Malaysian Idol 2 - Finals in Genting

It was nice to see the voted-out contestants tonight singing a medley of songs. Xerra did not have her red hair anymore and I almost did not recognise her.

Now for the singing of top two finalists, Daniel and Nita. One short one tall. One girl one boy. Different styles. But both from Penang.

Daniel started singing first. I was not impressed by his first song, “Mimpi”, the Malaysian Idol song for this year. To be fair, I think that the song was definitely not as impressively composed as “Gemilang”, last year. It definitely won’t sell, no matter who sang it.

The second song, his own choice, was “Heaven knows”. It was good. He brought his falsetto notes out into play effectively.

The third song, “Angin Malam”, was to my mind, the best song of the night. It was beautifully delivered in his own style.

Nita started out with a song picked out for her by the jury. It was nothing spectacular.

Her second song, “Big Spender” was her best song for the night. However, I think that her Spectaculars version was better than tonight.

Nita’s version of “Mimpi” was ordinary. It was better than Daniel’s rendition of the same song, but did not bring the house down. Frankly, I think that this newly composed song “Mimpi’ was a lost cause. Even Jac wouldn’t be able to do anything for it.

The judges tonight were in “diplomatic” mode. They did not make any unflattering remarks about the singing. Maybe it was the party atmosphere, and they did not want to dampen the spirit.

Who did better? I think both were not all that spectacular, but Daniel has a slight edge. His song “Angin Malam” was better than Nita’s “Big Spender”. Nita needed a spectacular performance to pick up the loose votes to overcome Daniel’s fan base, but she did not deliver enough. Compare that to Jac last year after her rendition of Gemilang and the crowd gave her a standing ovation.

The camera interviewed both Nita and Daniel’s fans. Nita’s fans were mostly male and Daniel’s fans were mostly female. This is the huge difference. Male fans will vote up to their budgeted limit. Female fans will also vote to their limit, then after that, they will borrow their boyfriends’ phones to vote as well. Which is why I think that Daniel will win.