Under the Spotlight

Strumming Away

It was a typical scene at Alexis that night: pretentious people everywhere, flashing crystal glasses filled in red wine, laughing like there's no tomorrow, and eyes dotting you up-and-down when you stepped into the dimly lit restaurant. As I sat onto the table Khaylis booked earlier, my eyes zero-ed in onto the the area by the bar where three microphone stands and stools stood under the yellow spotlight. Shit, I thought, that's where I am going to sing...

It's been awhile since I did this. Singing. The last time was a stone-carved moment when I auditioned and made it into the top 135 in Malaysian Idol. I remembered and laughing to myself, what have I done, when I sat among the other 135 hopefuls in a circus themed auditorium, listening to Paul Moss, Roslan Aziz and Fauziah Latiff directing us what to do for the next three days of auditions:

Day One: All of us had to sing a solo acappella styled. Trying to prove that I could sing a Malay number, I sang a classic P. Ramlee "Jeritan Batinku". Roslan loved it. I made it to top 75.

Day Two: The top 75 were segregated into groups of three. The girls had to sing Sheila's "Sinaran", while the boys had to sing a Malay number "Fida". When it was my group's time to sing, a group member of mine completely forgotten his words. Trying to be helpful, I whispered the lyrics to him, hoping that it will trigger his memory. When it was all done, Paul Moss asked why I helped him, and before I could answer, he theorecticaly asked, what if I chose him (the one who did not sing a word) over you? And that's exactly what happened...

...Three hours later, Pete Teo talked over the microphone and said, "I met up earlier with this bunch of guys and I would like to introduce them to you all. Let's give it up to Acoustiq 39!" Through the crowd of applause, I looked to Aiman and Fairil, and signaled whether we were ready or not. I guess my body took control of me, and before I knew it, I was sitting under this blazing light, looking into the darknesses where I could see many unknown faces. Watching.

As Fairil strummed the guitar, I realised that I was singing again. And it felt great. Like Hell Yeah! great.