And the finalists are...

So malam tadi semua da tau kan sapa yang layak ke Anugerah Juara Lagu.

Well... sebelom I get on to the full list of songs that made it, I want to wish congratulations kepada semua lagu yang layak berdasarkan kualiti komposisi dan bukan atas sebab sebab lain ye.

Laser semacam kan? Well, hakikat kan? At the end of the day, some songs yang qualified (memasing paham la mana satu) memang don't belong in the elite league of compositions which will face off kang masa di AJL.

To friends, I personally congratulate Alya, Estranged, Stacy and Misha kerana meka akan perform kat pentas akhir. To Aizat - I am especially proud of you cause it was a fitting tribute (whether you thought of it or not... and I'm sure she would be really proud too, bro, if she was here... cuma pasni jangan emo ke focus sangat sampai hanyut lupa lirik). To Hafiz and Akim - bangga ada gak anak-anak murid yang akan beraksi pentas AJL.

Aku happy for them personally.

To Yuna and Hujan, congrats - and pada orang kampung aku, Bunkface, you guys are the future of our music where there are talents who also sing their own compositions. You guys, Estranged and Aizat definitely deserve in for the new breed of talents we want to lead the way.

Sebelom nak link pics... ni senarai penuh meka yang layak.

Senarai Lagu-Lagu yang layak ke Anugerah Juara Lagu 24
(Lagu/Artis/Komposer/Penulis Lirik)

Aku Skandal/Hujan/Noh/Noh
Tak Mungkin Kerna Sayang/Alyah/Ajai/Habsah Hassan

Aurora/Estranged/Estraged/Estranged
Bengang/Akim/Amir/Sheikh Qalam
Aku Rindu Sayang Kamu/Black/Yuzai/Yuzai
Dan Sebenarnya/Yuna/Yuna/Yuna
Rindu Terhenti/Tomok/Aubrey Suwito/Tinta
Pakai Buang/Stacy/Edry KRU/Edry KRU
Kau Aku/Aizat/Aizat/Aizat/Aizat
Pergi/Aizat/Pete Teo/Amran Omar
Situasi/Bunkface/Sam/Sam
Bencinta/Faizal Tahir/Audi Mok/Faizal Tahir
Adam Dan Hawa/Misha Omar/Azmeer/Loloq
Masih Jelas/Hafiz/Aidit Alfian Ad Samad

Aku tanak wat prediction sapa akan menang ke haper. Wat skang, personally tuk aku, aku rasa lagu paling kuat adalah Pergi dan Bencinta (tu pun kalao Shila tak nyanyi yang menyakitkan telinga sampai tahap Akim wat tuk konsert Akademi Fantasia JAUH lebih meletop! Shila pon meletop - ala Altantuya uols.. pasang C4 lebih sikit... cam hanjeng sangat!!!!!!!)

Aku sakit hati tol serious dengar Shila nyanyi. Nothing personal against her, but I think she is so unsuited for the song. Sora dia tuh sesuai stakat lagu Britney Spears yang feeling overproduced in the studio je.

Anyway, a few horrible songs aside, looks like Muzik Muzik kali ni memang planned out well. For the sake of production - memang kali ni a good mix of bands, solo vocals yang power, mellower delivery and pop offerings. All in all, production heaven. Is that good for music in general... entahlah.

Anyway.. cukup panjang aku meroyan. Ni some pics.

Tuah anak... Rich and Velvet bawak anak meka

Hafiz masa PC

Estranged and Stacy

Smart dressing Alyah... anggota kelab Pelita baru...belanja Pelita woi da layak! Heh!

Anak-anak murid.. bangga aku!

Cantik sangat Misha Omar tadi

Tuh dia... make up flawless!!!


So tuh je la. Malas meroyan agik panjang. Nak siapkan artikel tuk paper yang meroyan sepenuh nya dengan penuh analysis yang mendalam. Fuh! Katanya...

Heh... anyway korang perasan tak pas Shila nyanyi semalam. Pastu Ezlynn puji puji when done, pastuh dia kata... "... walaupun..." Pecah perot kami kat sana gelak.

Dalam berdarah telinga... gelak gila babiks kita semua. Eh ok la.. panjang lak kang meroyan.

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Phew!

Don't know how I made it through yesterday... but I did.

Letih banget! Without enough sleep bangun awal, lari ke stadium nak layan audition Akademi Fantasia 7. First day tuh. Nak tengok response camna. Sampai tuh aku terkejut. Orang beratur panjang da!!! Merasalah! Time tuh aku rasa dalam 10:30 pagik jer.

Amik ko. Divided into beberapa groups, time dalam stadium tuh tengok ala ala American Idol. Heh...



Ok.. just a quick walk through the audition process. Sebenarnya takde perubahan sangat dalam perjalanan ujibakat. More or less like the previous ones. Now come this way...



If you refer to my previous entry, you'd know Stage 1 takde benda. Cuma isi borang dan sebagainya.

The hardworking Akademi Fantasia family. Tu da tengahari lemah da semua. Panas siot!


Tuh dia. Borang permohonan Akademi Fantasia ke... database jodoh?


Jom ke Stage 2 bersama sultanmuzaffar dan Aishah (motif pose ngan ice cream?)

Then of course Stage 2 is the singing bit. Like du-uh. You did enter a singing competition kan? What else you expect la. Very the stating the obvious.

You make it past that and it's Stage 3 foe the personality interview. Aishah? Mana ko... owh tuh ko. Jom Stage 3 lak.

And kalao lepas... tahniah! Please people. Aku da bagik tips. Korang pon da enam tahun tengok Akademi Fantasia. So how come ramai the same mistakes over and over again jerk. Tak prepared langsung.

Camni nak ada harapan? Ok.. pada yang lepas... ayuh ke Stage 4 bersama Aishah.

If you made it this far, you've done all you can. Skang tunggu tengok da ong ke tak je dapat panggilan if you've been shortlisted.

Kalao tak anggap la ko gagal seperti orang yang eja Akademi sebagai AKEDEMI. Matilah.... mencarut lak jadiknya.

"Cepat padam! Joe nak letak blog tuh!"


Mai lak aku perkenalkan some of the people behind Akademi Fantasia this year. For those yang gi last year, lucky you no sign of Ogy. Garang dek non akak kita tuh.

But doesn't make things any easier ok. Kak Fati and Syafie are around. So's Nurul. Didn't see who else though.



Ni executive producer baru tuk Akademi Fantasia 7, Suraj Nair. Sebelah dia channel manager Astro Ria, Khairul Mizan Shagul


Out of a total of 820 yang berjaya audition semalam (a record of sorts - last year first day of KL punya audition pun cecah 600 jerk), only lebih kurang 10 orang berjaya ke Stage 4.

So things are getting tougher... please be prepared and don't waste your time, or anyone elses. Make sure you come ready ok.

Aku ciao dari stadium terus jumpa Faz dan adik dia kat Sungai Wang. Mak aih. Kenapa laaaa smalam jam gila!!!! Stress. Claustrophobia attack! Trauma aku.

Pas abih beli benda benda perlu, aku rush to Stadium Putra lak. Nak amik invites aku tuk besok sekali layan rehearsals for Anugerah Juara Lagu. Ni some pics aku sempat snappy.

Suria's daughter a big fan of Stacy


Hoodie pals! Aizat dan Faizal


Aremeer pakai baju Superman gak ke. Heh...


Rich, Andy and Rina focus gila layan rehearsal


Stacy warming up





All white Heliza dan Zahid


Ok... updated predictions based on what I saw last night. For best vocals - jangan terkejut if it goes to a guy.

My favourite is now Aizat. Followed by Ayu and Faizal Tahir.

Based on showmanship, for Best Performance I say leading the list is Estranged. Then Meet Uncle Hussain and then Aizat and Stacy. But kalao 50% SMS Stacy might take the lead.

Nak abih je, aku lari ke Damansara jemput Faz. Kena gi launching butik Belicious milik Umie dan adik dia Betty. Masa tuh letih nak collapse, tapi sempat snappy pics agik.

Ainul, Ezlynn dan Liyana


Dynas dan Faz caught in the act of gossiping


Faz and Umie


Mommy to be, Erra

Pas abih tuh ada birthday get together nak attend. Aku sampai umah pon da 3 lebih. Collapse terus. Esok another day. Expect oads of pics from tomorrow. Gotta go now.. ta.

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Yang pernah...

Phew... damn tired Just back from supper at Syad and Aishah's place. Sebenarnya ada belated birthday do for Marsha sana tapi aku tak sempat join, just caught Zarina and Bob and Syuib lepak sana je.

Memang couldn't make it earlier sebab tadik lepak Sri Pentas 2 for the full dress rehearsal of the Pop Rock semifinals tuk Muzik-Muzik besok.

Dapat ler legakan fikiran. Music always soothes me... especially good stuff. And since ada some acts performing some very nice tunes, loga la sikit den.

Aku malas nak cita lelebih so just enjoy some of the pics I snapped. Of course most of them before, during (backstage and about) as well as after the rehearsal. I focused mostly on people who are my friends, so sorry kalao korang ada favourites aku tak sempat snap, either because I'm not close to them, or don't really care for them too much.

Lagi satu kalao korang perasan, I try and snap people on rotation basis. Kalao moka sama je pon bosan kan? Bazir bandwidth korang je kang nak download moka-moka sama. Heh... on to the pics!

The strong people you don't see. The PRs and production crew led by mother chicken kak Kelly)


Zimi dari Sofaz


Ni bosan sampai layan handphone ni apa hal... heh


Stacy and her ladies!



Rich the happy husband. Perasan tak cincin kat jari. Yes folks... that's a wedding band. Simple but very meaningful.


Ramainya layan handphone backstage... even Fiq


Tam doing what rockers do.. erm... showing off their guitar?


Mail is a little bit disco and Nafi a little rock and roll


Nafi and Tony going all rockstar


Tam having a serious chat with Stacy. Pasal? Erm.. adalah...



Faizal and Cheryl


Mock announcement. Stacy kena panggil dulu terus wat pose erm... you can see for yourself


Then ramai lagik join


And this time she looked more relaxed


Briefing pas rehearsal


Mila and Stacy camwhore sat sambil dengar


Bebudak Sofaz look so... erm.. interested


Cherry, sis Stacy


Estranged concentrate tuh


And Lan ngan bebudak Meet Uncle Hussain?


Of course, I also have videos, tapi I will post them in my next entry sebab tengah edit and upload.

Meanwhile ni some additional info and gossip yang related or totally unrelated to Muzik-Muzik and anything remotely connected.

-Velvet is in Sabah dan dia tak ikut Rich ke KL untuk semifinal Muzik-Muzik. Selesai saja malam ni, Rich akan balik ke Sabah and the couple plan to spend their time together. Baru kahwin camtuh la...

- Estranged is the only band yang bukan saja vocal live, tapi muzik pun live. Ni sebab meka takde minus one tu lagu meka, and they will rock the house.

- Because of the live set-up, meka tukar slot ngan Flava yang menggantikan The Lima (refer pada previous entry for rundown) and will open the show tonight. Ni tuk senangkan mengalihkan dan mempersiapkan amps, and the whole set-up of what they need to perform live.

- Shah dikatakan withdraw lagu Ku Merindu because Ella ada engagement lain and dia tanak penyanyi ganti sebab kisahnya, lagu tu memang dia bajet tuk Ella je. Hence kemasukan lagu Sofaz (refer pada previous entry for full list of lagu lagu yang akan dipersembahkan)

- TV3 is said to be not too happy with Mawi. And mungkin peminat pun akan upset to hear Mawi will NOT be performing for the Anugerah Juara Lagu dalam lagu dia berganding dengan Heliza dalam Doa Dalam Lagu. Ni kisahnya sebab dia akan berada di Korea ketika Anugerah Juara Lagu. Tuh la... masukkan lagu, pastu tanak block date lak. Hish... orang nak kahwin...

- Pengganti Mawi kisahnya akan ditentukan kemudian, but kalao ikutkan, dengar cerita TV3 nak Bob tuk gantikan Mawi. Ajai, selaku penulis lagu dikatakan juga inginkan Bob sebagai pengganti untuk nyanyi in place of Mawi.

Ok... the videos and a little surprise in my next entry. Wait for it...

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