As most of you guys know, I love to sing. I always sing in the shower, while walking, working, depending on my mood. I used to join singing contests when I was a child but I always get lost and for a child, I found it to be traumatic. I think somehow I've considered it as one of my childhood issues that I'm still dealing with. I had a fear of joining singing contests and fear of performing onstage. I hate the feeling of being subjected to other people's judgement or worse, ridicule (see? this just shows how scared I am).
Inspite of all these fears, I still told myself that as an adult, I will join a singing contest. In fact, I included this in the list of the things that I would before I reach 30. Even if I don't win, I know that the experience is something that's worth it.
The audition
So when our company conducted their annual singing contest, I registered for the competition. For the first audition, we were required to sing in acapella. I planned to sing Sweet Love by Anita Baker but unfortunately, I was in the Philippines when the audition was conducted. I told myself that maybe its not yet the right time for me. However, on the day of the semi final round, I asked Zairul (the representative of the committee in our project) if I can still join the competition. He asked the organizers and told me that I can join but I should not mention that I was not able to join the preliminary auditions.
Since the audition is just a few hours away and barely had time to practice, I just picked the song that I'm most comfortable with - Fallin from They're Playing our Song musical. Good thing that my lead, Lya allowed me to leave early for the audition =)The venue of the audition is 30 minutes away from our office. The other semi-finalists, Minnie, Tza, Emma and Mark all left at 4:30 PM but we managed to find a cab that brought us to TPM after 30 minutes because the place is quite far. I did what Zairul told me to do - I told the organizers that I was not able to audition during the preliminaries and they allowed me to sing but I never said to the judges that I had an exempted case. I was the 5th semi-finalist who sang in the contest. To my surprise, the judges were not familiar with the song, and I noticed that they kept on looking at the lyrics displayed in the television while I sing. After I sang the song, the 5 judges made their comments. Most of them are not familiar with the song but they enjoyed it. I can't deny that there was a smile in my face after I sang.After the audition, I didn't even think about the contest at all (parang wala lang). As much as I wanted to sing though, I'm not really expecting about this contest, whether I make to the finals or not (maybe I was just busy with my work).The finalsOne afternoon, I just came out from a meeting when Gen is trying to tell me something. She looks excited but she can't utter a word, trying to keep herself from screaming (parang natatae hahaha!!). So I went to her place and she showed me the email that I made it to the finals. There were 4 of us from ISCM (our division in the office) who made it to the finals - Jumond, Mark, Emma and I (and all of us are Filipinos as well woohoo!). Minnie popped me in Skype and told me that she appointed herself as my manager. Anyway, now the next problem is which song to sing. I have asked my friends to help me pick a song. Stand Up for Love was a popular choice although Ryan told me that it would be very risky to do so. So I picked Time and Tide instead. After a few days of practicing Time and Tide, I showed Minnie and Gen my performance. They thought its a difficult song to sing. I admit that I had a hard time singing that song alone (Basia had a backup when she sang it live). Minnie and Gen suggested to look for another song. Two days before the contest, we decided that I'm going to sing Angel by Sarah Mclachlan (by the way Jeng, their housemate and one of my batchmates in Accenture, was also involved in picking the song for me). They thought that it's the best song for me to sing given the amount of time that we had to prepare for the contest. By the way, not only Minnie were fans of this song, Ryan suggested me to sing it before I picked Time and TideNow that I picked my song, the next thing I need to worry about is what will I wear. I don't want to shed a penny for this contest, except for the transportation. So Minnie raided my closet and looked for the best dress for me to wear. They thought that the best attire that I could wear with that song is a white long dress. Unfortunately, I don't have that in my closet. So the next best thing that I got was the dress that I wore during our annual dinner. For the accessories, hair and make up, Minnie and Gen took care of it.The big dayOn the big day, V, the lead of my project gave me a task that needs to be completed by EOD. Mind you, she has a fierce and stern reputation. She's actually based in HK who came here to foresee our project, together with Michael and Alain. Anyway, Lya, my other lead, advised me to let her know that I'll be leaving early for the contest. But upon the advise of Alain, he advised me to just sneak in early because he thought that V won't allow me to leave early. Lya said that I just forward her an email on what I completed for the day and she'll just inform V that I'm not feeling well. At 5:30 PM, I sneaked out of the office. Serina, my colleague, volunteered to do my makeup because she's a self-confessed makeup freak (hihi). We went to the farthest ladies room so that I won't get caught. Now I know how CInderella felt when she attended the ball. It was Minnie's last day at work so she left early. By 6 PM, we left Crystal Plaza (our building) and hailed a cab going to TPM where the contest will be held at the auditorium.When we arrived, we had a sound check and I sang onstage, sort of a rehearsal for the contest. I tried to fight the fear I have onstage, and it's very obvious that I'm nervous. Well, I tried my best not be but it's a good thing that we had a rehearsal so that I know how to move onstage. At last, the contest started. I was the 15th contestant to sing. Jumond came in late while Mark and Emma were with me during the contest. I think Mark and Emma were lucky because they were the first ones to sing at the contest. Being in the last batch of performers is not good because the I will be nervous for so long. I was the last contender to sing under the female solo category.A few notable performances during the contest were the group who sang Give It to Me by Timbaland, Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake - I think they gave a very entertaining performance; the lady who sang Too Lost in You by Sugababes - she's confident and her song fits her nasal tone (by the way, she won the Scope Idol last year), the guy who sang It's my Life who brought back the crowd to life; the girl who sang the Chinese song Applause - even though I don't understand a word in her song, for me she has the most oustanding vocals; and Jumond, who brought the house down with his rendition of Bed of Roses by Bon Jovi.  So what happened during my turn? Well, check out the video in this page and see for yourself. I was really nervous when I sang. Of course, my performance won't be complete without the judges giving their comments. The first one said that I looked gorgeous (woohoo!) but thought I was flat in some areas. The second judge told me that he didn't enjoy the song and the shifting of the song is not good. Personally, I don't think that these judges are familiar with the song. Good thing that the third judge heard the song a few days before the contest (that's what he said). He told me that I "did very well. (I) had the highs and lows, the tone and (I) captured the emotion of the song." That made my evening.After my performance, I went immediately to the seat where my friends were located. Yep, all my closest friends were there to support me - Minnie (my manager of course!), Gen, Dru, Rey and Agri(who went with Gigi). They told me that I gave a decent performance although its obvious that I was nervous. Nevertheless, it's not bad for a first-timer. Knowing that they liked my performance, I thought it was good enough for me even if I don't bag a trophy.
I was thinking of changing back to my office clothes after my turn but I decided to just wait until the winners were announced. The emcees announced the winners of the male solo category first and Jumond won the first prize! I was very happy because got an award for ISCM. After that, they announced the winners in the female solo category and guess what? I won the 3rd place. I can't deny the fact that I was happy because I did not expect to win at all. Just like what my friends observed, they can't help but notice how happy I was that night.
The contest ended at 10:30 PM. We all headed to Midvalley Megamall to have dinner. Since we're not there just to eat, we went to Chili's where we had our celebration. Too bad Agri was not there to celebrate with us because she's on night support so she had to stay at home. Since everyone was in good mood, we had a good time laughing, eating, goofing around and posing at our newly-bought cameras. It was a fun night indeed and I thought that its one of those nights that I really enjoyed with my closest friends - simple yet intimate. Just the way I like it =)
Of course, this experience won't be the same without the support of the special people who made this possible (sige na, pagbigyan nyo na ako) - Lya for allowing me to leave early and for covering me up with V; Serina for taking the pager from me that week so that I could focus on the contest and for sharing your make-up expertise; Kathleen, Ryan and Ron for the tips that you gave me; Jeng for helping out with the song and the wardrobe; and for my friends who cheered me up during the contest - Minnie for being my manager (lahat nandun na) - I know that you'll be a great stage mom for Kyle hahaha, Gen for being the assistant manager (o hayan ah hehehehe), Dru for the support (weee!!! alam kong gutom na gutom ka na that night at muntik ka nang hindi makaaalis ng maaga hehehe), Rey for your encouragement and support (kahit hindi ka taga-Scope, you still managed to watch), Agri for coming in that even though you got paged earlier that night, you still went to the contest and Mars (although you're in Shanghai at that time, I know that you'll support me when you're here).
I know that most of you would ask me what's the prize that I got being on the 3rd place. Well, I got a trophy, glory (the right to brag as what others would say) and RM 50 (believe me, mas mahal pa ang pamasahe ko papuntang TPM). But the best prize that I got was seeing how my friends supported me. Cliche as it may sound but a few minutes before I performed, I told myself that even though I go home empty-handed, as long as I don't disappoint my friends and that they're proud of me, then I'm ok. That thing somehow motivated me to give my best shot. And that my folks is priceless.
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congrats anai! syempre winner ka palagi sa amin.
gaganda ng pics. syempre yung iba dun ako kumuha! hahaha kapal ng mukha ko. hahahahaha
Gen