What a crazy and scary journey it had been.
Top 28 Piano shows
Just when most people thought that this year's bunch would be rather boring, there seemed to be a few interesting individuals... like emo-rocker Paul Twohill and angsty rock chick Rahimah Rahim, whose personalities really stood out from the rest. Meryl's decision to pull out from the Wildcard round came as a bit of a surprise, considering the fact that her A levels were approching, and that her exit had somewhat depirved the otehrs of achance in the Wildcard round (thanks not to the producers!). but the technical glitch involving Mathilda and Nurul was rather questionable.
1st group of guys: Jonathan Leong, Paul Twohill
1st group of girls: Rahimah Rahim, Jasmine Tye
2nd group of guys: Hady Mirza, Joakim Gomez
2nd group of girls: Nurul Maideen, Emilee Kang
Wildcard show Judges' Choices: Gayle Nerva, Norman Then
Wildcard show Viewers' Choices: Mathilda D'Silva, Jay Lim
Spectaculars
Ousting of the Judges' Choices
It wasn't much of a surprise when Norman Then was the first to be booted out on the 13th of July, due to his lacklustre rendition of "Don't Leave Me High and Dry". But little do we know that there is another contestant who is a lot worse than the poly undergrad as well as the others...
However, when Gayle Nerva got booted off on 20th July, everyone was in shock bcos she had a lot of potential to offer... maybe it was bcos she chose a rather recent song "Leave (Get Out)". The sweetie pie wasn't the worst singer at all, yet the lack of votes did her in. Everyone from the remaining contestants to the Gayle fanclub to the majority of fans in the studios cried buckets of tears. And I myself totally regretted not being present at the studio on that day, thanks not to work. Unjustified exits of The Oldest competitors
Third person to be ousted was Emilee Kang, the oldest female in the competition at 28. Altho the beautiful ex-lounge singer had shown gradual improvement, dropping the vibrato and doing very well wif her first ever attempt at jazz with "Makin' Whoopee", it was perhaps her age disadvantage that sealed her fate on 27th July. 
As for Jay Lim, he made a rather risky move by singing an upbeat song "Supreme" by Robbie Williams for the British Invasion Spectaculars... something totally different from his usual ballad choices. Although the Lee Wei Song music teacher did decently on that week, he still got ousted on 3rd August, most probably due to his age disadvantage.Shocking Eliminations of the Female Vocal Powerhouses
Rahimah Rahim performed a rather flat (and angsty) rendition of Lindsay Lohan's "Confessions of A Broken Heart", and eventually got sent home on 10th August, leaving rumored beau Joakim in a bucket of tears. Perhaps it was Imah's inability to connect with her fans that resulted in her elimination (the deletion of her fansite blog may haf got something to do with it... no, Im NOT gonna mention anything more abt that... whatever the case is, I did NOT spread the rumors). Or due to the fact that she wasn't in top form that night.
Mathilda D'Silva had been performing consistently (tho rather garang at times) since the Spectaculars, and often scored an A every week in the Idol report for TODAY. Yet the biggest shock came when she was announced to be in the unsafe group with two of the competition's strongest competitors... Hady and Jonathan. And Mathilda, whose last song was Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer", got axed on 17th August, generating shockwaves across the nation and culmulating in thousands of protest letters.
Next to go was Nurul Maideen, who often performed bland and lukewarm songs, yet had shown improvement week after week. Altho she did moderately well wif "If You Want My Love" and "Dia", she got sent home on the 24th of August (Dick Lee's birthday) nonetheless, in a shocking tiwst of fate. The other person in the unsafe group? Joakim Gomez, who had stayed for too long in the competition. And wif Noodle's elimination that fateful night, Jasmine was the only girl remaining in the competition. Teenyboppers
Joakim Gomez, perhaps the most controversial contestant throughout the whole season who got slammed for his flat singing throughout the Spectaculars and his overdue run, surprised everyone with his on-key and earnest renditions of "My Cherie Amour" and "I Don't Wanna Know". Though Joakim got eliminated the very next night on 31st August, at least he was glad he got a dignified exit. And so was the majority of Singapore.
Next on the cutting list was Paul Twohill, arguably the most unique and most popular among the Final 12. It became evident that he was losing his spunk and energy as the weeks wore on, often butchering certain songs with his screeching (mostly due to his braces?) and crazy hair-flinging. Yet when it was announced by Gurmit that Paul's Idol journey had ended on 7th Sept, most of the fans from the other fanclubs cried for him, other than Paul's family, friends and supporters.
Last person to be eliminated was none other than the Last Girl Standing, Jasmine Tye. Although the adorable girl had shown marked improvement week after week, she had somewhat lost her competitiveness on the very last Spectaculars, probably knowing that she won't be able to stand a chance with the two male vocal powerhouses. And indeed Jasmine got 3rd place on 14th Sept. But I'm still very proud of her for doing her best and for lasting this long. 
And now... we're down to the Final Two... JONATHAN LEONG VS HADY MIRZA. So hard to choose!!! Like last year, it's a case of deja vu: the Rock Balladeer vs the Soul Provider!!! :-o
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