8) We had an Ah Beng for each season...
Season 1- Sylvester Sim
Season 2- Paul Twohill
Winner: Paul Twohill. Sure he may look scary with that eyeliner and that hair, but he's a much more unique and more talented individual than Mr Thick Lips Sylvester. And the emo-rocker doesnt even need to point and wink at the younger fans; he just flings his hair and says out that Hardgay quote without going overboard. Moreover, Paul can speak English and Chinese very fluently.

9) We had a feisty tomboy.
Season 1- Olinda Cho
Season 2- Rahimah Rahim
Winner: After some consideration, I think Olinda wins this one. Rahimah may be looking more adorable every week, but she still got a rather good figure and still looke feminine. As for Olinda, she lost a lot of weight in the few weeks after the Finals and has even gone on to wearing more revealing clothes. Lol, even Carrie Chong borrowed that revealing black swimsuit worn by Olinda (from one of the slimming advertisements) for her latest FHM cover shoot!! OH BEHAVE BABY!!! :-D

10) We had a tone-deaf singer who drew a lot of bad publicity
Season 1- Jerry Ong
Season 2- Joakim Gomez
Winner: You gotta give it to Joakim. He's lasted longer than most of the other (usually-better sounding) finalists, performing flat week after week, endured lots of hate mail and negative comments as a result, and still managed to improve himself with "My Cherie Amour" and "I Don't Wanna Know". And he got a dignified exit the next night... tho his overdue stay had somewhat cuased the standard of Singapore Idol to drop drastically. As for Jerry, he sounded flat and constipated all the way, even at his very last Spectacular. Jerry's wide age gap didnt help much either.

11) The Final 3 saw two guys and a girl for both seasons...
Season 1: Taufik, Sylvester and Olinda
Season 2: Hady, Jonathan and Jasmine
Winner: As much as we would love to see Jasmine stay, we weren't too surpised when it came down to Jonathan vs Hady. Both of the guys are almost equal in terms of vocal ability, charisma and personality. When Taufik and Sly advanced, many people all over Singapore were really angry over the tone-deaf (mostly under-16 female) fans for voting Sly into the Finals, esp since Olinda was many times better than him. it became obvious to most Singaporeans that Taufik is a BILLION TIMES more talented than Sly. And mark my words, I make NO APLOGY with my constant slamming at Sly.

12) And now for the Finals... we have A GUY VS A GUY for both seasons
A) We haf the Rock Balladeer vs the Soul Provider.
B) The Rock singer is Chinese and the Soul singer is Malay.
C) The Chinese has long hair and the Malay has short hair.
D) Like Sly before him, Jon himself had been in the unsafe group more times than anyone else... but mostly for the wrong reasons.
E) The only difference is, the Chinese guy (Jonathan) in this season is a TRILLION TIMES BETTER than the one from last season (Sylvester).
F) and hence both Jon and Hady are equally good. And it helps that both the Hady and Jon fan clubs are in very good terms.

LOL is this gonna be a sign of deja vu??? Only one way to find out... watch the Singapore Idol Final Showdown on 24th Sept and 25th Sept at either the Indoor Stadium or on Channel 5!!