Kan aku da kata?

Today I got my freedom, and I feel free.

No sadness, no regret...in fact just relief.

Immediately enjoyed my singlehood and started getting back on my feet. Yes...back in the dating game...not like I have the time for it.

Nampaknya, umur bukan saja semakin mematangkan, tapi me laku kan diri aku nih yang tak seberapa. Leh? Kang ada yang kata berangan. Well, ever heard the fable about sour grapes?

Decided nak gerak ke Stadium Putra awai sikit earlier sebab takut parking problems.

Bloody hell...turns out everywhere is a reserved zone. Finally dapat ler good spot yang accessible, tapi akibat membuang masa mencari tempat, the rain was pouring by the time I attempted to get out of the stupid parking lot to get into the stadium.

Yang sakit hati nya...banyak ruang kosong...pah sapa nak parking pun aku tatau.

Masa tuh ujan da turun heavy sangat...it was really beyond ridiculous to expect anyone to get through the shower.

Korang tengok pic tuh...time tuh ujan dalam 10 minit pun da banjir da the nearest car park lot beside the stadium yang kononnya reserved tuk bulu sapa ntah nak parking sana. Aiyak....bijik tol lah...

Not to mention the nearest public car park was miles away (exaggerate ler...but paham what I mean if you have been there), and most of it banjir with the heavy downpour. I swear a lot of people watched AJL pakai slipper jer.

Me? My shoes may have been soaked...but they still looked fab.

Fast forward, aku basah kuyup ler by the time masuk ke red carpet.

Aiyak...keji!

Bukan aku je ok...ada ler rakan-rakan artis yang feeling patut jalan red carpet, tapi akibatnya tak kuasa sebab drenched ok.

Seriously...dah ler parking lot entah reserve bagik atuk sapa,

During the heavy downpour, yang peliknya, meka tak remove barriers and all, orang yang berpusu pusu mai stadium, apa lagik...basah kuyup.

To make matters worse, even meka yang sampai awal tuk red carpet, kena jalan redah ujan, then sampai nak masuk entrance, walkway dihalang oleh barriers which were not removed.

So they had to run in the rain...silly f****!

I was one of those who got drenched. In th end, Min, member TV3 bak gi dry off. Leh? Dok bawah dryer kat Gents jer. With people coming in and out...

Forward lagik...aku da kering sikit, rupanya bukan aku je yang basah kuyup, ramai agik soggy semacam.

Had fun because event camnih memang ramai ler member dalam industri yang hadir, so it's always more of a reunion where all of us can be together.

Competition kick off...tak banyak beza ngan review aku ler tuk full dress (hah...advanced review ler kira). Lagikpun perlu ke review sebab korang memasing ada TV atau gi sana gak kan? So aku kali nih, sebab da offer advanced, aku bagik behind the scenes exclusive after the event jer.

Let's see...apa yang beza malam semalam. Aku rasa Neves didn't do as bad malam ni, walaupun sora tetap flat, sebab nak elak dari sumbang.

Lain dari tuh apa ek...

Erm...Hazami looked and sounded better than semalam. Visually the only highlight for the night. Memang aku puji gila babas idea (hasil dari Safri) for the presentation, Kelas ok...

Oh...dan Mawi nampak cam Adam dan abang Nasir nampak cam Yazer masing masing pakai wig. Aiyo....

Tapi besh ler show meka...havoc gak banding ngan rehearsal.

Adibah was more amazing, though aku sentap sikit sebab miking lak fail and you couldn't hear the kids so well. Still...meleleh ler air mata kali kedua.

Zahid pun was equally mesmerising...no I'm not being biased. Lagu tuh memang power ok.

I have no problems with Tak Tercapai Akalmu, because it is quite a good song, tapi bosan tengok muka Elyana (sesapa da rekomen kasut Pallas Jazz Star?) entah pakai haper, kaki ayam pastuh cam orang tak betui mengeram atas pentas tuh. Rugi jer bagi dia ruang kat Anugerah Juara Lagu.

Kalau Caramu dapat pun, at least performance lebih menghiburkan. That's a fact. Kalau tak pun RuffEdge punya Da Bomb. Sebab pertunjukan pentas semua tak besh sangat. Dua tiga kerat jer yang leh enjoy...lain tuh cam cukup tangkap muat.

Jelas ternyata persembahan pentas untuk AJL kali ni hambar sikit dan tak sebegitu menarik bebanding tahun tahun lepas. But not because of the quality of production, tapi quality of finalists.

Nora was one of the best punya with Secebis Harapan seperti aku da katakan. Tapi vocal dia tak sampai sangat malam tadi. A little bit off here and there, but takder ler sampai tahap Neves dan Elyana yang bak kata Paula Abdul, "Now, that's a note I haven't heard before."

By the way...veering off a little.

Kalau nak tengok how the back side of celebrities look like, this is it.
Matilah akukena carut ngan Cheryl dan Ally. Masa meka wat crossover ngan backdrop of the stage tuh, kat elevated platform, aku dok ngam ngam membelakangi meka.

I didn't even know they were there. Keji...so took some shots of their rears.

Yes, this is the 'behind the scenes' look I promised. Boleh? Amik ko...not to be seen anywhere...

But truly, this birds eye view was the best in the house, unobstructed by anyone, and I had myself tapping away with my work to the beat of the music, often to ignore those horrible off-key notes by certain singers.

Oh well....some of us work...not freeload at events, so thus the berangan rajin part of the event. Incidentally, having a connection also means you can also do other stuff to amuse yourself bila persembahan da membosankan sangat...

That's thinking ahead for you.

One more thing...this is another picture, you won't see anywhere else. Mr Manager had attempted to take a shot of Cheryl doing an Elyana (what a lousy style icon), so I won't publish the shots here), so I took the next best thing.

The horrible, ugly looking pumps yang dia tanggal sebab tak larat kot nak pakai.

Looking at how torturous they are (second only to Elyana prancing about and Neves singing), no surprise ler dia bukak kasut!

Berapa inci ler monstrosity nih.

This looks like almost the same pair of heels yang Farhan tanggalkan time konsert tuh...ingat tak?

Well, whoever made these shoes, I think if they were the same pair, and people took them off twice during a big event...it's time to recall the footwear and make something more practical cause this sure isn't working out.

Balik pada cita Anugerah Juara Lagu.

For those of you yang nak the official results...perlu ker...aiyo...which cave did you sneak out from.

I suppose it's highly impossible you don't know...tapi just in case ler...

Well, if you haven't been up to date, and I really need to post it, here they are.

Juara Lagu (Trophy and RM25,000)
Terlalu Istimewa (Azlan Abu Hassan, Adibah Noor) - Adibah Noor

(Ttrophy and RM12,000 for each category)
Irama Malaysia & Ethnic Creative - Warkah Buat Laila (Ayob Ibrahim, Habsah Hassan) - Zahid
Pop Rock - Juwita Citra Terindah (M. Nasir) - M. Nasir
Ballad - Terlalu Istimewa (Azlan Abu Hassan, Adibah Noor) - Adibah Noor

(Trophy and RM10,000 for each category)
Best Vocal Performance - Adibah Noor - Terlalu Istimewa
Best Performance - Hazami (Mungkir Bahagia)

Tak banyak beza dari ramalan aku. And not too much of a surprise.

While I love Terlalu Istimewa, nampaknya aku underestimate kekuatan in terms of this competition.

Kenapa aku cakap camtuh? Sebab aku dapat tau ada beberapa perubahan dalam sistem penjurian tahun nih berbanding ngan tahun tahun lain.

Kalau sebelum ni, ada undi SMS untuk Persembahan Terbaik, tahun nih takder dan 100% markah juri, ada lagik perubahan yang tak ketara dan tak diumumkan.

Kalau sebelum ni pemarkahan untuk aspek teknikal lagu dilakukan sebelum malam Anugerah Juara Lagu (meaning the results sebelum sebelum ni memang da ada bila tiba malam competition, and result malam tuh hanya diputuskan tuk Vokal Terbaik dan Pesembahan Terbaik) tahun nih ada sikit beza.

Apparently, bukan Terlalu Istimewa yang sandang Juara Lagu kalau ikutkan pemarkahan awal.

Tapi disebabkan persemabahan Adibah yang power malam tadi, malah prioriti diberikan juri untuk mengubah pemarkahan.

Ketika sidang akhbar, Azhar Borhan pun ada bagitau, the points between the winner and tempat kedua memang jauh.

But kemenangan Terlalu Istimewa bukan je pada lagu, but also keberkesanan delivery atau persembahan Adibah yang berjaya sampaikan the feel of the song.

So you see, kalau ikutkan technical evaluation, seperti tahun tahun lepas, mungkin ramalan aku 100% betul, tapi takper la.

I'm proud of Adibah no matter what.

Dia tunggu 12 tahun nak wat album...and it was a good album, dedicated to Nurul Huda, mangsa rogol yang berumur 10 tahun.

Adibah has been through so much herself, this is a reward no less for her blood, sweat and tears after all this time.

Also proud Warkah Buat Laila menang kategori, walaupun kesian Zahid pressure semua expect dia je menang. Beban tau. You performed great bro.

Also bangga ngan Mawi sebab dia da tunjuk kematangan dalam persembahan dia...and aku pun tumpang sorang like everyone else for that persembahan yang bertenaga Power Root dan lebih spicy dari Mamee curry katanya.

Pissed off a little over the event, sebab PC cut short sebab da lewat.
Masuk post party lak...mak aih!!! Nak wat keja interview pun tak larat...tarik ke luar je.

Tapi memang ramai artis pun berambus da time tuh, tak tahan kot the number of groupies flooding the room.

Takde pun security yang beriya iya the whole two days, check for invites. Bodoh tul...

Keja overdose time tak diperlukan...but when you need them, they're not around.
Hopeless...Misha was missing, so was M.Nasir, Mawi dan juga Elyana (itu memang tak penting)

Only Ning and Dayang...Zahid....berapa orang jer apart from a majority of small time names...and many menyemak cases. Oh well...

Went outside dan call Mawi. Ceria je sora dia. Interview ler sikit dapatkan pendapat dia.

Rupanya while others didn't want to have to jostle their way for the food (which was hardly worth jostling over, I heard), Mawi actually had to rush to Ipoh.

Back to the hall..

Entah sapa la yang dijemput...penuh ruang makan...oh well...then I suppose it makes freeloaders who didn't make it in even worse.

As usual, freeloaders and smoochers ramai dapat gak masuk...so didn't bother. Just stayed out and focused on my work sebab nak hantar beberapa article sekali. Abih jer gerak balik tuk tidur...

Before I end, ada special photo tribute to Vernon and Juan.

Chronological order of events. Vernon tries to snap said hosts from the rear too after spotting me eyeing the photo opportunity. Shortly after, ketika Nora mendendangkan Secebis Harapan, Juan dibuai kesayuan, personal trauma (sabar ler, noqs). At the end of the song, Vernon has a second go for a better angle, while Juan tergerak nak SMS (sabar jer ler noq....)

Tunggu je ler posting esok ek...aku bagik beberapa pics yang akan dikirimkan melalui email oleh kawan-kawan.

Ada gambar Mawi berambut ok. nanti aku postkan...I need it recorded for posterity. That's something that will rarely be seen (Mawi having hair), so kena la include.

Kelakar tul...tidur tersengih aku...

Ngantuk...esok aku posting entry pun lewat petang sikit sebab kena gi Habib Jewels ngan Zura untuk pilih barang kemas untuk Jac yang akan dipakai ketika Anugerah Bintang Popular. Wanie dan Nizam pun ikut sekali sebab nak discuss barang kemas seperti cufflinks dan sebagainya yang perlu untuk melengkapkan tux Mawi dan abang Rosyam.

Until tomorrow.