Konsert Akademi Fantasia - Minggu 9 (Part 4)

Aiyo... patut ke nak wat four part entry gituh kan?

Well, banyak sangat pics and malas lak kang orang nak scroll down satu entry panjang sangat, especially since nak wat ulasan sikit (promise, I'll keep it short and sweet), so nak gak leave you guys to have the option of bypassing the miscellaneous stuff you guys might not be interested.

Katanya... walaopon...

Anyway, what did I think of last night's concert. Well the fact that more than a million undian were cast, I think that speaks volumes for what the following is like, and what the competition is turning out to be, with everyone voting like mad for their favourites.

Beginning from the start...

Lagu bonus semua pelajar - Lagenda
Rating : *** 1/2(for sheer emotion)
I thought the song choice was not the best for Mother's Day, honestly. I would have gone for Mama by Spice Girls ke, Song For Mama by Boyz II Men ke... or even Dear Mama by 2Pac (matilah ada yang meroyan kang bebudak kena rap lagik)... kalao tak pun at least Ibu... Engkaulah Ratu Hatiku by the late and great Tan Sri P. Ramlee (walaupon aku akan teringat iklan susu) or even paling busuk pun Untukmu Ibu by Exist (merasalah nyanyi melalui hidung kang).

Changing the lyrics was not my favourite part, since the song is too well known to have it treated like that.

BUT I am glad the kids managed to pull it off. Caught them looking towards their own moms (kesian Yazid time ni), and noticed Akim first to get emotional.

Merasalah wish I had brought my mom to the concert. Except aku rasa dia akan kata bising sangat cause she hates noisy places.

Still, the kids did good emoting the song, that I barely noticed enough to make any sort of evaluation towards how they performed vocally. And despite having caught the repeats, tak kuasa aku nak komen lebih. It was a moment that you had to be there to savour (or at least have a heart)

Didn't fancy too much yang bak anak Isma atas pentas tuh, cause she's already had the opportunity to meet her kids sebelom nih, but since sebab sambutan hari ibu, bagi peluang la, so kira ok la.

Just it didn't pack an emotional wallop at all. Unless her kids had been kept from her until this point... mesti time ni semua meleleh!




Isma - Aku Pasti Datang
Rating : ***
Aku rasa Isma really tried, and I have to give her props for that.

Bab usaha memang nampak Isma bersungguh dan all out.

The song itself memang kuat as an opening number for this concert, but for some reason, dia nampak out of her element. Perhaps she was focusing so hard on making sure people saw another side of her that it really did have a negative effect on her performance.

This week is challenging for her, as I think she faces difficulty with mapping out her movements tiap kali dapat lagu yang lebih rancak. And taking note orang slalu wat perbandingan ngan Siti jerk, she is trying so hard to erase that image from people's minds that somehow her performance ends up looking a little contrived.

Still... it wasn't all that bad.






By the way korang nak tau something. Aku tergelak gila time Isma memula kuar. Sebabnya, aku terbayangkan jaket dia, walaopon cantik dan aku suka sebab ranggi (merasalah perkataan ranggi da kuar), kelakar, sebab... erm... cam ada persamaan je rupa ngan something.

I can't seem to figure out what.

But here's my bag Jaspal yang aku bawak merata.



Yazid - Where The Streets Have No Name
Rating : ***1/2
Aku geram Yazid masih repeat the same mistakes. Two major, very noticeable ones, which is dropping the 's' from streets consistently (tapi tak sekerap), and also sebut 'name' as 'nehm'.

Still I kind of pitied him because vocally it was way better than With Or Without You, though since he had so many issues with the song that like Isma, dia pon cam focused too hard on all the details, he forgot to enjoy the song.

A considerable improvement. Just maybe I expect too much...

Tapi aku sakit hati satu benda. Orang kat dalam dewan tuh, dah dua kali aku tengok lagu U2 keluar, meka tak enjoy langsung. Urban sangat ke lagu U2 nih sampai orang takleh terima? I mean I see people freaking out for Yazid's lesser performances but dua kali dia persembahkan U2, cam bosan je moka audience. Erm... kena transformasi audience kita nya listening taste ni.

I mean, U2 is one of my favourite bands, and they're iconic worldwide for the legends they are... tapi people here still bop to crap. Entahlah...






Akim - I'm Yours
Rating : ****
This was one of the most honest and most effortless performances I've seen throughout the whole nine concerts, and walaopon aku tak pernah bagi Akim kredit camni, I have to say this was one of his better performances ever.

The simplicity of the whole set-up with himon guitar was magical, and things just seemed to fall into place. Not much to comment on.

The cheeky bit dia bagi bunga with a note to Aishah tuh memang undang gelak, sebab bayangkan ada yang peminat dia (takot sebab nama, sebab pasti aku kena bunuh) yang makan hati dalam diam. Awas Aishah!!! Lari!!!!









Dan reaksi Aishah...? Kalao korang nak tengok apa Akim tulis dalam note dia to Aishah, sila rujuk entry sebelom ni.




Hafiz - Laskar Pelangi
Rating : ****
Vocally Hafiz pulled this off effortlessly. I think that based on that alone, I would give four stars for his performance.

Tapi kan, orang tak sedar lagu ni susah camna. The song about 'soldiers of the rainbow' nih is about hope, and accepting what fate dishes out to you (read the novel and watch the movie to understand what I mean)

Instead, perhaps through no fault of Hafiz, it was reduced to a promo for Astro Ceria (matilah aku!!!) with all the kids. Cute... but the kids didn't really add as much as I hoped for, as I hoped their innocent voices would blend with Hafiz's performance.

Still, credit where credit is due, Hafiz did well enough despite the delivery not being as emotional as I've seen him practise before.







Isma - Hot N Cold
Rating : **1/2
Menakutkan! Merasalah Isma jadik Britney meets Gwen.

Didn't happen. Again, like in the first song when she allowed herself to lose focus because dia hampir jatuh, kali ni lebih ketara and it happened no less than twice.

I think sebenarnya aku leh maapkan dia nampak kelam kabut ngan moka nak hapal step dan lagu, tapi bab sebutan geram sangat sebab she repeated mistakes she made when she first got the song.

Not the best example for a show pada minggu kesembilan, though again, props for the effort she put in because it wasn't exactly the easiest show to pull off.




Yazid - Aku Skandal
Rating :**1/2
Let's face it. He can't perform this song. Another tune out of his element. Points for trying, but effort alone is not enough without execution. Ni kena back to back ngan Isma with the same reasons for not performing up to mark as expected.

Tapi kan, aku nak panjang meroyan pun tak guna... sebab hakikatnya, dia nyanyi live better than Noh, so bab tuh aku 'deserve my comment' (rujuk pada komen pengkritik pada Akademi Fantasia lepas)



Akim - Larut
Rating : ****
I have to say, as a live performance, this is perhaps as good as it gets. Walaopon takde standing ovation untuk persembahan Akim, dan Edry sebut pasal if only Akim lebih jujur.. I say, people must have had their feet nailed to the floor and Edry's watching the wrong show.

Tuk aku, sejak minggu-minggu awal, Akim has surpassed even my expectations of what I thought he could do. His performance undoubtedly has star quality, and aku yakin, given more time, he will stand out to be one of the best in the industry. Perhaps... if he keeps up momentum of his improvement.

Memang aku rasa dari dulu, banding ngan persembahan nih, beza sangat Akim, and he's one of those to really live up the tagline of transformasi.

Extra points for the display routine of how to use a microphone stand in 50 different ways in your performance! (by the way banyak movement dia tak wat in rehearsal, so kalao Edry thinks it's rehearsed, he has so got it wrong!)

Ni special pictorial guide for wannbe stars on what to do with a mic. I limited it to a dozen movements jer. Panjang gila kalao nak show semua.

Move 1 : The Random Two Hand Clasp


Move 2 : The two hand clasp


Move 3 : The Steven Tyler tribute


Move 4 : Look ma! No hands!


Move 5 : The butt rest


Move 6 : The Amelina-inspired And Reworked Backhand


Move 7 : The Spear


Move 8 : The Armpit Crunch


Move 9 : The Madonna


Move 10 : The Midget


Move 11 : The Midget Version 2 (Back Lean)


Move 12 : The Midget Version 3 (Back Lean and Balance Pose)


With that pictorial guide, I hope orang ni dan orang ni puas sebab aku banyak pics Akim aku tempek sini. Merasalah... matilah jangan kata aku sentap tak merasa mee rebus dah! Heh!!! (dengar sedap tapi tak sempat lak merasa)

Tapi honestly, I have to add a footnote. This is Akim's best performance yet!

Hafiz - I Believe I Can Fly
Rating : ****1/2
Let me say that this could have been a five star effort with a little more originality injected into the rendition.

No, it wasn't bad. It was good. Sebab tiap kali kalao aku tegur memana, aku tau ada je yang sentap kang ngan aku.

So let me state this clearly. I liked his performance. It's just that with a song this strong, especially when the original was so big, it's almost difficult to set aside the reasons why this performance is good as the song is definitely a classic and very major number and that the whole ambience of the performance thanks to the lighting was also a promise of major drama to come in the performance.

Of course there's Hafiz's vocals which never fail to deliver.

Apapun, Hafiz has age on his side to find his own identity, and give him a couple of years to look for his own sound, and couple that with his God given gift of voice, he should be able to work wonders.

Personally, I rate this alongside Larut for my best performance of the night. Tapi bagik extra 1/2 star sebab takot orang ni marah aku (matilah aku.. ampunnnnn!!!!)





I can't rate Menuju Puncak cause it was a little sad to see only four people doing it. But here are the pics.





And then there was the drama...

Hafiz was first to be announced in the final, manakala Yazid dan Akim kena tunggu keputusan


Isma diumumkan akan beraksi dipentas Konsert Akhir Akademi Fantasia


Akim dan Yazid menunggu keputusan mereka


And then diumumkan tiada penyingkiran... the kids were so happy


Aril diumum pemenang AFMASUK


Despite what has been said about him, you know what it means to him


So now.. there are five in the final


So that was the night... and now, we're into the final week. And they qualified dengan peratusan ini ketika AFUNDI tutup. Hafiz - 34%, Akim - 25%, Yazid – 22% dan Isma - 18%.

And the AFMASUK standings are as such.



So minggu depan kita pindah lokasi untuk Konsert Akhir Akademi Fantasia. Sedih gak pas abih je konsert malam tuh, orang ramai tak dapat tengok, but this is what happened.

Yer bukan stage roboh ke apa ok. They started dismantling it to move to add on to the final stage di Stadium Putra. Merasalah makmal sains ke Pusat Sains Negara ke Christmas tree yang gugur daun segala tinggal rangka dan bebola... just wait to see how the final stage will add up to be.

But sedih dowh nak tengok all the dismantling works. The home for AF7 untuk Konsert Akademi Fantasia selama sembilan minggu akan berpindah.







Merasalah panjang gila entry nih. Ok lah. Later today, selain posting lagu tugasan akhir, aku akan clear some stuff about how the final is going to be like.

Tunggu je la ek. Jari da sakit da nak wat entry ni.

Besides, baru nak tidur. Tadi kat Akademi sampai jam 1 pagik lebih sebab bebudak balik dari reward pun (Akim pelajar cemerlang - tunggu Diari malam ni nak tau apa reward dan sapa ikut dia) da 9 lebih malam.

Pastu ada some activities sampai lewat malam. Masa aku belah pun meka lom abih, and sambil menunggu settle, memasing nampak rajin looking through lagu tugasan dah. Yes, the heat is on!

Ok for now... ciao!