I'm a Stardust Alumnus!

Stardust is an annual nationwide talent-search competition organized by the NUS Business Club,
it has been been ard ever since 1990!

So I was a contestant in 2008,
and this year, i'm proud to be back as guest performer for Stardust 2012 (:

The first song we did was an original written by Deon (http://deontohmusic.com/)

I personally really loved the song the first time i heard it, 

and i'm seriously looking into including it as one of the tracks in my upcoming EP.

This was the demo he recorded with another talented girl,
it's on my repeat playlist!
Click to listen! Grow Up (Preview)

I also took the chance to take my first English original single,

"One-Way Train", for a test drive!!

It's not even recorded yet but i really wanted to 

see people's reaction to the song for honest feedback..

Here's a teaser and acoustic version of "One-Way Train"..

Still working on perfecting the track!  

Please give chance! 

Looking back in year 2008,
the singing competition was so much fun..

After making it through to the semis, 

i got a chance to step into a recording studio, 

my first time, and evidently so! 

Listening to myself back then is like slapping my face a million times now.. 

i cringe... ewww haha

And i must say, 

looking at my ghastly hair & getup during the finals back then, 

is even more cringeworthy hahahaha

but in my own defense i was actually dressed for the song.. 

"Natural Woman" by Aretha Franklin was my choice for the Finals..

And i came in 3rd! 

My friends made an underwear poster for me 

cos i was affectionately known as "taycor" in secondary school..

i know right, it's dumb haha

but i love these girlies! 

The NUS Jazz Band peeps, 

how i miss those days (: 

Thanks Stardust for the awesome effort put in throughout the year (: 

Definitely an exciting competition this year to watch out for! 

To find out more, visit their facebook

https://www.facebook.com/nusstardust2012

ah... to be 12 again (:

I belong to a generation which
exchanged letters even though we were just a few seats away,
idolized Mediacorp Actors/actresses and proudly professed them on each others' autograph books,
and ranked friends according to Golden, Silver, Bronze tiers..

I had a particularly difficult childhood,
because i matured faster than the rest of my age.

No, i'm not talking about maturity around the chest regions (i wish it was so),
but i was the first ever kid in my class to have pimples,
Primary 3 to be precise.

It took me a lot of courage to show this photo, 

but i reckon i have to show it, 

expose myself to my hurtful history, 

so that i can fully emerge from the dark shadows of my past...

hahahahha *& the psychology grad in me speaks

To erase your memory of what you just saw, 

here's a picture of a happy me a few nights ago,
right before my recording interface crashed ):

So the story goes,
I quickly earned myself the title of "pimple girl"
along with other creative names "peanuts, etc."
And i had to laugh along with others, as part of my defense mechanism,
to shield myself from a hurt ego.

The tiny teeth referred to my vampire tooth, 

i suddenly had an additional tooth growing from the top of my gums, 

making my set of teeth look realllyy horrible..

I later went for braces during my JC days 

and that was one of the best decision i've ever made in my life (:

I also had a little bit of hunchback problem,

thus the "special way of walking" 

(i'm beginning to make myself sound more & more like quasimodo)

& i was a rough-it-out kinda girl.. 

Back then, my 偶像 was Nicholas Tse 谢霆锋.

i would tape down every single interview of his, 

and watch the video over and over again,

i had all his albums, including the cantonese ones, 

and i bought 2 of his 谢谢你1999 album cos 

the 2nd edition came with a 写真集。。

Nicholas Tse's 谢谢你1999 album 

gosh i still think he looks cute here in this picture.. 

The classic badboy of the 90s!!!!
"我早已付出了灵魂!!"

I was also madly in love with Christina Aguilera,

and as you can read on the RHS 

my friend was creative enough to form sentences 

using the titles from Christina's first album (: 

This lasted throughout secondary school
and finally turned for the better approaching the end of my JC days...

My childhood wasn't easy,
also because of an interruption during the primary school days.
I had to move from Eunos to Boon Lay because
my dad's office then got burnt down in a huge fire and relocated from the east to west.

So, i transferred from a p sch in the East to one in the West,
and i was devastated.

All of a sudden,
my friends weren't around anymore :(
Even though i later adapted to my new environment,
i tried to keep my friends by exchanging letters with them.

So recently, the most amazing thing happened.
A stranger contacted me because he saw my "hey soul sister" youtube video,
and told me we were long-lost penpals...

Hey Soul Sister, ukulele version with John Khoo 

@ UCC backstage (:

I was skeptical because i totally had no recollection of him,
until he sent me the letters we exchanged throughout primary school!!

Introducing my 12 yr old male interest haha

This was my 2nd address, so it now belongs to another family (:

Wrote this letter during year 2000, 

when i was 12 and battling with the PSLE monster..

I love how i used part of the plaster to seal the letter lol

HAHAH reading the letter of a 12yr old me is really hilarious..

I was so desperate to be remembered..

And... i got a reply from my penpal!

 apparently he was a smartypants lol

and ah.. i was there during the advent of email..

As i read on, i was kinda bothered by the emphasis on academic results, 

it's like all there is to a 12 year old me ):

In the words of Hui Khang,
"ah... to be 12 again" (:

What were you like when you were 12?
  

踮起脚尖，寻找梦想（Taiwan Super Idol 2010 Edition)

和好多人都一样，我们姐妹两超爱洪佩瑜的踮起腳尖愛,
那么emo的歌，只有佩瑜那把温暖的声音才能十足表现出来。。

Super Love!! 

So we decided to do a duet with this song (: 

I met peiyu even before i heard her voice

at 台北师大夜市 (shida night market),

because i was travelling with 房间版 (einein, zijie and guohao) 

for our first every first ever Taiwan televised singing competition,

Super Idol 超级偶像 2010!

一下飞机，马上逛逛师大夜市！

路上碰到熟悉的脸孔，

和新加坡歌手，插班生，房间版，dawn, 和baby来个大合照！

We were representatives from Singapore,

who self-funded the trip to PK against Super Idol's existing contestants in the running. 

The whole experience was a whirlwind!

It took me only 1 week to send my auditions videos, 

choose my audition song, 

and to book air tickets/accommodation,

before i scoot off to to Taiwan for an experience of lifetime (:

我对台湾美食鸡排，阿宗面线爱不释手。。

但最爱还是。。。 

啊哈哈，joking!!!

After a night of good food & shopping，

the next day was a full day of soundcheck at 三立电视台摄影棚。

Everyone had only a few minutes to check the key

and run through their song once..

Us camwhoring while
Micapella soundchecks in the background

Come competition day,

everything went past in a flash.

Make-up & hair checked by the taiwanese make-up artistes,

a last minute pre-empt that my opponent, the vocal powerhouse 艾怡良,

is going to sing a duet of my competition song with me!

I was nervous-stiff!

Before the PK contingent got on stage, we had a short session of briefing from none other than

the competition host herself, 利菁姐!

She was really professional and nice,

took the opportunity to know us a little bit more and ease us into the mood

before we get eaten alive by our nerves,

giving us tips & advices on the dos & don'ts of interview on national TV.

For example, she taught us how to chuck away the humble pie,

and embrace praises during interviews, so as to sustain the energy of her words,

and to seize the tv opportunity as a way to promote ourselves..

I was the last one in line for the competition,
and the wait was just excruciating.
A million worst-case scenarios surfaced in my mind 

"Am i gonna forget my lyrics? 
Will i fall flat on my face on stage?
Do i look fat on screen?
Am i gonna fumble with my less-than-perfect mandarin when li jing interviews me??!"

When the time finally came for me to show what i've got,
my mind was a blank.
It took me 30 seconds to regain consciousness of what i was doing,
and the rest was history (:

Skip to 1:03 for my introduction and 

1:47 for my performance of the song "Big Spender"

Skip to 3:10 to watch our duet &

4:15 for judges' comments 

台湾超偶PK比赛，成功！！

Some people i would like to thank throughout the experience (albeit a little late)..

谢谢可爱的慢慢（台湾接洽人），所给的帮助和鼓励。她在我上台几分钟前和我聊天，缓和我紧张的情绪。。（：

谢谢joseph一家人的热情招待，与毫无保留的支持。
长那么大从来没有人为我做海报（虽然名字是写错了hehe), 我真的很感动（：

我从来都没有参加过什么大型比赛，
这次能在亚洲平台上，
和那么多高手擦肩，
我真的好感激。


我想比赛只是个开始，
和我一起参加比赛的歌手朋友们到现在
还是坚持为音乐努力奋斗。。

房间版  最近接受了好多电视和报章访问，也继续和上百万的网络粉丝们分享做音乐的快乐与热诚。
https://www.facebook.com/pages/房间版/140785182623456

Micapella 去年发了专辑，也到了法国参加比赛。。
https://www.facebook.com/MICappella

插班生 也正在巡回香港台湾，到处办演唱会。。
https://www.facebook.com/chabanshengpage

我姐可为 也刚和公司S2S发了个人英文专辑，现在马上在准备下张华文专辑。。（：
https://www.facebook.com/keweitay


让我们一起，
努力再接再厉，
never give up!